October 6, 2005

Carlota Caulfield, The Book of Giulio Camillo (Oakland, CA: Eboli, 2003).

_____, Angel Dust (Madrid: Betania, 1990).

Trilingual editions. I never really considered the possibility until I picked these two books up over the weekend. The solution presented to the marketing of translation problem is interesting, and like most solutions to old problems, poses new problems in their stead.

Of course, putting a book out in three languages as oppossed to two [like her At the Paper Gates with Burning Desire (Eboli, 2001)] or one [34th Street (Eboli, 1987)] immediately makes the book 1/3rd or 2/3rds more accessible (read marketable). And anything that helps push a small press product to move units off bookstore and warehouse shelves into the hands of readers is generally a step in the right direction: for the store, for the press, and for the poet.

However, Caulfield's Book of Giulio, as interesting a premise as it has, is chapbook length, weighing in at 14 pages of poetry in English but is presented in a 100 page tome.

The trilingual editions address the multi-national nature of Caulfield's core reading audience, but the budgetary/page limitations of most small presses make trilingual editions of full-length works unviable.