Poetry by Rogelio Guedea
With English translations by Roger Hickin
'A masterful sequence unlike anything else in New Zealand poetry: an honest and self-deprecating examination of the nature of a relationship'. – James Norcliffe
In Rogelio Guedea's bold new poetry collection, O me voy o te vas / One of us must go (with English translations by Roger Hickin), love is a powerful magnet that attracts and repels in equal measure. In language both lyrical and spare, Guedea examines what it means to share one's life with another person and questions whether – and how – love can survive reality's steady tap-drip repetitions. This is the mesmerising tale of two people who stumble over one another time and time again, yet whose every word and action adds another stitch to a close, personal tapestry of memories and familiarity. Unashamedly domestic, this collection captures every kind of tenderness felt in an intimately involved life. O me voy o te vas / One of us must go is a true love story, a chronicle of romantic survivalism.
To write against your love
is to write about your love:
is to love you another way,
is to love you in every way.
– XXVIII
Author
Mexican-born poet and novelist Rogelio Guedea is the award-winning author of more than 40 books. His poetry collection Kora was awarded the prestigious Spanish Premio Adonáis de Poesía in 2008, and in 2013 his novel, El crimen de Los Tepames (Mondadori), was one of the top five best-selling novels in Mexico. His most recent poetry collections, both with English translations by Roger Hickin, are Si no te hubieras ido / If only you hadn't gone (2014) and Punctuation (2018). He was the coordinator of the University of Otago Spanish Programme and Associate Professor of Spanish from 2008–2016. Rogelio is currently based in Wellington and is the director of The New Zealand Hispanic Press.
Roger Hickin has published translations of a number of Latin American poets, among them the Nicaraguans Ernesto Cardenal, Blanca Castellón, Carlos Martínez Rivas and Joaquín Pasos, as well as two previous collections by Rogelio Guedea, Si no te hubieras ido / If only you hadn't gone and Punctuation.
Reviews and Interviews
'A wonderfully dry, funny, yet wistful and poignant collection of poetry about all the gaps, misunderstandings, longings, habits and mysteries in a long marriage. The translations into English are so downbeat and matter of fact it helps the tone of both love and resignation...' – Emma Neale
'This is a tale of two people: domestic, familiar and compelling ... Guedea is a voice scorched by experience, while the poems range from stark to stormy.'
– Hamesh Wyatt reviews O me voy o te vas / One of us must go for the Otago Daily Times Read
'The apparent ease with which Guedea sets up these candid, nuanced love poems is deceptive; they are, in fact, skilfully devised by a writer with skin in the game. That he can air them with such flair is not only a testament to him but also to his partner 'Blanca, the only country I can live in' who, I assume, is complicit with her husband making art out of their intimate, at times fraught, yet enduring, marriage.' – Lindsay Rabbit reviews O me voy o te vas / One of us must go for Landfall Review Online Read
Publication details
Paperback, 230 x 150mm
ISBN 9781990048425, $25
IN-STORE: SEPTEMBER 2022