Ana Enriqueta Terán is arguably Venezuela's finest poet. Celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world, she is almost unknown among anglophones. Until now only a handful of her poems have been translated into English, giving at best a diluted impression of a uniquely intense imagination. This bilingual edition reveals the power and beauty of this poet's Spanish poems through English versions of corresponding force. It invites readers to enter Terán's world--a world at once strongly Venezuelan and universally human, imbued with great beauty, sardonic humor, pitiless compassion, lucid wisdom, and joyful affirmation. Selected from several volumes of Terán's work, these poems span half a century of composition and show an extraordinary range in both form and substance. Some are written in closed forms, some in free verse. Some are carefully evocative representations of the landscapes and cityscapes that have nourished the poet's intelligence and imagination. Others are dramatic character studies. All are infused with Terán's rare sensibility and realized through language that manages to be at once graceful, urgent, and explosive. This volume is a treasure for all lovers of poetry. Deal Struck with Happiness ? How much sweetness to make right the night and this clutch of anemones near thin smooth consoling stones, stones havens of southern weather. Of a woman who watches Cepheids quaver among lightbursting mangroves. Of a woman who offers cats-eyes and clematis only, Islands, for the sake of setting right her deal struck with happiness.

Translator's Preface xiAcknowledgments xviiA Note about Sources xviiiFROM House Made of Utterance To a White Horse 3The Name 5Wordstone 7Deal Struck with Happiness 9The Eagle 11Fit Vision of This Dark Side 13Dreams 15Third Try at the Mother House 43Messages for the Older Brother 45Music with Psalm Foot 53Pebbles for Scrying 57The Poetess Counts to 100 and Bows Out 59FROM Sonnets out of All My Seasons So much bread, so much oil 63The strangers rattled at the door 65She took in night in the pier glass 67One only leaf, adagioed up 69They who live there hurl their writings 71Subtle in your fourteen lines surge 73In the Suapure River 75A puddle of shade, on its face 77Wisdoms of uncertain silk cords 79Music for lips, whirlwind the heart 81The replies waver in a vain 83Black, yellow, white as a subtle 85FROM Albatross Albatross 89Splintery Responsibility 91Ascents and Yet Distances 93Never Seen Fowl 95Not Resting Yet 97Will of the Torn Scream 99FROM Autobiography in Tercets Río Momboy 103The Motatán 107Other Rivers 111Invocation to the Mother 115