Selected Writings

Contents Introduction by Ilan Stavans xvii Suggestions for Further Reading lv A Note on the Text lxi POEMS translated by Greg Simon and Steven F. White 1 Translators' Note 3 Prelude 9 I. And Those that Come from the Eighteenth Century 11 Seashell 13 Seascape 15 The Swans 17 Leda 21 To Goya 23 The Poet and the King 27 Questions 29 Colloquy of the Centaurs (fragment) 31 Numen 33 Pegasus 35 II. Some Both Ancient and Modern 37 Eheu! 39 Reincarnations 41 Metempsychosis 43 Race 45 Revelation 47 The Song of the Pines 51 Song of Blood 55 Livid Flowers 59 About Autumn 61 On a First Page 63 The Blank Page 65 About Winter 69 Vesperal 71 Vesper 73 Symphony in Gray Major 75 In the Land of Allegories 79 St. Helen of Montenegro (fragment) 81 Autumn Song in Spring 83 Triumphal March 89 A Letter (fragment) 95 Return (fragment) 97 Earthquake 99 Far Away 101 III. Some Audacious, Cosmopolitan 103 Tutecótzimi (2 fragments) 105 Black Dominga (fragment) 107 To Columbus 109 Song to Argentina (fragment) 113 To Moisés Ascarrúnz 117 To Roosevelt 119 Saluting the Eagle 123 The Great Cosmopolis 129 Walt Whitman 135 Wire Service 137 IV. And a Thirst for Illusive Hope That's Endless 139 I'm Hunting a Form 141 The Ear of Wheat 143 Antonio Machado 145 To Juan Ramón Jiménez 147 Song of Hope 149 Love Your Rhythm 151 Nocturne ("I want to erase my anguish in verse") 153 Good-bye 155 Flower of Light 157 Oh, My Soul! 159 Autumn Poem (fragment) 161 Nocturne ("Silence of the night, painful silence") 163 Poets! Towers of God! 165 To a Poet (fragment) 167 To Phocas, Tiller of Fields 169 "Divine Psyche, sweet invisible butterfly!" 171 Philosophy 175 Auguries 177 Island Birds 183 Nocturne ("For those who've heard the night's heart by auscultation") 185 Victory of Samothrace 187 Sad, Sadly Calling 189 Self-Portrait for His Sister Lola 191 Extravagances (fragment) 193 The Guests (fragment) 195 Venice 197 Melancholy 199 One Day, Undone, He Sighed 201 Keep Walking, Try to Forget 203 Thanatos 205 Spes 207 The Sweet Morning Angelus 209 Destined to Die 211 STORIES AND FABLES translated by Andrew Hurley 213 Translator's Note 215 On Poetry and the Poet 219 The Bourgeois King: A Cheering Tale 221 The Deaf Satyr: A Greek Story 226 My Aunt Rosa 231 Tale of the Sea 238 The Bale 243 Fantasy, Horror, and the Grotesque 249 The Larva 251 Thanatophobia 255 Huitzilopoxtli: A Mexican Legend 261 The Case of Mademoiselle Amélie: A Story for New Year's 267 Myth and Legend 275 Palimpsest I 277 Palimpsest II 279 The Ruby 282 The Birth of Cabbage 289 Queen Mab's Veil 290 Fables 295 The Palace of the Sun 297 The Death of the Empress of China 302 Juan Bueno's Losses 310 Febea 313 Fugitive 315 Gyrfalcons of Israel 317 The Strange Death of Fray Pedro 319 The Nymph: A Parisian Story 324 The Black Solomon 329 Thus Spake Ahasuerus 332 The Story of Martin Guerre 339 Prose Poems 343 In the Enchanted Land 345 The Honeymoon Song 347 Bloody 349 Siren-catchers 351 Ocean Idyll 352 The Song of Winter 353 The Ideal 356 Böklin: "The Isle of the Dead" 357 Sirens and Tritons 359 The Clepsydra: The Extraction of the Idea 360 War 362 ESSAYS, OPINIONS, TRAVEL WRITING, AND MISCELLANEOUS PROSE translated by Andrew Hurley 365 On Literature 367 Modernismo 369 The Story of My Books 375 Azure 396 Frontispiece for "The Misfits" 398 The Misfits (Los Raros; excerpts) 400 Edgar Allan Poe 400 Paul Verlaine 410 Villiers de l'Isle-Adam 415 Rachilde 424 Le Comte de Lautréamont 429 Ibsen 434 José Martí 446 On Poetry and the Poet 453 Excerpt from "From a Book of Intimate Pages" 455 Excerpt from "The Literary Life" 456 The 1001 Nights 458 Marinetti and Futurism 465 On Art 471 Richard Le Gallienne: The Influence of the Sense of Beauty 473 Ranvier: "The Infancy of Bacchus" 477 On Himself 481 The Colors of My Standard 483 Pro Domo Mea 489 The Journalist and His Literary Merits 492 On "Modern Life" and Politics 493 Musings on Crime 495 To the Right Reverend Abbot Schnebelin 500 Gold's Choler 502 Iron 505 The Triumph of Caliban 507 The Hippogriff 513 To the Venerable Joan of Orleans 518 Travel Pieces and Vignettes 521 Vieux Paris 523 [On Woman] 527 The Woman of the Americas 527 The Woman of Spain 528 The Woman of Nicaragua (From "Journey to Nicaragua") 532 The Poster in Spain (Excerpts) 537 A Diplomatic Mission 542 ¡Toros! (Excerpts) 544 "Black Spain" 552 Seville 555 Córdoba 561 [Travels in Italy] 566 Turin 566 Rome 567 Naples 575 Hamburg, or the Land of Swans 577 The Secession 579 Budapest 582 APPENDIX: SELECTED LETTERS translated by Steven F. White 585 Glossary 601 Index of Titles and First Lines 657