Thread: "The Romantic Dogs" (poetica infrarealismo)

Roberto Bolaño's "The Romantic Dogs" consists of 44 poems written between 1980 and 1998.

The title poem is a cry of exile (although born in Chile, he was raised in Mexico and the United States):

I'd lost a country
but won a dream.
As long as I had that dream
nothing else mattered.
...
And the dream lived in the void of my spirit.
...
And sometimes I'd retreat inside myself
and visit the dream: a statue eternalized
in liquid thoughts,
a white worm writhing
in love.
A runaway love.
A dream within another dream.

All the remarkable pieces that make up this slim volume are dreams within dreams, produced by a fevered imagination but distilled into the calm, lapidary images of a master. Although everything he writes is serious in the best sense of that term, he never takes himself too seriously, is never pompous, never makes claims for exceptionalism. His grace notes can include a salutary deflation of the poet's special status.

From New Directions Publishing (ISBN: 0811218015), some works appeared in Harper's, The Nation, The Threepenny Review, The Believer, Boston Review, Poetry, Soft Targets, Tin House, Circumference, and A Public Space.

Reading these lovely poems, which do not shrink from harsh realities, makes one realize just how hard won Bolaño's art was. All the pain, the tribulation, the difficulties forged his unique worldview and the art that expressed it. "The Romantic Dogs" is indeed the essential Bolaño, reaching deep into his tortured soul and giving us the fruits of his agonized exploration.

Copy ordered from Amazon.

Nice review btw; very nice actually. You might consider expanding in and submitting it somewhere.

I've not heard of this poet before, so thanks for the tip.

Thanks, Swamp Thing. I considered expanding on my take, yet having uncertainties how to focus, since I'm more inspired by his stories than by the poetry, and since my translation expertise would need dubious editing overview, and mostly since many more established writers have already long beat me to the deadline (London Times, New York Times Book Review, Chicago Tribune, and others). Being here in San Francisco, I tend to get many New Directions publications before they're available to stores and online, yet it's still competitive with respect to reviews.

I love "2666" as another gem (his posthumous magnum opus; see NPR's Fresh Air for elaboration and excerpts), and in this week's New Yorker, read "Meeting with Enrique Lihn," an exemplary anecdotal yet unforgettably horrifying chronicle.

Now that I think about it, Galatea Resurrects might be a place for you to submit this review to. Eileen Tabios publishes it and, from my reading, many of the reviews are about this length. I also sincerely doubt that she would worry about your capabilities as a translator. Google Galatea Resurrects and take a look.

Down here in the Swamp, my New Yokers always arrive about a week late, so this edition will show up next week. I'll look forward to reading it (despite being an internet addict, I really prefer to read stories on pieces of paper). I'll also see about acquiring 2666. Thanks for the info.

I cross violations of my writing all the time, especially when I had no attachment to the actual writing, such as posts here. My threads have copyright protection, because I have copies, yet I could not prove that my post writing here is ultimately mine. So I let that go.

I also have another review to finish, having seen the author, Steven Johnson, last night here in San Francisco, having already read his work, "Invention of Air." Truly a work that takes us places and gets us back again to the ground, to the humanness, to the very essence of being, reminding us about breathing, and, and, and...