Cell Angel Menna Elfyn
When Menna Elfyn published her bilingual selected poems Eucalyptus in 1995, Tony Conran called her 'the first Welsh poet in fifteen hundred years to make a serious attempt to have her work known outside Wales'. This new collection, which explores many areas of contemporary experience, will take her work further afield. The book's title is double-edged: her cell is not just prison but also a place for contemplation, while her angel is both Eastern and Christian. Drawing on Tibetan Tulku thought as well as Indian Boddhisattva, these powerful poems embody Menna Elfyn's restless search for the spiritual within the earthly. Facing the Welsh originals are translations by Joseph Clancy, Gillian Clarke, Tony Conran and Elin ap Hywel.