Contents
Like So Many Prefaces, This One is Also Probably Superfluous
By Way of Dedication: Community dot Com
Part One: To Miss, Be Missed, Missing / Desaparecer
First Prologue: Semultaneous Translation / Primer Prologo: Traduccion Simultanea
Red Tape / Tramites
She's Losing Her Baby Teeth Now / A la nina se le estan cayendo los primeros dientes
Hope / Esperanza
Corn Cake / Pastel de choclo
His Eye Is on the Sparrow / No ha lugar
Two Times Two / Dos mas dos
Last Will and Testament / Testamento
Anniversary / Aniversario
Identity / Identidad
I Just Missed the Bus and I'll be Late for Work / Acabo de perder el bus y voy a llegar tarde al trabajo
First We Set Up the Chairs . . . / Primero pusimos las sillas en posicion
The Other Companeros in the Cell are Asleep / Los demas companeros de la celda estan dormidos
I Don't Know Where He Lives . . . / No se donde vive. Nos hemos separado . . .
Soft Evidence / Pruebas al canto
Nuptials / Nupcias
Sometimes I See the Citroen . . . / A veces sucede que me cruzo con el Citroen . . .
Cost of Living / Costo de vida
Correspondence / Correspondencia
Chains / Cadena perpetua
Sun Stone / Sol de peidra
Part Two: Poems I Wasn't Going to Show Anybody / Poemas que no iba a mostrar a nadie
Prologue: Parachute / Prologo: Paracaidas
Beggar / Pordiosero
There is No Wind to Ease the Flowers / No hay viento que alivie las flores
Batteries Needed / Que venga yo mismo a cargar mi bateria
St. George / San Jorge
Something More Than Lightbulbs / Algo mas que ampolletas
Drowning / Ahogos
Maneuvers / Margenes de maniobra
Habeas Corpus / Habeas Corpus
Part Three: Undertow / Resaca
Prologue: That Deafening Noise Is the Garbage Truck / Prologo: Ese ruido ensordecedor el el camion de la basura
Present (A Three Poem Cycle) / Presente (Ciclo de tres poemas)
Last Waltz in Santiago / Ultimo vals
Occupation Forces / Ejercito de ocupacion
Self Criticism / (Auto) critica (movil)
Something Must Be Happening to My Antennas / Algo debe de estar Pasando con mis antenas
The Telephone. Long Distance. (I) / El telefono. Larga distancia. Malas Noticias . . .
The Telephone. Long Distance (II) / El telefono. Larga distancia. Malas Noticias.
Gracias / Gracias
In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land / En caso de incendio en una tierra extrana
Four Epilogues: Anything Else Would Have Tasted Like Ashes / Cuatro Epilogos: Para Que La Vida No Tuviese Sabor a Cenizas
Voices from Beyond the Dark / Voces contra el poder
Problems with Doors / Problemas con las puertas
Ten Minutes / Diez minutos
Vocabulary / Abecedario
Acknowledgments

Finalist, 2002 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in Fiction Translation

“In a world increasingly battered with terror and terrorist anti-terror, the American reader will discover here that a telescopic view of what is happening in far lands is more than echoed by this up close and personal report on the dehumanizing events taking place in our own hemisphere.”—Sandy McKinney, ForeWord

“For Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman, Sept. 11 meant tragedy even before 2001. On Sept. 11, 1973, the Chilean military seized power in a bloody coup in which President Salvador Allende died. It ushered in more than a decade and a half of dictatorship under Gen. Augusto Pinochet. . . . Now, in two post-Sept. 11, 2001 books, Dorfman uses that connection to explore universal themes of healing, loss, and justice. . . . [T]he voices of exiles, activists, separated lovers and families of victims convey a sense of love, faith and hope in a world wracked by political violence.”—The Herald Sun

“[A] handbook of horror, interlaced as the book progresses with a poetic intelligence and a humanist grief that sings. . . . The facing-page presentation will give readers who are fluent in Spanish the delightful opportunity to enjoy Dorfman’s own linguistic rhythms; and Edith Grossman’s perceptive translations allow the beginner in Spanish, and even those with no Spanish, the chance to move back and forth across the page for an instructive experience of both languages, and a lesson in how the limitations of prosody can be over-ridden by a shared sensibility. . . . This is a timely book, stark and honest, a reminder that the wolves of terrorism are not confined to an area half a world away, but are rampant and still on the prowl in our own hemisphere. Every reader, of whatever political mind, can find evidence here for the perilous varieties of both public and private heroism.”—Sandy McKinney, Octavo

“Ariel Dorfman has spent his adult life’ obsessed with problems of pain and justice and redemption.’ Each is a Rosetta Stone, and the bilingual Chilean writer has sought to decipher them in Spanish and English, poems and plays, chiseling deep into scarred humanity, good and evil.”—Dick Gordon, WBUR website

"[T]he bilingual edition reflects a reconciliation, begun in his memoir, of the complex allegiances of his life. The work is all the more significant because of the historical specificity of these allegiances. . . . In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land is an important work by one of our time’s significant moral voices. It is worth letting him get under your skin."

—David Need, Independent Weekly [Durham, NC]

"Ariel Dorfman reveals his gifts as a powerful political poet in In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land. Dorfman’s poems, while possessing the concision and resonance essential to good poetry, are strikingly dramatic, too, animated as they are by a chorus of voices: political prisoners, shattered family members, agitators for change. In this way he both capitalizes on his gifts as a dramatist and satisfies his urgent need, when confronting his country’s dead and missing, to ‘let them speak for themselves.’"

—Rachel Wetzsteon, American Theatre

"Dorfman . . . has succeeded in inspiring courage in victims and resolve in reformers. . . . Dorfman’s writings, and especially his poetry, show that, though we may buckle and admit defeat, our defeat can only be temporary. We cannot hope for real justice; the odds are too strong against the possibility. What we will strive for is the vindication that the knowledge of the truth will bring. To that end, our literature in every form must be testimony. In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land is irrefutable testimony, not only against tyranny and repression but also for integrity and endurance."—Fred Chappell, Duke Magazine

"[T]he spare, understated texts are distinguished examples of both exile writing and what is sometimes categorized as 'literature of human rights.' . . . The translations . . . are natural-sounding and accurate." —Naomi Lindstrom, World Literature Today

Finalist, 2002 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in Fiction Translation

“In a world increasingly battered with terror and terrorist anti-terror, the American reader will discover here that a telescopic view of what is happening in far lands is more than echoed by this up close and personal report on the dehumanizing events taking place in our own hemisphere.”—Sandy McKinney, ForeWord

“For Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman, Sept. 11 meant tragedy even before 2001. On Sept. 11, 1973, the Chilean military seized power in a bloody coup in which President Salvador Allende died. It ushered in more than a decade and a half of dictatorship under Gen. Augusto Pinochet. . . . Now, in two post-Sept. 11, 2001 books, Dorfman uses that connection to explore universal themes of healing, loss, and justice. . . . [T]he voices of exiles, activists, separated lovers and families of victims convey a sense of love, faith and hope in a world wracked by political violence.”—The Herald Sun

“[A] handbook of horror, interlaced as the book progresses with a poetic intelligence and a humanist grief that sings. . . . The facing-page presentation will give readers who are fluent in Spanish the delightful opportunity to enjoy Dorfman’s own linguistic rhythms; and Edith Grossman’s perceptive translations allow the beginner in Spanish, and even those with no Spanish, the chance to move back and forth across the page for an instructive experience of both languages, and a lesson in how the limitations of prosody can be over-ridden by a shared sensibility. . . . This is a timely book, stark and honest, a reminder that the wolves of terrorism are not confined to an area half a world away, but are rampant and still on the prowl in our own hemisphere. Every reader, of whatever political mind, can find evidence here for the perilous varieties of both public and private heroism.”—Sandy McKinney, Octavo

“Ariel Dorfman has spent his adult life’ obsessed with problems of pain and justice and redemption.’ Each is a Rosetta Stone, and the bilingual Chilean writer has sought to decipher them in Spanish and English, poems and plays, chiseling deep into scarred humanity, good and evil.”—Dick Gordon, WBUR website

"[T]he bilingual edition reflects a reconciliation, begun in his memoir, of the complex allegiances of his life. The work is all the more significant because of the historical specificity of these allegiances. . . . In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land is an important work by one of our time’s significant moral voices. It is worth letting him get under your skin."

—David Need, Independent Weekly [Durham, NC]

"Ariel Dorfman reveals his gifts as a powerful political poet in In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land. Dorfman’s poems, while possessing the concision and resonance essential to good poetry, are strikingly dramatic, too, animated as they are by a chorus of voices: political prisoners, shattered family members, agitators for change. In this way he both capitalizes on his gifts as a dramatist and satisfies his urgent need, when confronting his country’s dead and missing, to ‘let them speak for themselves.’"

—Rachel Wetzsteon, American Theatre

"Dorfman . . . has succeeded in inspiring courage in victims and resolve in reformers. . . . Dorfman’s writings, and especially his poetry, show that, though we may buckle and admit defeat, our defeat can only be temporary. We cannot hope for real justice; the odds are too strong against the possibility. What we will strive for is the vindication that the knowledge of the truth will bring. To that end, our literature in every form must be testimony. In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land is irrefutable testimony, not only against tyranny and repression but also for integrity and endurance."—Fred Chappell, Duke Magazine

"[T]he spare, understated texts are distinguished examples of both exile writing and what is sometimes categorized as 'literature of human rights.' . . . The translations . . . are natural-sounding and accurate." —Naomi Lindstrom, World Literature Today

Praise for Ariel Dorfman’s poetry:
"A deeply moving collection from one of Chile’s most important writers. . . .Stark and at the same time oddly radiant."—Margaret Atwood

"Ariel Dorfman’s testaments of pain and outrage are indeed poems. They will outlast the oppression, the torture, the misery of exile of which they tell. ‘Many are called’ to write of these matters, but ‘few are chosen.’ Dorfman is one of the few."—Denise Levertov

“[These poems] manage to speak with great directness of the . . . suffering and dread in his own country—and, by implication, in much of the world today—and yet to be maps of the imagination, the compassionate imagination. . . .Writing like this is a rare source of hope."—W. S. Merwin

"As long as poems such as these are written and published, the Pinochets of the world cannot have the last say."—Breyten Breytenbach

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