Sweet Hunter: The Complete Poems of St. Teresa of Ávila (Bilingual Edition)

Sweet Hunter: The Complete Poems of St. Teresa of Ávila (Bilingual Edition)

This bilingual edition of St. Teresa of Avila’s poems with commentary engages readers with all facets of the Saint’s life: the mystic and monastic reformer, the artist and proto-feminist, and the philosopher with a penchant for paradox. “What a gift then to read Dana Delibovi’s translations of St Teresa d’Ávila’s complete poems—sweet treasure!—so elegant and concise, the language lyrical yet simple and accessible, the music of the stanzas and the profundity of her voice carried into English. I also appreciated Delibovi’s curation: the short introductions and thematic arrangement of the poems—nothing overly ponderous and academic. It’s as if we are on a pilgrimage into the heart and soul and song of this amazing woman and spiritual leader and poet.” — Julia Alvarez , poet, novelist, and essayist; author of  The Cemetery of Untold Stories “Dana Delibovi’s translations and the essays that accompany them are thoughtful, inviting, insightful, and rich. Through them, Saint Teresa’s passionate words pierce through the page and bloom beautifully in the reader’s mind – and heart.” — Randon Billings Noble , author of  Be with Me Always: Essays  and editor of A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays “Saint Teresa has, at last, found an English translator who has deeply penetrated the poet’s essence, her revelatory reverence and rapturous beauty.” — Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno , author of  Night Suite , Remission,  and  A Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris, 1944-1960 St. Teresa of Avila’s poems, written in the 16th century, speak to the spiritual longing of our times and invite us to find peace amid turmoil. St. Teresa walked a path of grace, seeking the divine within the human soul, and her poetry lights this path for all of us. This is the first translation of St. Teresa’s poetry by a woman poet and captures the saint’s spiritual vigor and famously conversational tone in English. That voice is echoed in well-researched commentary strengthened by the translator’s willingness to share her spiritual journey. “Poem by poem, Delibovi renders Ávila’s vision with a clarity faithful to the original but which works in tones and nuances that speak to our contemporary moment. Delibovi’s notes which accompany each poem add further depth and provide a running commentary where Delibovi’s own voice mixes with that of previous translators, ultimately creating a lively meditation filled with insightful details from Ávila’s life and practice. What Delibovi has gifted us is much more than a selection of poems: it’s a wholly distinct poetic journey.” — José Angel Araguz , author of Rotura and Ruin & Want “Dana Delibovi’s new English translation of the poems of Saint Teresa of Ávila provides the reader not only with an occasion to contemplate through Teresa’s vision the meaning of Christ on the Cross, but also to become a carillo, one of Teresa’s dear addressees in the poems, feeling through her voice an intimacy with the divine and, therefore, achieving a kind of mysticism—a mysticism that leads the reader to the ultimate goal of Teresa’s art—that we not fear death.” — Mary Ann B. Miller , editor-in-chief of Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry “A gorgeous collection. Dana Delibovi’s translations and the essays that accompany them are thoughtful, inviting, insightful, and rich. Through them, Saint Teresa’s passionate words pierce through the page and bloom beautifully in the reader’s mind—and heart. Lovers of her poems will return to this book again and again.” — Randon Billings Noble , author of Be With Me Always: Essays and editor of A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays “Dana Delibovi’s luminous translations of St. Teresa’s poetry are as imaginative as they are faithful, deftly balancing the mystical with the pragmatic, the exuberant with the introspective, the sensual with the soulful. Passionate, visceral, yet warmly conversational, these stunning translations reunite us with our own yearnings even as they introduce us, with great depth and musicality, to St. Teresa’s pathbreaking poetry.” — Nandana Dev Sen , translator of Acrobat: Poems by Nabaneeta Dev Sen “Dana Delibovi’s rendering of these works—by turns mystical, sensual and practical—removes all sense of distance between Teresa’s life and our own, permitting her voice to resonate with an astonishing intimacy. This fusion of the idiom of Catholic faith with the manifest language of a poet’s soul stands as a revelation unto itself.” — Eric Darton , author of Free City and Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center “Saint Teresa has, at last, found an English translator who has deeply penetrated the poet’s essence, her revelatory reverence and rapturous beauty.” — Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno , author of Night Suite , Remission , and A Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris, 1944-1960 “The power and fluidity of Dana Delibovi’s superb translations spark the poems of St. Teresa of Avila into the 21s