Kirjahaku

SERRAT LEE A BENEDETTI Una antolog a personal con motivo del centenario del autor uruguayo, el poeta contempor neo en espa ol m s querido por varias generaciones de lectores. «Yo soy poeta / se ores: / y usted debe saber que los poetas / vivimos a la vuelta de este mundo. «No es f cil escoger lo m s representativo entre la extensa obra de Benedetti, pero conf o en que en esta antolog a est n representados todos los Benedettis que Mario cargaba en su mochila -el oficinista rutinario, el montevideano de clase media, el periodista comprometido, el viajero curioso, el militante de la patria dom stica, el exiliado y el desexiliado, y tambi n el intelectual parcial, el luchador pol tico y, por supuesto, el poeta minucioso y trabajador que nunca dej de ser-, con la esperanza de que esta selecci n pueda resultarle tan til al lector familiarizado con el mundo literario del poeta uruguayo como a aquel que llegue por primera vez a sus versos. Mario Benedetti ha sido uno de los escritores m s fecundos y populares de Am rica Latina. Un hombre de aspecto fr gil y sencillo, de gesto y voz mesurada, que acerc a la gente su palabra despojada de solemnidad. Escribi , a contramano de las modas imperantes y de la cr tica, historias que son las peripecias del hombre medio. Visit todos los g neros literarios: la novela, el relato, el teatro, pero fue la poes a su g nero predilecto, el que marc m s intensamente su vocaci n y el m s abundante y popular de toda su obra. Probablemente Benedetti sea el poeta m s le do en nuestro idioma y, con toda seguridad, el m s cantado. -Joan Manuel Serrat ENGLISH DESCRIPTION SERRAT READS TO BENEDETTI A personal anthology to mark the centenary of the Uruguayan author, the most-loved, contemporary poet in Spanish by many generations. 'I am a poet / gentlemen: / and you should know that poets / live around the world.' 'It is not easy to choose the most representative among Benedetti's extensive work, but I trust that this anthology represents all the Benedettis that Mario carried in his backpack - the routine office worker, the middle-class Montevideo man, the committed journalist, the curious traveler, the lover of the homeland, the exiled and the repatriated, as well as the partial intellectual, the political fighter and, of course, the meticulous and hard-working poet who never ceased to be -, in the hope that this selection may prove as useful to the reader familiar with the Uruguayan poet's literary world as to the one who's reading his verses for the first time. Mario Benedetti has been one of the most fruitful and popular writers in Latin America. A man with a fragile and simple appearance, with a measured gesture and voice, who brought his word to the people, stripped of solemnity. He wrote, against the prevailing fashions and criticism, stories that are the adventures of the average man. He visited all literary genres: the novel, the short story, the play, but poetry was his favorite genre, the one that most intensely marked his vocation and the most abundant and popular of all his work. Benedetti is probably the most widely read poet in our language and, certainly, the most sung. " -Joan Manuel Serrat "

'Perhaps that moment had been exceptional, but still, I felt alive. That pressure on my chest means being alive.'Forty-nine, with a kind face, no serious ailments (apart from varicose veins on his ankles), a good salary and three moody children, widowed accountant Martín Santomé is about to retire. He assumes he'll take up gardening, or the guitar, or whatever retired people do. What he least expects is to fall passionately in love with his shy young employee Laura Avellaneda. As they embark upon an affair, happy and irresponsible, Martín begins to feel the weight of his quiet existence lift - until, out of nowhere, their joy is cut short. The intimate, heartbreaking diary of an ordinary man who is reborn when he falls in love one final time, this beloved Latin American novel has been translated into twenty languages and sold millions of copies worldwide, and is now published in Penguin Classics for the first time.

An extraordinary story of love and exile, from one of the great masters of the Latin American novel'Having news from you is like opening a window'Santiago is trapped. Taken political prisoner in Montevideo after a brutal military coup, he can do nothing but write letters to his family, and try to stay sane. Far away in a different country, his father tries to adjust to life in exile, his daughter marvels at the big city, and his beautiful, careworn wife finds herself irresistibly drawn to another man, as day by day Santiago edges closer to freedom. Told with tenderness and fury through the voices of a family torn apart by history, Springtime in a Broken Mirror asks whether shattered lives can ever truly be mended. 'A masterful novel ... a remarkable collage of unique perspectives - or shards from that eponymous broken mirror' The National

'This novel is a jewel ... one of those books that enters the soul, which it is impossible not to be conquered by. It is a masterpiece like few others' Huffington PostMiguel and Alicia fall quietly in love as teenagers, walking back from school together. When Lucas - enigmatic, charismatic - arrives, everything changes, and Miguel is certain he has lost Alicia. Yet, against the odds, she marries him. Now, eleven years later, their marriage has begun to fray, and Alicia sets out to see Lucas again. As each member of this strange love triangle tells their side of what happened, an unforgettable story of desire, deception and tragic misunderstanding unfolds.

"It gives me great pleasure to see the work of Benedetti, one of the great poets of our language, made available to US readers in Popkin's wonderful translations. Her carefully crafted adaptations of Mario's poems convey all the wisdom, nostalgia, and irony that inform his verses in language that retains their musicality. Anyone who has translated poetry will appreciate what an accomplishment that represents."--Claribel Alegria Mario Benedetti (1920--2009) is regarded as one of Latin America's most important twentieth-century writers and one of Uruguay's most revered writers of novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and essays.

Mario Benedetti, uno de los grandes genios de la literatura latinoamericana contempor nea, nos zambulle en el inmenso oc ano de la existencia, mostrando a trav s de su mirada lo m s ntimo de una realidad cruel, pero siempre esperanzadora. Diecinueve cuentos impregnados de las sorprendentes atm sferas que envuelven la vida cotidiana. En la ciudad, hombres y mujeres se aman y se odian; mueren, sobreviven, se deterioran y renacen; sonr en, lloran; se pierden y regresan a trav s de caminos muchas veces recorridos, o descubren nuevos senderos iluminados por un radiante sol montevideano. La soledad, las dificultades de comunicaci n, la conciencia de la muerte, la alegr a de la vida o el paso del tiempo son algunos de los temas incluidos en estos relatos, que retratan sorprendentes atm sferas de la vida cotidiana. Pocos escritores son capaces de enfrentar al lector con la vida y la muerte de una forma tan delicada, tan humana y al mismo tiempo brutal. Mario Benedetti, uno de los grandes genios de la literatura latinoamericana contempor nea, nos zambulle en el inmenso oc ano de la existencia, mostrando a trav s de su mirada lo m s ntimo de una realidad cruel, pero siempre esperanzadora. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Some unexpected events can change our destiny. Especially the biggest of all: death--an event that seems to always find us unawares even when she's given us many a warning. From fear to serenity, from pain to pleasure and from the solemn to the entertaining, Mario Benedetti's prose will take readers to familiar and beloved lands.

La primera novela de Mario Benedetti. La aparicion de Quien de nosotros fue celebrada por la critica uruguaya, que califico la obra como -el libro mas prometedor que nuestra literatura de ficcion haya producido en estos anos-, y desde entonces ha sido reeditada continuamente.La historia de un triangulo amoroso, como el que forman Miguel, Alicia y Lucas, es utilizada por el autor para ofrecernos una imprevisible e ironica exploracion de la soledad humana, con un final abierto que se resumira en la ultima frase del libro: - Quien de nosotros juzga a quien?- English Description "Celebrated by critics as the most promising work in Uruguayan fiction at the time, Mario Benedetti s first novel has never been out of print, being constantly reedited since it was first published. Using a love triangle formed by Miguel, Alicia and Lucas, the author presents an ironic and unpredictable vision of human solitude. Summarized through the last phrase in the novel Which one of us can throw the first stone?, the open ending invites us to reflect on our human nature. ""

Indispensable en la bibliografia de Benedetti, Gracias por el fuego es una novela que supera los topicos, para inundar de vida y aprendizaje la experiencia del buen lector. Ramon Budino quiere matar a su padre, quien representa lo peor de un pais, Uruguay, y de una clase social que ha huido de su propia responsabilidad por el miedo a ser censurada. El peso del caudillismo en la vida cotidiana despues de mas de un siglo de independencia es para Ramon senal de que nada se ha renovado; de que todos siguen inmersos en una mentalidad politica y social que impide tanto el desarrollo colectivo como el personal. La frustracion por no poder matar a su padre a pesar de haber planeado concienzudamente su asesinato representa una fiel metafora de la tela de arana en la que Ramon lleva atrapado durante anos."

"Andamios narra los encuentros y desencuentros de Javier Montes, que tras doce anos de exilio, regresa a Montevideo con sus nostalgias, prejuicios y soledades. Javier va construyendo esos andamios que le permiten crear un mundo nuevo en el que caben todas sus esperanzas. Su estructura fragmentaria, de obra en construccion, en la que los elementos puestos en juego -dialogos, reflexiones, recuerdos, suenos, cartas y poemas- aparecen sueltos, permite al lector encontrar un edificio perfectamente acabado: el del desexilio. Una autentica obra maestra, un libro que respira ironia, critica social, ternura y humor con una prosa rigurosa y unos dialogos llenos de aciertos." English Description Scaffolds narrates the ups and downs of Javier Montes, who, after twelve years in exile, returns to Montevideo, full of nostalgia, prejudices, and loneliness. Javier constructs this scaffolding that allows him to create a new world filled with all his hopes and dreams. Its fragmented structure of a work under construction, in which the elements at workdialogues, reflections, memories, dreams, letters, and poemsappear loosely gathered, allows the reader to find a perfectly finished edifice: that of a return home."

Martin Santome, viudo con tres hijos, en las visperas de su jubilacion comienza a registrar en un diario su vida gris y sin relieve. La vida cotidiana de la rutina en la oficina y la de un hogar desunido y crispado se veran alteradas cuando irrumpe en su rutina la joven Laura Avellaneda, su nueva empleada. Y este hombre, casi sin proponerselo, decide abrir en su vida un parentesis luminoso. English Descriptipn Just before his retirement, Martin Santome, a widower with three children, starts to document his dull grey life in a diary. The everyday routine at the office and in a tense, conflict-filled home starts to change with the arrival of young Laura Avellana, his new employee. And this man, almost without meaning to, decides to begin a luminous new chapter in his life. The Truce has been translated to dozens of languages and has been adapted for movies, television, and radio, but above all has enjoyed exceptional acclaim by readers around the world. "

Claudio retrocede hasta volver a ser un nino de cinco anos y rescata del pasado las anecdotas, las personas y los acontecimientos historicos que marcaron su vida. La mirada de Benedetti se detiene en historias que llaman a la reflexion, y ofrece otras que todos podriamos reconocer como claves en la vida de un nino, de un adolescente o de un adulto: la desolacion ante la muerte de la madre, el descubrimiento del amor, el acercamiento al sexo, la conciencia social, la experiencia del goce y la asuncion del dolor. En suma, el paso que dejan los anos y las personas a las que amamos, y que fundamenta nuestra trayectoria existencial. English Description Claudio regresses to being a five-year-old boy and revives the anecdotes, people, and historical events that impacted his life. Benedetti s gaze falls on stories that require reflection and he offers others that we can recognize as key to the life of a child, adolescent or adult: desolation at the death of a mother, the discovery of love and sex, social consciousness, the experience of pleasure, and the bearing of pain. In short, the marks left by the years and the people we love that determine our existential existence."

"Benedetti selecciono y preparo la edicion de estos poemas a lo largo de sus ultimos meses de vida.-Cuando la poesia abre sus puertas es como si cambiaramos de mundo.- Durante los dos ultimos anos de su vida, Mario Benedetti corrigio, reescribio y ordeno estos sesenta y dos poemas. Biografia para encontrarme nos invita a descubrir o reencontrarnos con la esencia literaria del escritor uruguayo, a traves de su poesia mas intima y conmovedora. Sus versos conjuran el poder de un mar sobrecogedor, evocan la timida luz de una madrugada incierta o dibujan el mapa de la melancolia universal. La seleccion de poemas, que el maestro uruguayo dejo lista para ser entregada a sus editores, recorre los motivos poeticos mas significativos del escritor: soledad, nostalgia, muerte, amor, belleza, desarraigo...Benedetti en estado puro" English Description During the last two years of his life, Mario Benedetti revised, rewrote, and reorganized the seventy-two poems that make up this book. Biografia para encontrarme invites us to discover, or become reunited with, the literary essence of the Uruguayan author through his most intimate and moving poems. His verses conjure the awe inspiring power of the ocean, the timid light of an uncertain dawn, or paint the map of universal melancholy. The selection of poems the Uruguayan master left ready for his editors covers the writer s most significant poetic motifs: loneliness, nostalgia, death, love, beauty, uprooting Pure Benedetti."

Este libro reune los mejores poemas de amor escritos por Mario Benedetti, uno de los poetas mas innovadores, divertidos, ambiciosos y modernos de la literatura en espanol. El amor, las mujeres y la vida recoge una seleccion de poemas aclamados por varias generaciones, aquellos en los que Benedetti vuelca su concepcion de la vida: el amor como compensacion de la muerte se levanta en sus versos lleno de fe, como fuerza principal que mueve al ser humano, como una proclama de la existencia, que va de la erotica del amante hasta la esperanza del revolucionario o la gratitud del amigo. -El amor es uno de los elementos emblematicos de la vida. Breve o extendido, espontaneo o minuciosamente construido, es de cualquier manera un apogeo en las relaciones humanas.- Mario Benedetti ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A gathering of Mario Benedetti s most celebrated poems, El amor, las mujeres y la vida has become an intimate link between the author and his readers ?a link that few poets have been able to establish. Mario Benedetti s words have become a means for readers to express their feelings, to whisper their words to a loved one, quoting them in their declarations of love or using them as inspiration when dabbling on their own poetry. This is one of the Uruguayan poet s final books; many of his poems have been made into songs and even graffiti."

"A wise, lonely novel . . . [and an] honest reflection of exile." --The New Yorker In the tradition of Roberto Bolano's Savage Detectives, a celebrated classic and heart-wrenching story of a family torn apart by the forces of history, by one of Latin America's most celebrated writers The late Mario Benedetti's work was often ranked with "such esteemed Latin American writers as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortazar" (The Washington Post) and his novel The Truce has sold millions of copies around the world. His extraordinary novel Springtime in a Broken Mirror revolves around Santiago, a political prisoner in Uruguay, who was jailed after a brutal military coup that saw many of his comrades flee elsewhere. Santiago, feeling trapped, can do nothing but write letters to his family and try to stay sane. Far away, his nine-year-old daughter Beatrice wonders at the marvels of 1970s Buenos Aires, but her grandpa and mother--Santiago's beautiful, careworn wife, Graciela--struggle to adjust to a life in exile. Published now for the first time in English, Springtime in a Broken Mirror tells with tenderness and fury of the indelible imprint politics leaves on individual lives. Generous and unflinching, it asks whether the broken bonds of family and history can ever truly be mended. Written by one of the masters of the Latin American novel, this is the story of a fractured continent, chronicled through the lives of a single family.

This collection -- ""A brilliant fingerprint of the city of Montevideo"" (Eduardo Galeano) -- includes the best of renowned Uruguayan writer Mane Benedetti's stories from over 40 years of publishing. In these stories of powerful sudden impact, Benedetti plumbs with deep psychological insight both the dreams and frustrations of the middle-class in a bureaucratic society, as well as the pain and disorientation of political exile. In his On Arts And Professions, Benedetti wrote, ""the effect of the short story is the surprise, the astonishment, the revelation"".

Este libro re ne los mejores poemas de amor escritos por Mario Benedetti, uno de los poetas m s innovadores, divertidos, ambiciosos y modernos de la literatura en espa ol. Con motivo del 50 aniversario de Alfaguara, este t tulo ha sido elegido como uno de los 50 imprescindibles de la historia de la editorial. El amor, las mujeres y la vida recoge una selecci n de poemas aclamados por varias generaciones, aquellos en los que Benedetti vuelca su concepci n de la vida: el amor como compensaci n de la muerte se levanta en sus versos lleno de fe, como fuerza principal que mueve al ser humano, como una proclama de la existencia, que va de la er tica del amante hasta la esperanza del revolucionario o la gratitud del amigo. «El amor es uno de los elementos emblem ticos de la vida. Breve o extendido, espont neo o minuciosamente construido, es de cualquier manera un apogeo en las relaciones humanas. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A gathering of Mario Benedetti's most celebrated poems, El amor, las mujeres y la vida has become an intimate link between the author and his readers--a link that few poets have been able to establish. Mario Benedetti's words have become a means for readers to express their feelings, to whisper their words to a loved one, quoting them in their declarations of love or using them as inspiration when dabbling on their own poetry. This is one of the Uruguayan poet's final books; many of his poems have been made into songs and even graffiti.