Alfonso Reyes

Alfonso Reyes (1889-1959) was the leading Mexican writer of his time. He was revered by his great successor Octavio Paz, a writer who, like himself, was also an Ambassador. Enormously prolific, he was a master of the essay, that "most Latin-American of art forms" and an outstanding critic. He knew Hispanic and classical literature, and translated Homer, Sterne, Chesterton, Stevenson, Shaw, and Chekhov. In turn, Samuel Beckett translated some of his poems into English; some of his essays, too, can be read in English. Reyes saw writing as "the richest means of expressing human feeling". "Double redemption by the word: first through the concord of bloods; second through the shaping of the personality, in its relation to others as well as in its inner growth." His poetry was varied, always skilful and urbane, and was far outweighed by his huge output of prose. The present selection aims to convey his amazing, half-forgotten skill and some of the flavour and astonishing variety of his formal verse. "Yes, we have some outstanding poets, a playwright, several critics and three or four prose writers. But above all we have a man for whom literature has been something more than a calling or a destiny: a religion. A man for whom language has been all that language can be: sound and sign, inert trace and wizardry, a clockwork mechanism and a living thing. In short: Poet, critic and translator, he is the Writer; miner, craftsman, peon, gardener, lover and priest of words. His work, various and perfect, is history and poetry, reflection and creation: it is a Literature... Need I name this writer who, while remaining himself, is in himself a group of writers? Far from it: everyone knows I refer to Alfonso Reyes." -Octavio Paz, letter to Guillermo Ibarra, 15 August 1949 This large selection of poetry by Alfonso Reyes is accompanied by the brilliant English versions of an award-winning rhyming translator-poet, Timothy Ades.

Publicar y leer El plano oblicuo es homenajear al que, seg n Borges, "es el mejor prosista en lengua espa ola del siglo XX", pues no solo es el primer libro de relatos de Alfonso Reyes sino, adem s, fue editado en Espa a, durante aquel decenio de 1914 a 1924, cuando Reyes se instal en Madrid y trabaj al amparo de Men ndez Pidal en el Centro de Estudios Hist ricos. Un tiempo que dej una profunda huella en su obra, casi tanta como l en los literatos del momento. Baste recordar aqu su homenaje a Mallarm en el Real Jard n Bot nico de Madrid, al que acudieron Ortega y Gasset, Antonio Marichalar, Eugenio D'Ors, Jos Bergam n, Enrique D ez-Canedo, Mauricio Bacarisse, Jos Moreno Villa y Juan Ram n Jim nez. La gavilla de cuentos que constituyen El plano oblicuo son una magn fica, por primeriza, muestra de la ins lita y excepcional prosa de Reyes, al punto que como dice Colinas en el pr logo, "me lleva a pensar que estos relatos comparten tambi n las virtudes del ensayo o de la poes a. O de una erudici n exquisita... Ese sentido de universalidad de la obra de Reyes que s lo puede sostenerse en una rica cultura y en el don natural de una fecunda expresividad". Para rematarse con "un autor original simo y lamentablemente a n por descubrir, entre nosotros los espa oles."

La presente antolog a de cuentos de Alfonso Reyes re ne textos de diferentes pocas. Nos ha parecido interesante el darles un orden cronol gico en cuanto a su creaci n. Con ello, pretendemos seguir, en cierta forma, la evoluci n de su prosa narrativa, sus recuerdos, sus inquietudes y ese necesario equilibrio entre arte y vida. "La primera confesi n", "Silueta del indio Jes s", "La cena", "Fuga de Navidad", "Tijerina", "Entrevista presidencial", "La mu eca", "El destino amoroso", "La Ca da", son algunos de los t tulos que el lector puede encontrar.

Organizational Systems clarifies the application of cybernetic ideas, particularly those of Beer's Viable System Model, to organizational diagnosis and design. Readers learn to appreciate the relevance of seeing the systemic coherence of the world. The book argues that many of the problems we experience today are routed in our practice of fragmenting that needs to be connected as a whole. It offers a method to study and design organizations and a methodology to deal with implementation problems. It is the outcome of many years of working experience with government offices as well as with all kinds of public and private enterprises. At a more detailed level this book offers an in depth discussion of variety engineering that is not available either in the primary or secondary literature.

"Tambi n yo he pagado mi tributo al arte de cocina y bodega: ya un poema sobre la confiter a de Toledo o una r pida alusi n a las sevillanas y murillescas yemas de San Leandro; y hasta he dejado noticia de mis andanzas en busca de caracoles borgo ones. En fin, ste no es un libro de tesis ni de disertaciones. Este libro s lo se destina a gente de honrada naturaleza capaz de apreciar el arte del buen comer."

Todo es cristalino en Alfonso Reyes, sus obras eruditas, su poes a, sus cuentos y ahora sus an cdotas, recogidas al gotear de la pluma y correr de los a os, y en las que se confirma el humorismo que siempre lo caracteriz . Esta selecci n de an cdotas nos hace recordar su sonrisa, sus ojos p caros y vivaces, su agud simo sentido de la fon tica y de la electricidad. Nada m s qu a adir, nuestro "duende alfonsino" tiene la palabra.

Alfonso Reyes gozaba de un extraordinario, agudo y refinado sentido del humor, permeado, por supuesto, por su grandiosa erudici n. Si bien el humor intelectual suele ser pretencioso y clasista, en Burlas veras el lector encontrar un ejercicio de autocr tica y de un humor alejado de ese "pedantismo intelectual", lo que le har disfrutar, de una forma poco conocida, la extraordinaria pluma de "El mejor prosista de lengua espa ola en cualquier poca", como Jorge Luis Borges lo consideraba.

En el presente volumen recorreremos las ideas, los consejos, el mundo en s ntesis, sus costumbres, sus personajes, las inquietudes po ticas y los temas que interesaban a Alfonso Reyes, de tal forma que al ir recorriendo sus p ginas, se ir n delineando las constantes de la mente de este autor. Con la selecci n y pr logo de su nieta, Alicia Reyes, este libro nos permite un acercamiento profundo a una de las mentes m s brillantes de la literatura mexicana.

Organizational Systems clarifies the application of cybernetic ideas, particularly those of Beer's Viable System Model, to organizational diagnosis and design. Readers learn to appreciate the relevance of seeing the systemic coherence of the world. The book argues that many of the problems we experience today are routed in our practice of fragmenting that needs to be connected as a whole. It offers a method to study and design organizations and a methodology to deal with implementation problems. It is the outcome of many years of working experience with government offices as well as with all kinds of public and private enterprises. At a more detailed level this book offers an in depth discussion of variety engineering that is not available either in the primary or secondary literature.