Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Miguel Hernndez

Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Miguel Hernández

My favorite poem of the book:

Casida del Sediento Aroma del desierto soy: desierto de sed. Oasis es tu boca donde no he de beber Boca: oasis abierto a todas las arenas del desierto. Húmedo punto en medio de un desierto abrasador, el de tu cuerpo, el tuyo, que nunca es de los dos Cuerpo, pozo cerrado a quien la sed y el sol han calcinado.

My Full Review:

Pending review, I'll revisit because I need to complain about him.

My Other 2024 Readngs.

"Hay tanto amor en mi alma que no queda ni el rincón más estrecho para el odio. ¿Dónde quieres que ponga los rencores que tus vilezas puedan engendrar?"

~Amado Nervo, Tanto Amor

"How long have I stared at you

without looking at you, in the image

exact and unreachable

betraying you in the mirror!

'Kiss me', you say. I kiss you,

and while I kiss you I think

in how cold would they be

your lips in the mirror.

'All my soul for you',

you murmur, but in the chest

I feel a void that only

will be filled by that soul

that you won't give to me.

The soul that demures itself

with a costume of clarities

in your mirror shape."

"¡Cuánto rato the he mirado...!", Pedro Salinas

— July 9, 1912 / Franz Kafka diaries

Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Juan Ramón Jiménez

My favorite poem of the book:

Destino ruin; si tu fueses // Cursed fate; if you were un hombre y se te pudiera // a man and one could buscar, igual que al león // hunt you, like the lion más terrible, por la tierra. // most fearsome, through the Earth

My Ful Review:

The only previous work I've read from Juan Ramón Jimenez is "Platero y Yo", about a kid and his donkey. It's been a while since I read it, but I can clearly trace the same wonder and curiosity of childhoodness in the poems included in this selection.

The author's verses are sweet and short, candid and full to the brim with the same eagerness to discover new things, marveling at the beauty of nature mostly.

That same childhood wonder though is also responsible for the erratic train of thought of the author, jumping from theme to theme with apparently no rhyme or reason, resulting in a aeries of poems with a very thin connection between them.

All in all, I liked his poetry, which seemed to mature in themes alongside the author.

My other 2024 readings.