Meanwhile Take My Hand

The American debut of Basque writer Kirmen Uribe' s " simple, devastating poems" (Bob Holman) "Whenever we' re saddened everything looks dark, When we' re heartened, again, the world crumbles. Every one of us keeps forever someone else' s hidden side, If it' s a secret, if a mistake, if a gesture." -- from " May" Kirmen Uribe has become one of the best-known Basque-language writers-- an important contemporary voice from a vital but largely unknown language. "Meanwhile Take My Hand" presents Uribe' s poetry to American readers in both the original and in the poet Elizabeth Macklin' s skillful and award-winning translations. In these poems are the drug addicts of Spanish fishing towns, the paved-over rivers of urbanized medieval cities, the remains of loving relationships, whether entirely uprooted or making do with a companionable silence. The Basque phrase "Bitartean heldu eskutik," which became the book' s title-- "Meanwhile Take My" Hand-- Uribe has said is " what you say when there' s nothing at all you can say."Uribe, Kirmen is the author of 'Meanwhile Take My Hand', published 2007 under ISBN 9781555974589 and ISBN 1555974589.