A translation by Mahon is an exciting event . . . Mahon’s love of the French 19th century is well established, but there are numerous welcome surprises in the poets assembled here, including a section from the Chinese, some Pushkin, Ibsen adn Quevedo, and a scattering of Congolese poets. . . Mahon revisits and renews the concerns of a lifetime, . . . ‘Antarctica’ gives its name to a much-anthologised Mahon villanelle, and the translation here of a Neruda poem on the icy continent is one of the highlights of Raw Material. (His) last collection of his own work was title An Autumn Wind, but even with this Antarctic chill the temperature of Raw Material is closer to an Indian summer.
— Aingeal Clare, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/03/raw-material-derek-mahon-review to see the full review.
