Sakra Boccata
Jose
Antonio Mazzotti translated Clayton Eshleman. Ugly Duckling Presse, $12
paperback (70p) ISBN: 978-1-937027-16-2
Sakra Boccata is a tender
book between tender author and tender translator. Tender like steak. Poems are
playfully moved across pop culture and Peruvian history (Another reminder I am embarrassingly un-read in anything Latin American).
Cycles seem important. Each poem has an opposite side, English and Spanish.
The left side is impenetrable (dark).
There are a total of 28 poems to coincide with the phases of the moon. The
poems are often lusty, pulpy, and romantic (see
darkness): “Your Konch is that
exquisite place most deeply inside the War.” “There the perfect stage for the
Mass was erected/There I climbed to sacrifice myself.” Interesting to me was
the playfulness in translator Clayton Eshleman’s notes. Eshleman’s attention to
detail and love of the text heightened my own feelings towards Mazzotti’s poems.
I would eagerly flip back at the first sight of an asterisk: “’LoKilla,’ p.23:
or Loquilla in conventional Spanish, also refers to ‘Ki-lla,’ Moon in Quecha, a
meaning that the literal translation of ‘LoKilla’ (LittleKrazyOne) cannot
convey.” I will say that while some books go for the jugular, strike out with
sadness or rhetoric, Sakra Boccata
inhabits subtle contemplation. These subdued thoughts can be initially
underwhelming, but, given time, Sakra
Boccata’s gentle pleasure and heat won me over: “And I write I write I
write/Like the prisoner marking the walls/So as to count the days.” (November
2013)
Purchase
Sakra Boccata HERE.
Reviewer
bio: Wyatt Sparks lives in Forest Park, Illinois.
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| By Wyatt Sparks, inspired by SAKRA BOCCATA |
