The Poetry of Luis Cernuda

by Anthony Edkins (Editor), Derek Harris (Editor)

Luis Cernuda (1902-1963) is one of the major Spanish poets of this century, whose work has only recently achieved the same degree of recognition that has long been accorded his contemporaries, Federico García Lorca, Jorge Guillén and Rafael Alberti. His poetry is an important influence on the young poets of Spain today.

This bilingual anthology contains the first representative selection of his works to be translated into English. After the Spanish Civil War, he lived for several years as an exile in England and then the United States, where he was deeply influenced by poetry in English. His mature work is therefore accessible to readers not acquainted with the Spanish poetic tradition.

Cernuda's poetry is autobiographical. It reflects his tragic view of life as an irreconcilable conflict between personal dream and objective reality. He learns through each experience that dreams are illusions, but he acquires his self-knowledge through analysis of his experiences. One is struck by the integrity with which he conducts the search from dream and self. He assumes an ethical responsibility for his own existence as he struggles to affirm personal truth in a hostile environment which threatens to diminish his identity. Through his own struggles he provides a mirror for modern man.

Genres: Poetry

171 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

You stand there always waiting for who knows what nightingales.

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

luis cernuda was a spanish poet and member of the generation of '27 (along with garcía lorca, jorge guillén, and rafael alberti amongst others). during the spanish civil war, cernuda fled his native spain, living in exile in scotland, france, the united states, and eventually mexico- never returning to his home country. despite being a well-regarded and influential poet, seemingly very little of his work is available in english translation.

the poetry of luis cernuda, published in 1971 (some eight years after his death in mexico city), collects poems from eleven distinct works and spans nearly forty years of his literary career (1924-1962). the irreconcilable disparity between reality and fantasy informed much of his poetry, as did his open homosexuality and exile. "his homosexuality must be recognized by the reader, as he accepted it himself, and it can then be seen as a metaphor for man's alienated condition in the world and in society." the range of his poetry is made evident in this bilingual collection and provides for a rather broad overview of his poetic output. derek harris, one of the book's two editors and four translators, provides a lengthy, essential introductory essay to cernuda and his work.

the ruins (las ruinas) (excerpt)

oh god. you who have made us to die,
why did you fill us with the thirst
for eternity that creates the poet?
can you allow the sons of light to fall,
century after century, into the greedy shadow
like thistle-down blown away on the wind?

but you do not exist. you are only the name
man gives to his fear and impotence,
and life without you is like
these splendid ruins here in desolation:
a frenzy of light calmed by the dusk,
a frenzy almost beautiful when it is brief and mild.

all things beautiful have their moment, and vanish.
we must grasp our moment as if it were eternal.
i do not envy you, god; leave me alone
with my human works that do not endure:
the desire to fill what is ephemeral
with eternity is equal to your omnipotence.

such is man. learn then, and stop pursuing
deaf, eternal gods nourished by your prayer
and destroyed when you forget them.
is your life any less beautiful because
it grows and blooms, like the flower, in death's embrace?

the night falls sacred and mysterious,
sweet as the caress of a friendly hand,
and in the breast where once others
laid their brow, i now lie back
to gaze in peace at the landscape and the ruins.