A highly-praised translation of a seminal work of Spanish literature is once again available.

Poetry. The 77 poems in James Wagner's TRILCE are homophonic translations of Cesar Vallejo's book of the same name, or at least that was the cathartic process Wagner underwent--in creating them, his versions take on a life of their own. "Titling his book TRILCE, James Wagner calls attention to the fact that he used the sound structure of Vallejo's poems as his matrix--a process that has sometimes been called homonymic (or surface) translation and that Wagner called "auralgraph" in his earlier book, the false sun recordings. It is a form at least as demanding as rhyme & meter and, at this point in history, more likely to generate interesting work. But, as with any form, all depends on what you do with it. James Wagner does a lot"--Rosmarie Waldrop.

"César Vallejo is the greatest Catholic poet since Dante—and by Catholic I mean universal."—Thomas Merton, author of The Seven Storey Mountain "An astonishing accomplishment. Eshleman's translation is writhing with energy."—Forrest Gander, author of Eye Against Eye "Vallejo has emerged for us as the greatest of the great South American poets—a crucial figure in the making of the total body of twentieth-century world poetry. In Clayton Eshleman's spectacular translation, now complete, this most tangled and most rewarding of poets comes at us full blast and no holds barred. A tribute to the power of the imagination as it manifests through language in a world where meaning has always to be fought for and, as here, retrieved against the odds."—Jerome Rothenberg, co-editor of Poems for the Millennium "Every great poet should be so lucky as to have a translator as gifted and heroic as Clayton Eshleman, who seems to have gotten inside Vallejo's poems and translated them from the inside out. The result is spectacular, or as one poem says, 'green and happy and dangerous.'"—Ron Padgett, translator of Complete Poems by Blaise Cendrars "César Vallejo was one of the essential poets of the twentieth century, a heartbreaking and groundbreaking writer, and this gathering of the many years of imaginative work by Clayton Eshleman is one of Vallejo's essential locations in the English tongue."—Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States "This is a crucially important translation of one of the poetic geniuses of the twentieth century." —William Rowe, author of Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and the Inner Life "Only the dauntless perseverance and the love with which the translator has dedicated so many years of his life to this task can explain why the English version conveys, in all its boldness and vigor, the unmistakable voice of César Vallejo."—Mario Vargas Llosa