Yellow Otherwise

This translation of the 17th book of Nicolas Pesquès' monumental La face nord de Juliau, brings this important French poet a step closer to the recognition he deserves and has already achieved in France. His long series of poetic meditations on Mount Juliau in the Ardèche region of south-central France, with diverging considerations of language, philosophy, politics and religion, is a postmodern tour de force. Too often, the translator is mistaken for a ferryman and translation for a ferryman's cargo. But sometimes--and this is very much the case with Lee Posna's Yellow Otherwise--translation is pure Action. And the consequence of such action is a vastation of both the original and of the English upon which it moves. These poems are not the same anew; they are newly engrossed. Posna's accomplishment here is a most current event. --Donald Revell, author of The English Boat Nicolas Pesquès's Yellow Otherwise. So passionate, this perspective. Such inventive, no... such originally responsive language. With real gratitude to translator Lee Posna, it's a wonder to ride Pesquès's sinewy contemplation. --Carol Snow, author of Placed: Karesanui Poems The hill, the steep face for Pesquès since 1980 (now for Posna, too), projects its own climbing. The climb "functions like the hill bodying desire." For decades, Pesquès has addressed the inert mass that invites struggle and performance on its surface. The push is to find new hand-holds. Rocks tumble by (Pizarnik, Lauterbach, Delbo, Habermas), and it’s fascinating to tarry--but the hand-holds are for ascent; they are fissures in the vocabulary, openings in what usually seems lapidary. They allow our brave poets (Posna's a poet, too) "to smash diction without destroying/language." Rope yourself to these mountaineers and scramble up! --Peter Thompson, translator of Nabile Farès