Although Gabriela Mistral’s early years as a poet were spent in her native land, Mistral’s first book was not published in Chile, but in the US in the city of New York, when in 1922, at the initiative of the Spanish literary critic, Federico de Onis, the editorial of the Institute of Spain in New York, published the first edition of Gabriela Mistral’s book of poems and short essays, Desolacion. The book includes poems that speak of love and death such as the well known “Sonnets of Death.” Most of the poems included in the book were written ten years earlier while Mistral was living in the Northern city of Coquimbito, Chile.
In 2014, ninety-two years later, the first bilingual edition of this important book has been published and it is being launched in New York in a joint programme sponsored by the prestigious Instituto Cervantes, New York and the foundation that bears her name, the Gabriela Mistral Foundation; and in Washington DC with the sponsorship of the Embassy of Chile in Washington DC, the Chilean-American Foundation and the Gabriela Mistral Foundation.
This newly published bilingual edition of Desolation, is the first publication that includes a complete translation. Until now, a selection of poems and seáis from the book have been translated and included in anthologies as well as samplings in other publications. The translations were made by a Chilean professor who offers an insight into the Chilean customs of Mistral’s day which have remained a part of the country’s culture. This bilingual edition will be a helpful source for teachers and students of Latin American authors in English speaking countries.
ABOUT DESOLATION
LILIANA BALTRA &
GLORIA GARAFULICH-GRABOIS
DESOLATION, a bilingual edition
Translation, Introduction & Afterword
by Liliana Baltra & Michal P. Predmore
Published by Latin America Review Press, PittsburghS, PA
ISBN: 978-1-891270-24-6
MICHAEL P. PREDMORE
We hope that Desolación might be of particular interest to teachers of Spanish language and literature courses. Its “Prologue to the North American Edition” provides eloquent testimony of the enthusiasm of North American Spanish teachers, generated by her poetry: "Their feeling of admiration and appreciation for Gabriela Mistral was double: born, in the first place, out of love for the Spanish spirit that talked with new strength and voice in the poetry of a first-class writer, and, in the second place, from the depths of their professional vocation that led them to feel a profound sisterhood with the noble woman who in South America devotes her life to an ideal of exemplary teaching."
Though the pain, sorrow, and suffering that “bleed” through the pages of this powerful work have provoked the greatest amount of scholarly and critical commentary, there are wonderful pages of life-affirming principles and values interspersed throughout the various sections of Desolación. The second very brief section is entitled “La escuela” (“The School”) and begins with a homage to “La maestra rural” (“The rural School Teacher”). It leads almost immediately to the section “Infantiles” (“Children’s games”) which concludes with “Himno de la Escuela Gabriela Mistral” (“Hymn to the School Gabriela Mistral”). The theme of the school teacher is dropped in the following two sections, “Dolor” (“Pain”) and “Naturaleza” (“Nature”) but picked up again in “La oración de la maestra” (“The teacher’s prayer”) which introduces the next to last section “Prosa” (“Prose”). The final section entitled “Prosa Escolar” (“School Prose”) contains five parables, five moving stories all containing a lesson. The point is that There are lessons to be learned in every section of Desolación, some explicit and many implicit: lessons drawn from the Old Testament, lessons to be drawn from children’s songs and games, lessons inspired by the parables of the New Testament, and lessons, social and civic, that must be learned to eradicate injustices of all kinds. Far too little attention has been paid to the lyrical pedagogy of this woman whose love of poetry and beauty was equaled by her love of learning, devotion to teaching, and passion for justice.
We hope that on a number of levels, linguistic, cultural, ethical, and social, teachers and students will find the poetry of Gabriela Mistral to be broadly educational, profoundly moving, and particularly inspiring.