GRAIN DIVINE

<table><tr><td>Poem Of The Son</td><td>35-38</td></tr><tr><td>For Children</td><td>39</td></tr><tr><td>Children's Hair</td><td>40</td></tr></table>

From Ternura and Lagard, 1919

EARTH AND WOMAN

<table><tr><td>Doves</td><td>41</td></tr><tr><td>Helpers</td><td>42</td></tr><tr><td>Earth And The Woman</td><td>43</td></tr><tr><td>If You'll Just Go To Sleep...</td><td>44</td></tr><tr><td>Asleep</td><td>45 46</td></tr><tr><td>The Stable</td><td>47 48</td></tr><tr><td>Indian Christmas</td><td>49</td></tr><tr><td>Seed</td><td>50 51</td></tr><tr><td>Little Child</td><td>52 53</td></tr><tr><td>Song Of The Blood</td><td>54 55</td></tr><tr><td>Song Of The Fisherfolk</td><td>56</td></tr><tr><td>Those Who Don't Dance</td><td>57</td></tr><tr><td>Given Back</td><td>58</td></tr><tr><td>Mained</td><td>59</td></tr><tr><td>The Parrot</td><td>60</td></tr><tr><td>The Rat</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>The Peacock</td><td>62</td></tr><tr><td>Larks</td><td>63</td></tr><tr><td>Little Workman</td><td>64</td></tr></table>

4-#-4

From Tala:

RICHNESS

<table><tr><td>Richness</td><td>65</td></tr><tr><td>The Cup</td><td>66</td></tr><tr><td>Paradise</td><td>67</td></tr><tr><td>A live me your hands</td><td>68</td></tr><tr><td>Midnight</td><td>69</td></tr><tr><td>When Snow Falls</td><td>70</td></tr><tr><td>The Rose</td><td>71</td></tr><tr><td>Cascade In Sequedal</td><td>72-73</td></tr><tr><td>Woodcutter</td><td>74-75</td></tr><tr><td>Catalan Women</td><td>76</td></tr></table>

COUNTRY WITH NONNAME

<table><tr><td>Country That Is Missing</td><td>77-78</td></tr><tr><td>Stranger</td><td>79</td></tr><tr><td>Things</td><td>80-82</td></tr><tr><td>Absence</td><td>83</td></tr><tr><td>Old Lion</td><td>84</td></tr><tr><td>Two Angels</td><td>85</td></tr><tr><td>The Flower Of The Air</td><td>86-89</td></tr></table>

From Lecturas Para Mujeres:

Song 90

BIOGRAPHY

GABRIELA MISTRAL
Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga

BORN: April 7, 1889
VICUNA, Valley of Elqui, northern Chile

FATHER: Village school teacher and a pallador, verse-maker for these fiestas

PEN NAME: from Gabriele d'Annunzio and Frederic Mistral

MEXICO: Asked by government in early '20's to assist in libraries & rural schools

U.S.A.---In 1931 came to teach Spanish history and civilization at
Middlebury and Barnard Colleges

CHILE'S delegate to League of Nations Institute of Intellectual Cooperation

Member of U. N. Subcommittee on Status of Women

NOBEL PRIZE---1945---only Latin American writer so honored

1946-48 lived at Santa Barbara, California

1948-50 lived in Mexico at invitation of Pres. Aleman

1951-52 Chilean Consul in Naples.

1953-57 lived in Roslyn Harbor, L., I.

DIED---January 10, 1957.

Three days of mourning decreed in Chile

U.N. paid tribute

DESOLACION first published in New York, Instituto de Las Espanas, Columbia

Biographical Notes

GABRIELA MISTRAL was born in a village of Chile in 1889 among poor and hard-working people. She became a self-educated rural teacher and lived an anonymous existence serving in the most remote places along the coast of Chile.

It has been said of her that she expressed the soul of woman more completely and truly than any other poet and those who feared her concern with the tragic, the bitter or the rebellious, do not remember the gentler and romantic Gabriela Mistral. This image which belongs so righteously to the saga of young people struggling in the first quarter of the 20th Century amidst social conflicts and political upheavals. She had a whole world to discover, to fight in, and to conquer. A New World to which she brought the purest essence of a great spirit.

When she received the news of having been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945, she said:

"It is the New World that has been honored through me......
It is not my victory but America's."

Her SONETOS DE LA MUERTE, published in 1914, created her reputation. She held positions in the Department of Education of Chile, was Chilean consul in Spain, and was invited to come to Mexico in 1922 as Guest of the Nation. In 1931 she taught at Barnard and Middlebury Colleges and in 1932 was Visiting Professor of Spanish Studies at the University of Puerto Rico where she wrote extensively about the Island, both in prose and verse. Her poetry is touched with the fervor of social reform and it has carried her message wherever the humble, the poor, and the persecuted have clamored for protection. Proceeds from TALA, her third volume of poetry, went for the relief of Basque children left homeless as a result of the Spanish Civil War.

GABRIELA MISTRAL, born in Chile 1889 - died Long Island 1957

AWARDED THE 1945 NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

INVITED TO MEXICO AS SPECIAL GUEST OF GOVERNMENT TO TAKE PART IN
EDUCATIONAL REFORMS IN 1922

MOST FAMOUS WORK - SONETOS DE LA MUERTE, PUBLISHED IN 1914

POEMS PUBLISHED IN BOOKS DESIGNED TO TEACH CHILDREN TO READ

WON ACCLAIM AS POET BEFORE PUBLISHING HER WORKS IN BOOK FORM

REPRESENTED CHILE IN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND AT THE UNITED NATIONS

MOST DISTINGUISHED WOMAN WRITER OF LATIN AMERICA AND DEFENDER OF
WOMAN'S RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

suitable climate for her health and a pleasant atmosphere
to pursue her studies." In the end she choose Rosyln
Harbor.

Early in the new year of 1957 Gabriela Mistral died.
When the news reached Chile, President Ibanez decreed three
days of national mourning. In the United Nations she was
eulogized. And the press of the world paid her tribute.
In an article at the center of a full page devoted to
her memory in _The New York Times Book Review_, Mildred
Adams wrote, "Gabriela's clarity and precision, her passion
and that characteristic which can only be called her nobility
of soul are accepted as ideals. She will not quickly vanish
from the literary consciousness of those who value the Spanish
tongue." And in _El Diario de Nueva York_ Ramon Sender said,
"There are poets who hide behind their verses. Others give
themselves from their first poem, and so it was with Gabriela
Mistral."

23

her and a reading of a few of her poems. This so enthused his students -- most of whom were (or intended to be) teachers of Spanish -- that they wanted to lay hands on more of her work. Then they learned that as yet no volume of her poems had ever been printed. Gabriela Mistral's first book, *Desolación*, was published by the Spanish Institute of Columbia University in 1922. It has since been reprinted in various editions in South America, each time containing more poems as well as revised versions of previous work, for Gabriela Mistral rewrote often.

In Madrid in 1924 *Ternura* was published. In Buenos Aires in 1938 appeared a third small volume, *Tala*, the proceeds of whose sale went to the relief of the Basque orphans of the Spanish Civil War. In 1954 *Lagar* appeared in Chile, and there that same year a new edition of *Desolación* was printed. In 1950 in Santiago the *Poemas de las Madres* (included in *Desolación*) had appeared separately in a beautiful limited edition with drawings by Andre Racz. By then in Spanish speaking countries Gabriela's name (and almost everyone in referring to the poet said simply *Gabriela*) had long been a household word. She had become one of the most popular poets of her tongue. Although her first publication was achieved in our country, in Continental Europe her poems were more widely translated than in England or the United States. Even after she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, why so little of Gabriela was translated into English, I do not know. Much of her poetry is simple and direct in language, never high-flown or flowery, and much easier, I think, to translate than most poets writing in Spanish. Since her poetry is so intensely feminine, however, I hesitated to attempt translations myself, hoping that a woman would do so. None did, in terms of a book. So when Bernard Perry of the Indiana University Press requested that I do so, it intrigued me to try -- for the simple reason that I liked the poems.

For the most part I have selected from the various books those poems relating to children, motherhood, and love, including the famous *Poem of the Son* and *Prayer* written during her period of complete desolation, after the man for whom she cared so greatly had died by his own hand.

3.

I have no theories of translation. I simply try to transfer into English as much as I can of the literal content, emotion, and style of each poem. When I feel I can transfer only literal content, I do not attempt a translation. For that reason I have not translated the three *Sonetos de la Muerte*. They are very beautiful, but very difficult in their rhymed simplicity to put into an equivalent English form. To give their meaning without their word music would be to lose their meaning.

The music of Gabriela's poetry started around the world a decade or more before she left her native Chile in the early thirties to begin her own travels, first to Mexico, that had asked her assistance in the organization of rural schools and libraries, then to become Chile's delegate to the League of Nations Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. And in 1931 Gabriela Mistral came to the United States as an instructor in Spanish history and civilization at Middlebury and Barnard Colleges. Later she represented her government in various diplomatic posts in South America and Europe, and was a member of the United Nations Subcommittee on the Status of Women. For two years, at President Aleman's invitation, she lived in Mexico as a "guest of the nation." She was Chilean Consul in Brazil. Then after a year as Consul at Naples, in 1953 Gabriela Mistral came again to the United States and settled down in a charming house in Roslyn Harbor, Long Island, where she lived until her death. For twenty years before her death, Gabriela had been honored as Chile's only "life consul" — so appointed by a special enactment of the Chilean Congress — her consulate designated to be "wherever she finds a suitable climate for her health and a pleasant atmosphere to pursue her studies." In the end she chose Roslyn Harbor.

Early in the new year of 1957 Gabriela Mistral died. When the news reached Chile, President Ibanez decreed three days of national mourning. In the United Nations she was eulogized. And the press of the world paid her tribute. In an article at the center of a full page devoted to her memory in *The New York Times Book Review*, Mildred Adams wrote, "Gabriela's clarity and precision, her passion

4.

and that characteristic which can only be called her nobility of soul are
accepted as ideals. She will not quickly vanish from the literary consciousness
of those who value the Spanish tongue." And in *El Diario de Nueva York* Ramon
Sender said, "There are poets who hide behind their verses. Others give themselves
from their first poem, and so it was with Gabriela Mistral."

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

October 4, 1957

CHANGE IN 1st PARAGRAPH OF INTRODUCTION
of
THE SELECTED POEMS OF GABRIELA MISTRAL
at
the suggestion of Dana-Daves

INTRODUCTION

She did not sign her poetry with her own name,
Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga, because as a young teacher
she feared, if it became known that she wrote such
emotionally outspoken verses, she might lose her job.
Instead she created for herself another name---taking
from the archangel Gabriel her first name, and from
a sea wind the second. When the poems that were
quickly to make her famous, *Sonetos de la Muerte*,
were published in 1914, they were signed Gabriela
Mistral.

NOTE lines 5-6-7: *taking* from
the archangel...etc., and from
a sea wind the *second*.

2.

3.

The music of Gabriela's poetry started around the world a decade or more before she left her native Chile in the early thirties to begin her own travels, first to Mexico, that had asked her assistance in the organization of rural schools and libraries, then to become Chile's delegate to the League of Nations Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. And in 1931 Gabriela Mistral came to the United States as an instructor in Spanish history and civilization at Middlebury and Barnard Colleges. Later she represented her government in various diplomatic posts in South America and Europe, and was a member of the United Nations Subcommittee on the Status of Women. For two years, at President Aleman's invitation, she lived in Mexico as a "guest of the nation." She was Chilean Consul in Brazil. Then after a year as Consul at Naples, in 1953 Gabriela Mistral came again to the United States and settled down in a charming house in Roslyn Harbor, Long Island, where she lived until her death. For twenty years before her death, Gabriela had been honored as Chile's only "life consul" -- so appointed by a special enactment of the Chilean Congress -- her consulate designated to be "wherever she finds a suitable climate for her health and a pleasant atmosphere to pursue her studies." In the end she chose Roslyn Harbor.

Early in the new year of 1957 Gabriela Mistral died. When the news reached Chile, President Ibañez decreed three days of national mourning. In the United Nations she was eulogized. And the press of the world paid her tribute. In an article at the center of a full page devoted to her memory in *The New York Times Book Review*, Mildred Adams wrote, "Gabriela's clarity and precision, her passion

4.

Langston Hughes

## INTRODUCTION

She did not sign her poetry with her own name, Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga, because as a young teacher she feared, if it became known that she wrote such emotionally outspoken verses, she might lose her job. Instead she made up for herself a name -- which romantic biographers later claimed she took from the names of two writers whose work she loved, Gabriela d'Annunzio and Frederic Mistral. But, instead, the poet herself said that from the archangle Gabriel she took her first name, and from a sea wind the other. At any rate, when the poems that were quickly to make her famous, *Sonnets de la Muerte*, were published in 1914, they were signed Gabriela Mistral.

She was born in 1889 in the Chilean village of Viña on the River Elqui in a valley where the sweetest of grapes grow. She grew up in the little town of Montevideo where her father was a schoolmaster, and she in turn became a teacher in rural schools, sometimes walking miles into the country to meet her classes. Her father made up verses for village fiestas and, as a young woman, his daughter composed little poems for texts to help children learn to read. She met a young man, Romelio Ureta, with whom she fell in love, but they were never married. For reasons unrelated to their friendship, Ureta committed suicide. Out of love for him and of her desolation at his death came the first of a series of poems soon to be read throughout all Latin America. These included *Sonnets of Death, Prayer, and the Poem of the Son*, in whose stark beauty and intensity her personal tragedy "lost its private character and became a part of world literature. It was then that Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga became Gabriela Mistral."

2.

As her renown as a poet grew, so grew her reputation as a teacher of children. The young woman who had no children of her own took her work as an educator very seriously, and explored what was for Chile and the times the most progressive methods of enlightening young minds — visual aides, extracts from great literature, games sometimes in place of books. At first in country schools and coastal villages, then in Santiago de Chile she became an influence in educational circles, and soon was given a government post in the Department of Education at the capital. It was a group of teachers who brought about the publication of her first book — happily for us, in the United States. Federico de Onán, Professor of Spanish Literature at Columbia University in New York, one day gave a talk about her and a reading of a few of her poems. This so enthused his students — most of whom were (or intended to be) teachers of Spanish — that they wanted to lay hands on more of her work. Then they learned that as yet no volume of her poems had ever been printed. Gabriela Mistral's first book, *Desolación*, was published by the Spanish Institute of Columbia University in 1922. It has since been reprinted in various editions in South America, each time containing more poems as well as revised versions of previous work, for Gabriela Mistral reëroté often.

In Madrid in 1924 *Tercera* was published. In Buenos Aires in 1938 appeared a third small volume, *Tala*, the proceeds of whose sale went to the relief of the Basque orphans of the Spanish Civil War. In 1954 *Lazar* appeared in Chile, and there that same year a new edition of *Desolación* was printed. In 1950 in Santiago the *Poemas de las Madres* (included in *Desolación*) had appeared separately in a beautiful limited edition with drawings by Andre Baca. By then in Spanish speaking countries Gabriela's name (and almost everyone in referring to the poet said simply *Gabriela*) had long been a household word. She had become one of the most popular poets of her tongue. Although her first

3.

publication was achieved in our country, in Continental Europe her poems were
more widely translated than in England or the United States. Even after she
was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, why so little of Gabriela was
translated into English, I do not know. Much of her poetry is simple and direct
in language, never high-flown or slovenly, and much easier, I think, to translate
than most poets writing in Spanish. Since her poetry is so intensely feminine,
however, I hesitated to attempt translations myself, hoping that a woman would
do so. None did, in terms of a book. So when Bernard Perry of the Indiana
University Press requested that I do so, it intrigued me to try — for the
simple reason that I liked the poems.

For the most part I have selected from the various books those poems
relating to children, motherhood, and love, including the famous *Poem of the
Son and Prayer* written during her period of complete desolation, after the man
for whom she cared so greatly had died by his own hand.

I have no theories of translation. I simply try to transfer into
English as much as I can of the literal content, emotion, and style of each
poem. When I feel I can transfer only literal content, I do not attempt a
translation. For that reason I have not translated the three *Sonatas de la
Liberté*. They are very beautiful, but very difficult in their rhymed simplicity
to put into an equivalent English form. To give their meaning without their
word music would be to lose their meaning.

4.

various diplomatic posts in South America and Europe, and was a member of the United Nations Subcommittee on the Status of Women. For two years, at President Aleman's invitation, she lived in Mexico as a "guest of the nation." She was Portugal, at Nice, and Los Angeles.
Chilean Consul in Brasil. Then after a year as Consul at Naples, in 1953 Gabriela Mistral came again to the United States and settled down in a charming house in Roslyn Harbor, Long Island, where she lived until her death. For twenty years before her death, Gabriela had been honored as Chile's only "life consul" — so appointed by a special enactment of the Chilean Congress — her consulate designated to be "wherever she finds a suitable climate for her health and a pleasant atmosphere to pursue her studies." In the end she chose Roslyn Harbor.

Early in the new year of 1957 Gabriela Mistral died. When the news reached Chile, President Ibáñez decreed three days of national mourning. In the United Nations she was eulogized. And the press of the world paid her tribute. In an article at the center of a full page devoted to her memory in *The New York Times Book Review*, Mildred Adams wrote, "Gabriela's clarity and precision, her passion and that characteristic which can only be called her nobility of soul are accepted as ideals. She will not quickly vanish from the literary consciousness of those who value the Spanish tongue." And in *El Diario de Nueva York* Ramon Sender said, "There are poets who hide behind their verses. Others give themselves from their first poem, and so it was with Gabriela Mistral."

Langston Hughes

4.

I have told, as if it were a story, for the countrymen of Selma
the
Lagerlof, MMM/remarkable journeyx that you have taken on your way
from the desk of a school mistress to the thrown of poetry.

I have related for the countrymen of Selma Lagerlof, as if it were a
story, the amazing journey that has taken you from the desk of a school
mistress to the throne of poetry. It is to render homage to the riches of
Spanish American
literature that we address ourselves today
especially to its queen, the poet of Desolación, who has become
the great singer of mercy and motherhood.
I beg you to receive
the hands of her Royal Majesty the Nobel Prize for Literature which the
Swedish Academy now awards you.

Hj. Gullberg, Ph. Litt.,

Member of the Swedish Academy

NOTE ON THE POETRY OF GABRIELA MISTRAL
for
Possible use on blurb

The floweriness of much Latin American poetry is
not to be found in the poems of Gabriela Mistral.
work is
instead as simple and as clear as a mountain stream, and her
singing lyricism might be likened to the purity of the wind
in her own/Andes... although the nuances and shadings
of her meanings may sometimes be as illusive as the wind.
Gabriela Mistral writes in rhymed forms, with assonance, free
verse, and sometimes in a combination of all three styles.
There is no rigid conventionality of form or content, and
no ordinariness ever. Her
poems about mothers are not sentimental; her lyrics about
children are not cute; her lines about peasant women are in
no way common. Her words are usually simple, their immediate
imagery clear, their implications enormous. Just as there
is nothing really simple about her poems, so Gabriela
Mistral's poems are not simple.
The easy flow of her
lyrics lead often to the mightest of seas, even the shortest of
her poems, as Whitman has so well said of her: "True
poetry, may take a reader, almost without his knowledge, into
space" to behold the birth of stars, to learn one of the meanings,
to launch off with absolute faith, to sweep through the ceaseless
rings and never be quiet again."

The floweriness of much Latin American poetry is not to be found in
the poems of Gabriela Mistral. The bulk of her work is instead as simple
and as clear as a mountain stream, and her singing lyricism might be likened
to the purity of the wind in the high Andes—although the nuances and
shadings of her meanings may sometimes be as illusive as the wind. Gabriela
Mistral writes in rhymed forms, assonance, free verse, and sometimes in a
combination of all three styles. There is no rigid conventionality of form
or content, and no ordinariness ever. Her poems about mothers are not
sentimental; her lyrics about children are not cute; her lines about peasant
women are in no way common. Her words are usually simple, their immediate
imagery clear, their implications enormous. Just as there is nothing really
simple about wind or water, so Gabriela Mistral's poems are not simple. The
easy flow of her lyrics leads often to the mightest of seas. Even the shortest
of her poems, as Whitman has so well said of great poetry, may take a reader,
almost without his knowledge, far into cosmic space "to behold the birth of
stars, to learn one of the meanings...to sweep through the ceaseless rings
and never be quiet again."