Poetry
Canto
Not translated into English
Sara de Ibáñez · 1940
Synopsis
A first collection in six parts. The “Islas” place the speaker on the earth, in the air and in the light, like a dry island in the midst of a battle; then come nine liras, dialogues between death and the mirror, then two sequences of five sonnets each, “De los vivos” and “De los muertos”, and finally “Itinerario”, fifteen love poems addressed to a husband. The voice questions God, the angels return from one poem to the next, and death touches every living thing.
Context
The collection appeared in Buenos Aires in 1940 from Losada. Pablo Neruda, who had seen these pages on a table during a visit to the couple, had them published and prefaced them: he saw in them impetus subjected to rigour, structure and mystery, and called the author “grande, excepcional y cruel poeta”. The forms are those of the Spanish tradition, the lira, the sonnet, the décima. Critics read the sonnet “Isla en la luz” as a lament for the dead of the war and a poem of human solidarity, and often judge her images closed and difficult.
Who it is for
A poetry collection in Spanish, classical in form, dense and hermetic; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
Prize of the Ministry of Public Instruction; this first book earned her international recognition.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.