PREAMBLE
“Capacity to surprise” is one of those critical stock phrases that reviewers love to fall back on when talking about poetry. Google “poetry + capacity to surprise” and you’ll find well over a hundred thousand hits: a number large enough to suggest that the phrase “capacity to surprise” has long since lost its… well, you see where I’m going with this.
The first match of the Poetry World Cup quarter-finals brings together two countries that have caused more than their fair share of surprises in getting this far. In today’s vote, we’ll find out which one will be going through to the World Cup semis.
MEET THE POETS
Our Venezuelan representative is Rafael Ayala Páez, a young poet whose work is already beginning to be noticed around the world. His poems have been translated from Spanish into English, French, German and Hebrew, and we’re presenting his work in Roger Hickin’s English translation. Rafael Ayala Páez draws on a number of traditions, and a “spiritual connection to the culture of India” lies behind poems such as ‘Vaisvanara/Agni’.
Representing Tunisia is Ali Znaidi, an English teacher from Redeyef who claims that smoking and green tea are crucial to his “moments of revelation”. Ali Znaidi’s poems have been widely-published in recent years (he is reputedly the first Tunisian poet ever to have published a collection of haiku in English), and his work has been translated into German, Greek, Turkish and Italian. He has also translated work by the New Mexican poet Catfish McDaris into Arabic.
FORM GUIDE
Venezuela overcame Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament, then caused probably the biggest shock of the last round by eliminating the USA. Tunisia have been involved in two close games, beating Botswana via a golden vote and then overtaking Bermuda in the final hour of voting last time out.
             
Memory is in the fingertips
Colors are in the eyes
Infancy is contained in the backbone
Worlds are born in broken shells
There will always be a sign in every object
made vague in the horizon
An infinite omen in the night
A sparkle suspended on the forehead
An old smell beneath the pebbles
A red sun behind the hills
Sunrises on the eyelids
Balloons floating in the sky…
~ Rafael Ayala Páez, trans. Roger Hickin
Talk to me apple
before a hungry
mouth devours you.
Talk to me apple
before the sun
dries your skin.
Talk to me apple
before a knife
peels you from
extreme to extreme.
Talk to me apple…
~ Ali Znaidi
RESULT: Tunisia won by 29 votes
READ MORE…
Agave Magazine‘s interview with Rafael Ayala Páez.
An English translation of Rafael Ayala Páez’s ‘This is the house’, in Ink Sweat and Tears.
Gregory Zambrano’s review of Rafael Ayala Páez’s work (Spanish).
An interview with Rafael Ayala Páez (Spanish).
Words Without Borders‘ March 2014 issue on contemporary Venezuelan writing.
A selection of interviews with Ali Znaidi.
Ali Znaidi on ‘the Arab Spring through the eyes of Arab novelists’.
