Poemas de Amor (Spanish Edition)

Mailen Izquierdo has crafted a melody of midnight whispers, forbidden fruit, and perfect pitched pillow talk in her debut Poemas de Amor. From the hazy love at first sight to talking about reaching the divine together, and ultimately, the disappointment of the goodbye, her poetry speaks soft and loud at once, declaring all of the heart’s melodic yearnings and pains. Of course, penned in Spanish, the language of love, this slim volume, separated into three parts, reminiscent of novelas, is irresistible just in auditory tones alone, no translation required, but as the words glide over the tongue and slip into the ear and the meaning is converted (if need be) then the story unfolds and is transformed. In her poem, “Hablame de amor” the images alone grab the reader and whisk them off to a language love fest. Have a taste, “Desnuda mi pasado/Atándome tu piel/ Mirándome a las ojos/Amándome también.” Here, the speaker is passionate in her language, almost as much as she is about her lover, “Naked my past/ Tying me to your skin/ Looking at me in the eyes/ Love me too.” Usually translation does not cross over the meaning as well as this poem does; Izquierdo’s use of imagery and word choice is spot on here and throughout much of the rest of her work. She has a keen ear and eye and her heart leads the way as her readers will experience.

The speaker carries her readers through the seasons of love and, inevitably, the torment of it as well. In “La Tormenta” (The Storm) the ache is lifted from the page and settles right where we know it deepest, “As I dream to keep you/ Undressed here in my bed/ Cheated my body/ On feigned passion./ How strange the past/ and our nights without Moon/ Those that we pass/ Killing for love.” The translation does not do justice, but the image and feeling behind the original is honest and, like an open wound, raw with tenderness. Ms. Izquierdo has made a promising effort, one she can be proud of and her readers can be thankful for.