Contemporary Galician Poets. A Poetry Review Supplement [antoloxía de Jonathan Dunne]

Galicia is a region in northwest Spain, with Portugal to the south, the Atlantic to the west and, to the north, Ireland and the Bay of Biscay. The capital is Santiago de Compostela, a Christian pilgrimage site since here are supposed to be the remains of St James. Four provinces comprise the region –Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra– the largest city being Vigo, an important port and industrial centre.
In the Middle Ages, Galician-Portuguese (the two share a common history) was the language of poetry in much of the Iberian peninsula. Various songbooks record the famous cantigas songs of love, of a friend, of devotion to the Virgin Mary, of mockery– composed by local troubadours as well as Alfonso X of Castile and Dom Dinis of Portugal. Galician has possibly the strongest poetic tradition in this part of Europe, a tradition that was silenced in printed form during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, but kept very much alive in the oral tradition and revindicated by nineteenth century poets, first among them Rosalía de Castro (1837-1885).
The purpose of this supplement is to present those names most widely recognized in the field of contemporary Galician poetry, poetry being written in the Galician language today. In selecting poems, I avoided using those that have already appeared in book form in English translation. Various Galician poets have published poetry collections in English: María do Cebreiro (I Am Not from Here, Shearsman Books, 2010); Miguel-Anxo Murado (A Bestiary of Discontent, Edwin Mellen Press, 1993); Chus Pato (Charenton, Shearsman Books, 2007; m-Talá, Shearsman Books, 2009); and Manuel Rivas (From Unknown to Unknown, Small Stations Press, 2009). A full list of books of Galician literature in English can be found here: www.smallstations.com/galician.htm.