The Farewell Light - by Nidia Hernández (Paperback)

About the Book

Nidia Hernández's first collection of poems, The Farewell Light, leaps effortlessly between the natural world and meditations on culture, family, language, and longing. Brilliantly translated by Rowena Hill.

Book Synopsis

Arrowsmith Press is honored to announce the publication of Nidia Hernández's first collection of poems, The Farewell Light. This bilingual edition leaps effortlessly between the natural world and meditations on culture, family, language, and longing. Hernández's work moves the reader beyond the realm of the individual poet toward a deeper human understanding: "I cried until I was water/ until I was sea/ and I began to swim/ toward the depths." A recent Venezuelan immigrant to America, Hernández bridges the gulf between her two countries as she laments, "What I thought lost/ is in the light of this dawn/ I'm not alone/ emptiness is only emptiness/ the sea speaks to me." Hernández's self-possessed poetic voice reflects her decades of engagement with poetry, across languages and continents, pointing out that, "if not understanding each other is the constant/ why should not speaking the same language/ have to be a disaster?" Brilliantly rendered from the Spanish by esteemed translator Rowena Hill, The Farewell Light is a debut not to be missed.

Review Quotes

"Can you discern the garden's gaze? Or read the book the rain is writing? Are you aware of the shortcuts of silence that time sometimes seeks? Nidia Hernández is a mystic of here and now. When so many of us are in exile, from our countries, from ourselves, these poems remind us that we might find home by standing still. (Listen, a prayer knocked on the door and no one wanted to open it.). Do you want to feel alive? Do you want to become aware of senses you did not know you had? Open the door; read these poems."

- Marie Howe

Hernández's evocative language and lyricism beautifully capture the emotional tension of the exile who recalls painful memories as she adjusts to a new country and learns a new language: "I'm stumbling in a different language / counting and discounting words."

Leonora Simonovis, Poetry Foundation

These poems are set against an invisible clock ticking, poignantly reminding us of the fleetingness of everything-the stability of the speaker's home country, familial memories, and lost beloveds all retreat into the sea, like turtle hatchlings guided away from the shore.

-Patricia Guzman, World Literature Today

All around us, our worlds are changing in the face of climate change, political upheaval, and evolving social mores. Under such constant buffeting, Hernández's work offers us a glimmer of hope, suggesting that we can find stability and beauty at the same time we accept the impermanence that surrounds us.

-Ann Leamon, Harvard Review