Downhill and Rock & Core

Gabriel Aresti (1933-1975) was the poetic voice of both resistance and renewal for a generation and beyond of Basques in the 1960s and until his untimely death at the age of forty-one. The collections included in the present work Downhill (1959, Maldan behera in Basque) and Rock & Core (1964, Harri eta herri in Basque) represent two distinct periods in his poetry: the former an epic dreamlike and visionary tale of descent and ascent, death and rebirth, a symbolist treatise on resurrection told through the voice of a superman an Ego. In a complete stylistic about-turn meanwhile the latter is a robust, gritty, and direct tract socially conscious poetry written in a clear, comprehensible form that plays on the metaphor of stone and rock as resistance, endurance. Amaia Gabantxo’s stunning translation of these two seminal works from the original Basque, the first time they have been presented in English, brings the urgency and force of the originals to life and will take readers on an unforgettable journey deep into the rock, the core of Basque culture. It may be a bumpy ride at times, but the rewards will live long in the memory.