Blood of the Sun

"Brazil's northeast is a dry and ancient land. Little visited, it has come to be known outside the country for producing some of its best writing. In Blood of the Sun , Alexis Levitin has given us a perfect English rendering of Salgado Maranhao's deft expression of the tonality of this people and land." --Gregory Rabassa "Alexis Levitin's translation of the Afro-Brazilian poet Salgado Maranhao's Blood of the Sun succeeds in negotiating the quirky experimental richness of Maranhao's Pre-Columbian, Amazonian, and Yoruba influences with his traditional rhymed lyrics and jazz-like syncopations. We journey to Brazil's agricultural northeast and out of the expected ballyhoo of Carnival into 'the desolate shelter/ of the flat/ land' and 'beneath the gaze of exhausted time.' We see 'the ritual jewels of Lilian Reyes O/ reign in the entrails/ of vibrant trance.' Levitin skillfully alerts us to the presence of a complex and offbeat poet whose work merits a wide audience." --Colette Inez "The publication of Blood of the Sun [Sol sanguineo] is the felicitous outcome of a spectacular collaboration between one of the most influential and innovative contemporary Brazilian poets and one of the most accomplished English language translators from the Portuguese." --Luiz Fernando Valente, Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and Comparative Literature, Brown University, from the Introduction