Into Muteness

Spanish poet Sergio Espinosa's first collection of poems, Hacia la mudez, translated by Kelsi Vanada as Into Muteness, begins with a quote from Celan: “the wilding conviction / that this is to be said differently than / so.” This sentiment underlines the impossibility of speech as conveyed in these poems, which explore the intricacies of mind/body dualism in human relationships, through lines that turn on repetition and doubling, theme and variation. Linguistically complex and formally exploratory, the poems in this bilingual edition remind us to “distrust what has many names,” even as we “need ourselves in others.”