Selected Prose And Prose-Poems

by Mistral, Gabriela

• ISBN13: 9780292752665
• ISBN10: 0292752660
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-30
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

"With his new translations . . . Stephen Tapscott makes great strides toward redefining Mistral, her work, and her life for the North American reader. This collection denies the critical urge to allow Mistral's most celebrated poetry to trump her multifaceted achievements and broad intellectual interests. For the anglophone Mistral aficionado, Selected Prose and Prose-Poems is a breath of fresh air from a window on unexplored terrain." -- Bloomsbury Review "Tapscott's volume includes a rich variety of short texts--literary profiles, essays, stories for children, prose poems, biographies of religious figures, small fables extolling the romance of ordinary things, and writings on education and current events--and provides an excellent introduction to Mistral's prose. . . . [His] translations of Mistral's 'prose as tight as verse' are both lyrical and precise." -- Women's Review of Books The first Latin American to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature, the Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) is often characterized as a healing, maternal voice who spoke on behalf of women, indigenous peoples, the disenfranchised, children, and the rural poor. She is that political poet and more: a poet of philosophical meditation, self-consciousness, and daring. This is a book full of surprises and paradoxes. The complexity and structural boldness of these prose-poems, especially the female-erotic prose pieces of her first book, make them an important moment in the history of literary modernism in a tradition that runs from Baudelaire, the North American moderns, and the South American postmodernistas. It's a book that will be eye-opening and informative to the general reader as well as to students of gender studies, cultural studies, literary history, and poetry. This Spanish-English bilingual volume gathers the most famous and representative prose writings of Gabriela Mistral, which have not been as readily available to English-only readers as her poetry. The pieces are grouped into four sections. "Fables, Elegies, and Things of the Earth" includes fifteen of Mistral's most accessible prose-poems. "Prose and Prose-Poems from Desolacioacute;n / Desolation [1922]" presents all the prose from Mistral's first important book. "Lyrical Biographies" are Mistral's poetic meditations on Saint Francis and Sor Juana de la Cruz. "Literary Essays, Journalism, 'Messages'" collects pieces that reveal Mistral's opinions on a wide range of subjects, including the practice of teaching; the writers Alfonso Reyes, Alfonsina Storni, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Pablo Neruda; Mistral's own writing practices; and her social beliefs. Editor/translator Stephen Tapscott rounds out the volume with a chronology of Mistral's life and a brief introduction to her career and prose.

Author Biography

Stephen Tapscott is Professor of Literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Table of Contents

Biographical Data	ix
Principal Publications	xi
Fables, Elegies, and Things of the Earth	1	(30)
El mar	3	(1)
The Sea	4	(1)
La cebra	5	(1)
The Zebra	5	(2)
El faisan dorado	7	(1)
The Golden Pheasant	8	(2)
La harina	10	(1)
Flour	11	(1)
Elogio de la sal	12	(1)
In Praise of Salt	12	(1)
El higo	13	(1)
The Fig	13	(1)
La pina	14	(1)
The Pineapple	14	(1)
La tortuga	15	(1)
The Tortoise	15	(2)
Pan	17	(1)
Bread	17	(1)
La jirafa	18	(1)
The Giraffe	19	(1)
La alpaca	20	(1)
The Alpaca	21	(1)
El girasol	22	(1)
The Sunflower	22	(1)
Elogio del cristal	23	(1)
In Praise of Glass	24	(2)
Elogio de la arena	26	(1)
In Praise of Sand	27	(2)
Segundo elogio de la arena	29	(1)
Second Praise-Song for the Sand	29	(2)
Prose and Prose-Poems from Desolacion / Desolation (1922)	31	(88)
La oracion de la maestra	33	(1)
The Teacher's Prayer	34	(2)
Los cabellos de los ninos	36	(1)
Children's Hair	36	(1)
Poemas de las madres	37	(1)
Poems of the Mothers	37	(16)
Poemas de las madres	37	(1)
Poems of the Mothers	37	(12)
Poemas de la madre mas triste	49	(1)
Poems of the Saddest Mother	49	(4)
Canciones de cuna	53	(1)
Lullabies	53	(3)
Motivos del barro	56	(1)
Motifs of Clay	56	(11)
La flor de cuatro petalos	67	(1)
The Four-Petaled Flower	67	(2)
Poemas del extasis	69	(1)
Poems of Ecstasy	69	(6)
El arte	75	(1)
Art	75	(4)
Decalogo del artista	79	(1)
Decalogue of the Artist	79	(2)
Comentarios a poemas de Rabindranath Tagore	81	(1)
Commentary on Poems by Rabindranath Tagore	81	(4)
Lecturas espirituales	85	(1)
Spiritual Readings	85	(7)
Motivos de la Pasion	92	(1)
Motifs of the Passion	93	(3)
Poemas del hogar	96	(1)
Poems of the Home	96	(5)
Prosa escolar/Cuentos escolares	101	(2)
Por que las canas son huecas	101	(2)
Scholarly Prose/Stories for Schools	103	(16)
Why Bamboo Canes Are Hollow	103	(2)
Por que las rosas tienen espinas	105	(3)
Why Roses Have Thorns	108	(2)
La raiz del rosal	110	(1)
The Root of the Rosebush	111	(1)
El cardo	112	(1)
The Thistle	113	(2)
La charca	115	(1)
The Puddle	116	(3)
Lyrical Biographies	119	(26)
Canto a San Francisco	121	(1)
Song to Saint Francis	122	(15)
Silueta de Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz	137	(1)
Profile of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz	137	(8)
Literary Essays, Journalism, ``Messages''	145	(90)
Decir el sueno	147	(2)
To Declare the Dream	149	(3)
Pensamientos pedagogicos	152	(2)
Thoughts on Teaching	154	(3)
Silueta de la india mexicana	157	(1)
Profile of the Mexican Indian Woman	158	(3)
Chile	161	(1)
Chile	162	(3)
Un hombre de Mexico: Alfonso Reyes	165	(1)
A Man of Mexico: Alfonso Reyes	166	(3)
Alfonsina Storni	169	(2)
Alfonsina Storni	171	(3)
Invitacion a la lectura de Rainer Maria Rilke	174	(3)
An Invitation to Read Rainer Maria Rilke	177	(5)
Si Napoleon no hubiese existido	182	(2)
If Napoleon Had Never Existed	184	(5)
Jose Marti	189	(3)
Jose Marti	192	(5)
Recado sobre Pablo Neruda	197	(3)
A Message about Pablo Neruda	200	(5)
Como escribo	205	(1)
How I Write	206	(3)
Sobre cuatro sorbos de agua	209	(6)
On Four Sips of Water	215	(8)
La palabra maldita	223	(2)
The Forbidden Word	225	(3)
Mis ideas sociales	228	(2)
My Social Beliefs	230	(5)
Translator's Remarks	235	(12)
Index of Titles	247