Language Notes
Text: Spanish
Cantos a la Madre (Songs to the Mother) FROM THE PUBLISHER
Este libro reúne los mejores poemas dedicados a la madre. Son cartas de amor de los poetas a sus progenitoras. Poetas de todos los estilos, temperamentos y épocas le han cantado a la madre, sea ésta la lejana, la cercana, la amorosa o la triste.
Esta selección de lo mejor de la poesía latinoamericana está hecha para celebrar el milagro del nacimiento y de la sabiduría encarnado en las madres.
SPANISH LANGUAGE COMMENTARY
"A veces pienso que la soñé demasiado, la soñé tanto que la hice. Casi todas nuestras madres son criaturas de nuestros sueños."
---Joaquín Sabines
"Mi madre, niña de mil años,
madre de mundo, huérfana de mí,
abnegada, feroz, obtusa, providente."
---Octavio Paz
"La madre, mártir del sentimiento
de ingratos hijos, la senda alfombra;
vive, y son ellos su pensamiento;
muere, y les deja su grata sombra.
---Salvador Díaz Mirón
FROM THE CRITICS
Criticas
This anthology of Latin American poems dedicated to the mother figure features the work of many renowned poets, including Cesar Vallejo, Octavio Paz and Pablo Neruda, as well as those who are less known, like Neftali Beltran and Tomas Segovia. Although the book manages to acknowledge the contributions of several women writers, it limits its selections to Mexico, Argentina, and Chile, neglecting the work of other countries where the mother is an important a literary figure. The book would have benefited from an introduction to bring all these poets and their different styles together, as well as biographical entries for authors that state more than their country of origin. But after all, rather than being a literary study, this anthology is a means of providing access to valuable poetry dedicated to an important theme. Readers can choose from different styles, epochs, and levels of difficulty, and the poems can be read in any order. Mothers will most likely be moved by the praises they encounter and by the sorrow in sentences like the anonymous "God help me with this pain/with this incessant grief/because in this world I have lost/the one of most value to me." Recommended for bookstores. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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