Translator’s note:

The eminent Raúl Zurita (a poet imprisoned and tortured under Pinochet) has written that “Moltedo is one of the finest, greatest, most curious and honorable poets of Chile.” He has been compared with Cavafy for his allegiance to a place at once mythic and mundane; with Char, for the inventiveness of his political poems; with Saba for his mastery of extreme concision.

I’m intensely grateful to an NEA Fellowship in Literary Translation for supporting my work on this exceptional poet, which also includes Night, published last year by World Poetry Books. The poems here are taken from Las cosas nuevas, published in 2011.