What's in a Name

Synopsis

With The Elliptical Looping Of A Butterfly Alighting On One's Sleeve, The Poems Of Ana Lui ́sa Amaral Arrive As Small Hypnotic Miracles. Spare And Beautiful In A Way Reminiscent Both Of Szymborska And Of Emily Dickinson (it Comes As No Surprise That Amaral Is The Leading Portuguese Translator Of Dickinson), These Poems--in Margaret Jull Costa's Gorgeous English Versions--seamlessly Interweave The Everyday With The Dreamlike And Ask What's In A Name?how Solid Is A Name If Answered To, Amaral Answers, But Like The Rose--no, Like Its Perfume: Ungovernable. Free. There Is Much Freedom Within Amaral's Poetry, Room For Mysteries To Multiply, And Yet Her Beautiful Lines Are As Clear As Water: And That Time Of Smiles Which Does, Incidentally, Really Exist, I Swear, As Does The Fireand The Invisible Sea, Which With Nothing Will Agree