NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

A5 perfect bound, 44 pages. There are pages of English, French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish poetry. There is also a couple of pieces of artwork. I can only read English and therefore I cannot comment about the type and quality of the poems in other languages. This may appeal to poets who enjoy a cross cut of poems in different languages and the flexibility this offers. Here is a nice short poem called SUN by Gastao Cruz that is offered with a translation by Alexis Levitin:

	Sol

	Essa vaga de fogo reconhece
	a luz interior do mar
	e o meu corpo

		Sun

		That wave of flame that recognition
		of the sea's inner light
		of my body's flesh

	sun like concrete
	hard horizons
	trees fieldfares fly from

	swollen streams late
	autumn twilights draw
	cold like mist

OSIRIS is a high quality publication bringing together a diverse range of European poetry in six languages for a cultured and intellectual audience.

In this issue work by J.M Tyree, B.Z Niditch and Annemette Kure Anderson stood out in particular. Tyree's PERIPHERAL and LEONIDS have a lingering meditative clarity; his closing lines are so apt and evocative: — PERIPHERAL

	a marriage of pollen and winds¾ 

	The flag of our desire.

	coded glimpses of cold light
	unclaimed by day or night.

	memories are fringes 
	in our eyes
	covering the earth
	with salty rain.

	Crocus and sand lay
	on the book's pages
	locked in a
	display case.

There are poems in English, French and Italian and one by the Portuguese writer, Carlos de Oliveira, in the original accompanied by an English translation. It rounds off with five poems by Karl Lubomirski in German, also with English translation. A fair number of pieces share outlook, emotional stance and even an intellectual heaviness. The two Italian poems, by Tiziano Salari and Paolo Badini, exhibit a tortured intellectualism over the essence of existence which can come over as self-indulgent grandstanding. Here is an example from IN UNA LOCALITA'BALNEARE by Tiziano Salari:

       il dio che un tempo era nel fallo eretto di un uomo
       dipinto in una tomba etrusca ora è solo un cazzo?
 
       Dante, il sabbione infuocato dove fa il velocista ser Brunetto
       è la stessa spiaggia di corpi nudi accatastati tra me e il mare?

       elle se vêt chaque matin
       d'une lumière neuve
       aux rets d'un café noir
       veuf du lendemain

       We constructed an Eskimo village
       out of eggshells and cotton, a diorama
 
       of igloos in a shoe box, my father's
       black armband riding his biceps,
 
       as we worked our gloveless
       fingers in the cold surrounding us.

       A bord de cette carlingue accidentée
       est-ce encore dans la gravitation universelle
       que nous tournons
       ou bien dans une cassure de l'espace-temps
 
       expulsés des lois
       qui soutiennent les constellations
       tombés hors de tout
       quand la planète en explosant
       a ouvert la faille

       nous ne sommes plus
       dans la lumière avant le temps
       nous sommes au milieu de la vie
       lumière abaissée
       temps disjoint
 
       de la faille elle-même
       où nous nous tenions dépuis l'origine
       où nous avons connu
       des instants de plénitude
 
       qui nous expulse à présent

       tout ce temps passé
       à chercher la zone twilight du bord de l'univers
       oui par en-dessous de la naissance
       quand la tête est plongée
       dans une ambiance de voix
       et le coeur enroulé dans ses excès de réalite

      the plants will be
      on the lookout for you
      where once greetings resounded
      silence will reign
      our time
      will fold its wings

It is excellent to see a multicultural magazine that has high expectations of its poets and readers. There are poems here in English, Arabic, German, Italian and French. Although there are plenty of poems in English, both as originals and translations, readers might want to brush up on their language skills to fully appreciate this magazine. For example, an Arabic poem is translated into French (ATLANTIS by Tahar Bekri, translated by the poet). This is a chance to enjoy poetry from a wide cultural and literary backgrounds and traditions. A nice touch is that the biographies of the poets are provided in the poet's own language.

The poetic vocabulary in the English language poems is particularly vivid and thought-provoking. There is an intelligence to them that shows that the selectors have taken a thoughtful road to choosing the contents. We can therefore assume that the non-English poetry is of the same standard. An excellent magazine; highly recommended.