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Desolation of the Chimera
“In these memories and landscapes, in these notes toward the history of his sensibility, there is great objectivity: the poet attempts only to illuminate, with an almost impersonal light, something very personal: a few moments of his life.”—Octavio Paz
Written between 1950 and 1962, the poems in this bilingual collection amount to the final poetic testament of one of Spain’s most important twentieth-century poets.
Luis Cernuda (1902–1963) was a leading member of Spain’s legendary Generation of 1927. He left Spain during the civil war in 1938 and never returned.
Stephen Kessler is a poet, translator, essayist, and editor.
Written between 1950 and 1962, the poems in this bilingual collection amount to the final poetic testament of one of Spain’s most important twentieth-century poets.
Luis Cernuda (1902–1963) was a leading member of Spain’s legendary Generation of 1927. He left Spain during the civil war in 1938 and never returned.
Stephen Kessler is a poet, translator, essayist, and editor.
- GenresPoetry
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 1997
2 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Luis Cernuda
105 books94 followersLuis Cernuda was a Spanish poet and literary critic.
The son of a military man, Cernuda received a strict education as a child, and then studied law at the University of Seville, where he met the poet and literature professor Pedro Salinas. In 1928, after his mother died, Cernuda left his hometown, with which he had all his life an intense love-hate relationship. He briefly moved to Madrid, where he quickly became part of the literary scene. However, his detached, timid and morose character, his search of perfection frequently made him lose friendships and popularity.
His mentor and former professor Salinas arranged for him to take a lectureship for a year at the University of Toulouse. From June 1929 until 1937 Cernuda lived in Madrid and participated actively in the literary and cultural scene of the Spanish capital. Cernuda collaborated with many organisations working to support a more liberal and tolerant Spain. He participated in the Second Congress of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals in Valencia.
During the Spanish Civil War a friend secured him a position as teacher in Cranleigh School, where he taught Spanish Language and literature. After WWII another friend got him a lectureship in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA, where he would spend some years. Later on, moved by his sentimental relationships, he would move to Mexico, where he died.
The central concerns of this poet are evident in the title of his life's major opus: La realidad y el deseo ("Reality and Desire"). He published his first collection of verse, Perfil del aire ("Air's profile"), in 1927. Several books followed, and he collected new and already published poetry under this title in 1936. Subsequent editions would include new poetry as new books inside La realidad y el deseo. Expanded on almost until his death in 1963, in this work the poet explores desire, love, subject, object, history and sexuality in poems which draw influences from romanticism, classicism, and the surrealist avant-garde. Besides verse, he also published a collection of reminiscent prose poems, 'Ocnos', about his childhood in Seville.
Cernuda is known as a member of the Generation of '27, a group of Spanish poets and artists including Federico García Lorca. He broke new ground with Los Placeres Prohibidos ("Forbidden Pleasures"), an avant-garde work in which the poet used surrealism to explore his sexuality. During his British period he became deeply familiar with English poetry, which he would admire for its containment and lack of superfluous artifice and paraphernalia. He would also translate several poems and plays into Spanish. He would comment that translating Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida made him intensely happy.
Deeply influenced by André Gide, Cernuda embraced his homosexuality at an early age and made homosexual desire and love the core of his poetry. Or, at least, unlike other gay poets at the time, in his poetry he was never ambiguous about the fact that the objects of his desire and love were men. One of the most influential poets in contemporary Spanish poetry, he is definitely a crucial ground-breaking figure for homosexual writing in Spanish.
During the Spanish Civil War, deeply moved by the assassination of Federico Garcia Lorca, Cernuda fled to England, where he began an exile that later took him to France, Scotland, Massachusetts (Mount Holyoke College), California and finally settling in Mexico; he never returned to Spain. He never married and had no children.
His major English language critics include Derek Harris and Phillip Silver.
The son of a military man, Cernuda received a strict education as a child, and then studied law at the University of Seville, where he met the poet and literature professor Pedro Salinas. In 1928, after his mother died, Cernuda left his hometown, with which he had all his life an intense love-hate relationship. He briefly moved to Madrid, where he quickly became part of the literary scene. However, his detached, timid and morose character, his search of perfection frequently made him lose friendships and popularity.
His mentor and former professor Salinas arranged for him to take a lectureship for a year at the University of Toulouse. From June 1929 until 1937 Cernuda lived in Madrid and participated actively in the literary and cultural scene of the Spanish capital. Cernuda collaborated with many organisations working to support a more liberal and tolerant Spain. He participated in the Second Congress of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals in Valencia.
During the Spanish Civil War a friend secured him a position as teacher in Cranleigh School, where he taught Spanish Language and literature. After WWII another friend got him a lectureship in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA, where he would spend some years. Later on, moved by his sentimental relationships, he would move to Mexico, where he died.
The central concerns of this poet are evident in the title of his life's major opus: La realidad y el deseo ("Reality and Desire"). He published his first collection of verse, Perfil del aire ("Air's profile"), in 1927. Several books followed, and he collected new and already published poetry under this title in 1936. Subsequent editions would include new poetry as new books inside La realidad y el deseo. Expanded on almost until his death in 1963, in this work the poet explores desire, love, subject, object, history and sexuality in poems which draw influences from romanticism, classicism, and the surrealist avant-garde. Besides verse, he also published a collection of reminiscent prose poems, 'Ocnos', about his childhood in Seville.
Cernuda is known as a member of the Generation of '27, a group of Spanish poets and artists including Federico García Lorca. He broke new ground with Los Placeres Prohibidos ("Forbidden Pleasures"), an avant-garde work in which the poet used surrealism to explore his sexuality. During his British period he became deeply familiar with English poetry, which he would admire for its containment and lack of superfluous artifice and paraphernalia. He would also translate several poems and plays into Spanish. He would comment that translating Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida made him intensely happy.
Deeply influenced by André Gide, Cernuda embraced his homosexuality at an early age and made homosexual desire and love the core of his poetry. Or, at least, unlike other gay poets at the time, in his poetry he was never ambiguous about the fact that the objects of his desire and love were men. One of the most influential poets in contemporary Spanish poetry, he is definitely a crucial ground-breaking figure for homosexual writing in Spanish.
During the Spanish Civil War, deeply moved by the assassination of Federico Garcia Lorca, Cernuda fled to England, where he began an exile that later took him to France, Scotland, Massachusetts (Mount Holyoke College), California and finally settling in Mexico; he never returned to Spain. He never married and had no children.
His major English language critics include Derek Harris and Phillip Silver.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 4, 2022
"CLEARWATER
Pinta-o. Com um pincel delgado,
Com uma cor bem ligeira. Pinta
O reflexo do sol sobre as águas,
No fundo cascalhos que sonham.
As folhas nos olmos, que algum ar
Ao soprar, mansamente remove.
Ao fundo, a sombra azul das colinas.
Quieta no céu, alguma nuvem clara.
Dentro de ti sorri o que esperas
Sem pressa, para o seu dia certo;
Espera onde feliz se reflecte a tua vida
Igual a esta paisagem em águas doces."
✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤
"TEMPO DE VIVER, TEMPO DE DORMIR
Já é noite. Vais à janela
O jardim escuro em baixo
Vês o luzeiro da tarde
Latindo no fulgor solitário.
E deténs-te quietamente
Dentro de ti algo que se queixa:
Essa formosura não atendida
Seduz-te e reclama na rua.
O encanto de estar vivo, o homem
Só o sente em raros momentos
E ainda necessita partilhá-los
Para aprender a sombra, o sonho."
Pinta-o. Com um pincel delgado,
Com uma cor bem ligeira. Pinta
O reflexo do sol sobre as águas,
No fundo cascalhos que sonham.
As folhas nos olmos, que algum ar
Ao soprar, mansamente remove.
Ao fundo, a sombra azul das colinas.
Quieta no céu, alguma nuvem clara.
Dentro de ti sorri o que esperas
Sem pressa, para o seu dia certo;
Espera onde feliz se reflecte a tua vida
Igual a esta paisagem em águas doces."
✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤✤
"TEMPO DE VIVER, TEMPO DE DORMIR
Já é noite. Vais à janela
O jardim escuro em baixo
Vês o luzeiro da tarde
Latindo no fulgor solitário.
E deténs-te quietamente
Dentro de ti algo que se queixa:
Essa formosura não atendida
Seduz-te e reclama na rua.
O encanto de estar vivo, o homem
Só o sente em raros momentos
E ainda necessita partilhá-los
Para aprender a sombra, o sonho."
March 19, 2022
“Pinta-o. Com um pincel delgado,
Com uma cor bem ligeira. Pinta
O reflexo do sol sobre as águas,
No fundo cascalhos que sonham.
As folhas nos olmos, que algum ar
Ao soprar, mansamente remove.
Ao fundo, a sombra azul das colinas.
Quieta no céu, alguma nuvem clara.
Dentro de ti sorri o que esperas
Sem pressa, para o seu dia certo;
Espera onde feliz se reflecte a tua vida
Igual a esta paisagem em águas doces.”
CLEARWATER
—
“A duas vozes
«Teus olhos são os olhos de um homem
enamorado;
Teus lábios são os lábios de um homem que
não acredita
No amor.» «Então diz-me o remédio, amigo,
Se estão em desacordo realidade e desejo.»”
MÚSICA CATIVA
Com uma cor bem ligeira. Pinta
O reflexo do sol sobre as águas,
No fundo cascalhos que sonham.
As folhas nos olmos, que algum ar
Ao soprar, mansamente remove.
Ao fundo, a sombra azul das colinas.
Quieta no céu, alguma nuvem clara.
Dentro de ti sorri o que esperas
Sem pressa, para o seu dia certo;
Espera onde feliz se reflecte a tua vida
Igual a esta paisagem em águas doces.”
CLEARWATER
—
“A duas vozes
«Teus olhos são os olhos de um homem
enamorado;
Teus lábios são os lábios de um homem que
não acredita
No amor.» «Então diz-me o remédio, amigo,
Se estão em desacordo realidade e desejo.»”
MÚSICA CATIVA
October 7, 2022
meeeh, tengo una relación complicada con la poesía, no tengo absolutamente ninguna formación para hacer una interpretación formal para ver si es "buena" o no, sólo sé si me mueve algo o no y con este señor no pude, qué se yo.
October 31, 2025
"Es quien hoy te responde" 😭😭😭
CERNUDA THE MAN THAT YOU ARE
CERNUDA THE MAN THAT YOU ARE
June 18, 2015
Cernuda was one of the more prominent avant-garde poets that emerged out of Spain in the period before the Civil War and World War II. Moreso, he was openly gay and hailed as one of the most pivotal poets in his country. This collection features verse after his emigration up until his death. Somewhat less avant-gardy and off-kilter than his earlier work, these poems tend to focus on more mundane subjects, loves and losses, and the underbelly of the fashionably distraught world left in the wake of WWII. These are much more literal poems with many focused on matters of the heart and flesh, but there are numerous gems throughout that reflect his roots.
August 20, 2013
I am surprised by beauty every time I read these translations. They are to be savored. I've also found them just right for bringing into poetry workshop to encourage students to slow down and take care with words.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews