Write your abstract here. Clara Janes. ROSES OF FIRE. Translated from the original in Spanish by Anne Pasero. Aranyakas * Indica Books, Varanasi (India). 2004. pp. 96.
Clara Janes, a vivacious being, gives to tangent interiors and exteriors a refreshing setting and an array of metamorphosed forms. Her depiction of lights, half-lights and shades is par Vermeeresque in her audio-visual symphonies, the poems in ROSES OF FIRE. Hers is the poetry of soulscapes responding rhythmically to Nature. It is filled with nocturnal whispers growing subtle in their symbolic oeuvre. Its forte lies in dream sequences turned into neat narratives.
My best pick from this assemblage of 44
verse libre is as follows:
The sorrowful heart
gives up to heaviness.
Take after the birds, I say,
that when their beak dries fleeing
set off in search of pools;
take after the trees, all lightness,
pure surrender of vegetal growth.
take after the air, always released;
seize the baptismal whiteness,
that does not extinguish
and is a bright whiteness even in shadows.
Clara''s vision of the white, perceptively activated by the elemental thrust, is perhaps unparalleled in any poetry anywhere.
--Mukund R. Dave
MUKUND R. DAVE (b. August 15) taught English, American and European literatures at the postgraduate levels for 30 years till he retired from a prolonged teaching career (1957-2001); a poet, critic and translator with recognitions in India and abroad, he has published his work in a variety of genres in numerous journals and magazines internationally; his wide ranging interests run from trekking in the Himalayas and photography to astrology and environmental issues; since his official retirement, he has been working as a visiting faculty in the five-star Christ College, Rajkot (India).
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