Portuguese American Journal

Book: ‘Rilke Shake’ poetry by Angélica Freitas – Editor’s Note

Rilke Shake’s title, a pun on milkshake, means in Portuguese just what it does in English. With frenetic humor and linguistic innovation, the Brazilian poet Angélica Freitas constructs a temple of delight to celebrate her own literary canon. In this whirlwind debut collection, first published in Portuguese in 2007, Gertrude Stein passes gas in her bathtub, a sushi chef cries tears of Suntory Whisky, and Ezra Pound is kept “insane in a cage in pisa.”

Hilary Kaplan’s translation is as contemporary and lyrical as the Portuguese-language original, a considerable feat considering the collection’s breakneck pace. Hilary Kaplan’s translation won theBest Translated Book Award for poetry prize of 2016.

Founded nine years ago, the translation awards are presented by “Three Percent”, an online resource for international literature. “Three Percent” is based at the University of Rochester and takes its name from the estimated percentage of books published annually in the U.S. that are works in translation.

About the Author

angelica_freitasAngélica Freitas (b. 1973) is the author of Rilke Shake (Cosac Naify, 2007) and Um útero é do tamanho de um punho (Cosac Naify, 2012). Her graphic novel, Guadalupe (2012), published by Companhia das Letras, was illustrated by Odyr Bernardi. Freitas’s poems have been translated and published in German, Spanish, Swedish, Romanian, and English. She was awarded a Programa Petrobras Cultural writing fellowship in 2009. Freitas co-edits the poetry journal Modo de Usar & Co. and lives in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

About the Translator

Hilary_KaplanHilary Kaplan‘s translations of Brazilian poetry and fiction have been featured in Modern Poetry in Translation, PEN America, and on BBC Radio 4. Her writing on Brazilian poetry and poetics appears in eLyra, Jacket2, Rascunho, and the collection Deslocamentos Críticos. She holds an M.F.A. from San Francisco State University. She received a 2011 PEN Translation Fund grant for her translation of Rilke Shake. Kaplan lives in Los Angeles.

 
 
Book Details

  
  • Title: Rilke Shake
  • Author: Angélica Freitas
  • Translator: Hilary Kaplan
  • Publisher: Phoneme Media
  • Date of Publication: March 24, 2015
  • Language: English
  • Paperback: 124 pp.

Source: Phoneme Media

Review: Natasha Dennerstein – Fourteen Hills

Excerpts: Poems by Brazilian writer Angélica Freitas

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