Translator's Notes

Arthur Lipman

I was first introduced to the work of Lya Luft in 1994 when a friend, returning to Vancouver from Brazil, brought me a copy of O LADO FATAL (The Fatal Side)—a collection of short poems written on bitter-sweet recollections of a tragically short love affair. A few years earlier Lya, a celebrated Brazilian poet, novelist and translator, and Helio Pellegrino one of Brazil’s brightest intellectuals, both mature adults, had fallen deeply in love with one another. She left her husband in Porto Alegre and moved to Rio de Janeiro to be with Helio. Their intense love came to a sudden end when he died two years later.

Over the following year, Lya helped assuage her grief by composing the 42 poems of this collection—an outpouring of personal grief recalling the simple and uncomplicated acts of loving which bound them together. I felt an immediate empathy with these poems and the urge to translate them into English. I sent three or four translations to Lya and received her permission to translate the entire book. This I did in 1995. Since then I have continued to translate much of her work—most recently Secreta Mirada.

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