Poetry & Translations

I’m a writer, a poet, and small press publisher, and literary translator. I really enjoy translating poetry. Here’s some of my work:

* Mi Lai, a book of poems by Carmen Berenguer that I translated, published by Cardboard House Press. Berenguer won the 2008 Premio Iberoamericano de Poesía Pablo Neruda for her poetry, radical explorations of politics, language, and gender. “A dizzying, quickening, rhythmic and hallucinatory text. As with all Carmen Berenguer’s writing, MY LAI is a design for remembering, radical and inventive. A story of orphans, of ruffians, of authors and empresses, a hybridity of prose and poetry, of quotes and autofictional memoir; it is the tale of a picaresque, centered in the 70s. MY LAI is a book of trips, of people in flight, of songs, of clashing languages. A labor of voice and journeying, of asthma and air, MY LAI traverses the Americas and arrives at the North to embody the art of translation, the everyday tongue twister that every person who lives abroad from their country discovers on the road.”—Francine Masiello

* Unruly Islands, poems, Aqueduct Press, 2012. Unruly Islands collects 36 poems suffused with science fiction, revolution, and digital life on the edge. Maureen Owen, author of Imaginary Income and Zombie Notes, observes, ”Liz Henry’s protean, phantasmagorical images slingshot us out and boomerang us back simultaneously over multiple plains in all directions. Immediate, futuristic, subliminal. An intimate, wild ride through a surrealistic mind field.’

* An anthology of my translations of poetry by Spanish American women from the turn of last century, with an introductory essay on how genre and gender are used in determinations of literary importance; poems in Spanish and English translations; short biographies of each poet; and an extensive bibliography: Toward an Anthology of Spanish American Women Poets, 1880 – 1930 (PDF). This 250 page book, which I wrote from 2003-2006, was my thesis for a Masters in Comparative Literature.

* Cuts From the Barbershop, 2003. Anthology of SF Bay Area poets edited by Liz Henry, Robert Pesich, and Sanja K. Pesich. with Audio CD of the poets reading aloud. Poems and Translations by Steve Arntsen, Janel Burnett, David Cummings, Jay Darrow, Greg Hall, Liz Henry, Sanja K. Pesich, Walter Martin, Yehudit Oriah, Robert Pesich, Brenda Simmons, JC Watson.

* Several short poetry books published by Tollbooth or Burn This Press, now available for Kindle as I slowly publish the backlog to ebook formats. So far: Short, artless, Burn This Feminary, Woodbird Jazzophone, and Cuts from the Barbershop.

* Some of my translations of poetry by Nestor Perlongher, neobaroque or “neobarroso” writer, sociologist, and queer activist. (PDF)

* Composite: Multiple Translations.
A tiny, but very densely packed, zine, with a back cover that folds out to show the original text of a single poem, so that you can read through the zine comparing different translations of that poem to the original.
** Issue #1: “Recueillement” by Charles Baudelaire. 11 translations by 10 translators. (2003).
** Issue #2: “Fusión” by Juana de Ibarbourou. 14 translations by 13 translators. (2005).
**Issue #3: “Ghoneh” by Forugh Farrokhzad. 6 translators in search of a poem. (2006).

* This isn’t poetry – It’s an anthology that I edited, about the feminist science fiction convention WisCon and the conversations that arise in its communities. I have a long essay in it in the section on Internet Drama & trolling vs. safe space. WisCon Chronicles Volume 3: Carnival of Feminist SF (2009) Order from Aqueduct Press or other online bookstores.

* Poems published in Lodestar Quarterly, Poetry Flash, other, Two Lines, Cipactli, caesura, Literary Mama, and many other journals.

* English translation of Carta de viaje by Elvira Hernández. PDF, 139K.

* Miscellaneous poems by David Rosenmann-Taub, Rubén Darío, Nicanor Parra, Federico García Lorca, Octavio Paz, and others.

* Mother Frankenstein, poems, 2008
* artless – poems by Liz Henry, 2005.
* Four Poems of Longing by Juana de Ibarbourou, translated by Liz Henry. Tollbooth Press.

* Woodbird Jazzophone – a poem in 3 parts, by Liz Henry. Tollbooth Press, 2002.
* Short – poems by Liz Henry, 2002.

Un ángel al borde del volcán ardiendo by Zulema Moret, French translation by Alejandro Maudet, English translation by Liz Henry. Fundación Senda / Ediciones VOX, Buenos Aires/Barcelona. 2007.

* Mandala: Tales of the Golden Doll. Poems by Yehudit Oriah, translation by Yehudit Oriah and Liz Henry. 2003. (this was published in Israel but I don’t have the information.) (text in Hebrew and English, with audio files in Hebrew and English.)

* Hot Air: Essays on Poetics – a little pompous but it’s where I was at. 2003.

* Building a Digital Feminary, project on Monique Wittig, 2003

* Florentino y el Diablo, English translation, 2000. Poem by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba. Introduction and end notesEnglish translation of Florentino y el DiabloCover to the booklet. You can listen to the poem and song Florentino y el Diablo here (19MB mp3 file).

1998-2000: Various experential/interactive fiction works, including MUD areas based on the Mahabharata, Dante’s Inferno, Dream of Red Mansions, and The Golden Compass.

1990-1998: Various zines. Poems.

1986-1989: Voices from Underground zine, broken glacier, Ratatosk (magazine)

Liz Henry, 2009
email: lizhenry@gmail.com
other stuff on the web: list of blogs and social media stuff.

7 thoughts on “Poetry & Translations

  1. Hi there Richard, it’s at :

    Florentino and the Devil (english, pdf)
    and
    Intro & endnotes (english, pdf)
    The little booklet has a cover here:

    The Spanish of this version (sung by Los Olimareños and available fairly easily online) is here: Florentino y el Diablo. Arvelo Torrealba wrote two other versions, one quite short and another rather longer in the 1960s. I like the middle version best.

    The PDFs may be a bit flawed!

    I hope your class likes the translation, and if you have corrections or improvements, please let me know!

    1. Thank you very much!
      This coming week, I will introduce my students to your translation! It’s of special interest to me since I am from Venezuela and this legend has a wide spectrum of appeal.
      Your work is much appreciated!!!
      Richard Green

  2. Your Translation of the Venezuelan Rivalry Between the Devil and Florentino Only Takes on Greater and Greater Significance as A Treasure Shared Between Cultures. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
    Richard Green

  3. I’d like to purchase your anthology for my oldest daughter who has a graduate degree in Latin American studies. She’s fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, has travelled widely in Spanish speaking countries as well as living in Madrid and Buenos Aires and she devours books. This would be a very special present for her!

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