José-Flore Tappy’s « Trás-os-Montes », translated by John Taylor (The MadHat Press): book reviews

• Post By: johntaylor
• Date: 10 décembre 2022
• Category: News

José-Flore Tappy’s collection of poems, Trás-os-Montes (The MadHat Press), translated by John Taylor, has received the following reviews:

1. Ezra Translation, by Clara Burghelea: «  ». . .a lavish moment that José-Flore Tappy beautifully captures in her lines [. . .]. John Taylor’s closeness to both source language and the work of José-Flore Tappy permeates the English translation in its fluidity and musicality. »
2. Roughghosts, by Joseph Schreiber: «  »Spare, essential in its spirit, the voice of Swiss poet José-Flore Tappy strikes a distinctive note from the first lines of ‘The Corridor,’ the poem that opens ‘Before the Night’, the first part of her book ‘Trás-os-Montes’—a note that continues to rise off all the pages that follow. . . »
3. North of Oxford, by Michael Collins: « It remains an open question whether the speaker [of José-Flore Tappy’s poetry collection ‘Trás-os-Montes’, The MadHat Press] arrives at this felt presence of the lost beloved by seeing through to the spirit of so many images over the course of the journey – or whether this presence of the beloved, or of something that bonded the two, has been guiding these visions all along, an unconscious or spiritual guidance inverse to but allied with that of Maria’s practical, daily faithfulness. Such questions make this work compelling for both its intertwined explorations of spiritual and psychological mystery and it modeling of an artistic practice of survival against erasure that offers back to others and the world that known grace that makes it possible for the poet. »
4. Washington Independent Review of Books, by Angela Maria Spring: « Swiss poet José-Flore Tappy’s award-winning ‘Trás-os-Montes’ (MadHat Press), translated by John Taylor, is a fascinating look at the interior life of a woman in a rural village in Portugal. Though the collection encompasses other themes, it is this woman, along with the narrator, whom we do not truly know or see, who is the central protagonist and is fascinating in her seeming simplicity. . . »
5. The Arts Fuse, by Alina Stefanescu: « Silence is good — silence is when the absent speak. (. . .) The envoi addresses the reader intimately, its tone closer to a kiss than a good-bye gesture. It is a coda that seeks to meet the absent again and again, by listening, by writing, by attending the rhythms of silences, and resuming a dialogue with those who have passed from presence into infinitude. »
6. Word City Lit, by Gordon Phinn: « The verses seduce with their ambient, affectionate simplicity, inducing a light trance that admits the reader into the mystery of who and when and why. . . »