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Elsa Cross (b. 1946) is one of Mexico's most significant contemporary poets, and this is the first full-length collection of her work in English-a long overdue but welcome opportunity for Anglo-American readers to get a sense of the full breadth of her work. The work selected for this volume concentrates on her longer poems, which are at the core of Elsa Cross' work-ranging from the remarkable 'Bacchantes', dating from the late '70s and early '80s and offered here in full, through 'Malabar Canto'-suffused with the spirit of India-and the Mesoamerican world of the Jaguar poems, to the odes, dithyrambs and elegies of the recent Greek-inflected works. Elsa Cross' work is typified by its strong metaphysical orientation, coupled with a dazzling surface and remarkable imagery, and offers the English-speaking reader a new experience. A poetry to be savoured, thanks to the efforts of the five translators at work here, all of whom worked closely with the author to bring these poems successfully across the language barrier.

Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. Translated by Anamar�a Crowe Serrano. BEYOND THE SEA brings together two book-length sequences first published in Mexico in the early years of the century, both taking their origins from Greece, a matter of central importance for the poet for many years. Fittingly, for subject-matter thoroughly drenched in the Greek past, the poems are odes and dithyrambs; the gods are there, imagery that has echoed across the centuries is here transposed into a limpid modern Mexican poetry, composed with the lightest of touches. Here the Mayans of Bonampak meet the Minoans of Knossos, united across the centuries and thousands of miles by their preservation in wall-paintings, and by their observer. Here the gods meet our gaze, and come forth, raised from the ashes of history. They are not dead; they are not forgotten; they have merely been sleeping only to be awoken by the poet. Elsa Cross is one of the most important living Mexican poets, and this fine translation does her work spectacular justice.

"Cuaderno de Amorgâos was first published in 2007 by Editorial Aldus, Mexico City, and has since been reprinted in the author's collected poems, Poesâia complete (1964-2012) (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Econâomica, 2012)."--Title page verso.

A poética de Elsa Cross, de elevado teor espiritual, entronca-se tanto na tradição da mística ibérica como na mutação que os filhos do Ocidente sofrem, há séculos, quando se abrem a experiências vitais e de estudo das religiões da Índia, que incluem a prática da meditação. Daí o caráter eminentemente sincrético desse olhar/sentir da poeta sobre o tempo e as culturas que absorve em sua escritura poética, do qual não está alheia a incorporação da poesia do Mediterrâneo e, creio eu, particularmente daquele mundo pré-socrático que reclama seu estatuto de referência privilegiada a partir do título da presente antologia (Horácio Costa).