After Rubén

Starred review from May 1, 2020
An author, editor, and translator, Arag�n brings every tool of his trades to the dexterously erudite, unabashedly personal, and deeply sensitive poems in this dynamic hybrid collection, a decade in the making. The son of Nicaraguan immigrants, Arag�n grew up listening to his parents recite portions of their favorite poems by wildly influential poet Rub�n Dar�o (Songs of Life and Hope/Cantos de Vida y Esperanza, 2004), a Nicaraguan hero and founder of modernismo, a literary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries across the Spanish-speaking world. Arag�n builds his lyrics around interpretations, erasures, riffs, and responses to Dar�o's oeuvre, bringing an urgently original voice to the page: "I sense / temptation to dive // into the void ?glint / of his coat, hint // of a yelp a blade / to the throat." Central to this project is a recently revealed relationship between Dar�o and Mexican poet Amado Nervo, which Arag�n employs to explore his own identity in lines of unmatched intimacy: "His heart the texture of a rose, / his tongue a swath of sky." Arag�n includes a short, evocative personal essay entitled "My Rub�n," as well as ten poems by Dar�o in the original Spanish, and substantial contextual notes. Arag�n delivers an exquisite balance of scholarly appreciation and creative passion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)