“Reading an anthology of world poetry gives one a chance to overhear similarities, of what Anna Akhmatova once called ‘correspondences in the air,’” writes Ilya Kaminsky in the introduction to The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry. “That is, moments when authors of different geographical and historical circumstances, languages, and traditions, seem to address each other in their works.” Edited by Kaminsky and Susan Harris, editorial director of Words Without Borders, this book collects the work of international writers such as Muhammad al-Maghut, Constantine P. Cavafy, Rubén Darío, Mitsuharu Kaneko, Adélia Prado, and Marina Tsvetaeva, some of whom had not previously had their work translated into English. Reading this extensive selection of poems offers an understanding of the history of the written word, blurring the borders of the world through the sensibilities of language.
