''It's all I have to bring to-day,
This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget, -
Some one the sum could tell, -
This, and my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell.''
Eva Gallud has constructed a beautiful book and anthology of an author I quite like, and I have undoubtedly enjoyed the book. The book consists of poems collected around a herbarium that占据 the central part and the theme of its verses. Bees, clovers, hay, pines, mountains, valleys... They appear. It takes you to that house and world she inhabited.
In this book, the poems are in English and Spanish. I have read this author more in English than in Spanish, and generally, I prefer it. There are authors for whom I don't mind alternating between the two languages, and I don't know the reason, but I like Emily Dickinson more in her language. I think the sonority changes a lot and has a more evocative meaning in this language. The option of having both languages is always the best, I think.
I leave for the end what I liked most about the book, and it is the reading experience. At the end of the book, there is an index of plants, and thus seen, it may not seem like much, but it is that in this index, all the plants mentioned (in poems and photos) are collected together with the poems in which they appear and the corresponding photos of the herbarium. This makes it possible that once the book is finished, you can revisit (or do this the first time), have a more joint and more recognized reading. I have enjoyed this part a lot.
I haven't mentioned the part of the herbarium, but almost it is also what I liked most. Just the simple fact of seeing the flora around her, the simple fact of collecting the flora of your environment and keeping it, I think is beautiful, but also I think that the pressing technique, as she collects flowers and leaves while creating transparencies, the names noted in her handwriting, as she put tape to fix the long stems, give shape, is a complete wonder.
This book is a little treasure.