Author Description

The bilingual edition of A Pillow Stuffed with Diamonds/Una Almohada Rellena con Diamantes by Margaret Van Every is a collection of 116 short poems (5-line tanka) that wryly but lovingly portray the idiosyncrasies of Mexican culture as seen through the eyes of resident foreigners. Each poem is presented on the same page in English and in Spanish. In particular the book focuses on the ancient villages that surround beautiful Lake Chapala near Guadalajara, where the author resides. This region is today home to the largest expatriate settlement of Americans and Canadians in the world, and the poems taken as a whole comprise a portrait of life in this Paradise. If you've ever been there, these poems will evoke nostalgia; if you haven't yet made the trip, you'll want to pack your bags. The following tanka from the book was cited as one of the top 500 best tanka from among 19,000 published during the year 2010: Your ring that's missing, don't think of it as stolen. It has a new life now on someone else's finger. Like your love, it's traveled. Tu anillo que ha desaparecido, no pienses en él como robado. Tiene una nueva vida en el dedo de otra. Como tu amor, ha viajado. Margaret Van Every has published widely in tanka journals, and the tanka in her book attest to her skill at this poem form and the art of word compression. She loves Mexico and Mexicans, but never lapses into sentimentality. Her voice is wry and often ironic, without being judgmental. The Spanish translations do not attempt to stick to the strict syllabification of the tanka form, but aspire to capture the wit and feeling of the English original, using the colorful local idiom of this area of Jalisco. She owes the authenticity of the translations to two native speakers, Andrés Velásquez and Rubén Varela. A Pillow Stuffed with Diamonds/Una Almohada Rellenda con Diamantes is an aesthetic as well as literary delight, its cover and interior graphics by artist Robert R. Burke.