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Book Review: Azul..., Cuentos and Poemas en prosa, Rubén Darío
My Review in a Tweet:
Such a small book, and yet filled with wonders, rich in intertextuality that I doubt exists nowadays: it shines in his works a dedication to cultivate his knowledge of the contemporary literature and all that came before that I wish I could emulate.
My Full Review:
These poems and short stories decorate this books like the things that fills the house of someone who traveled.
And yet, at the moment of the first draft of the book and according to his friend Juan Valera, Ruben Darío had never left Nicaragua, his writing has elements of a hundred other poets and styles while making them their own, from places he never visited and times he never lived in.
Despite that, the collection of intrincancies and small tokens of the world make this book a very interesting but complex reading: you soon begin to feel too ignorant to really appreciate it, but I decided to view it as pulling the curtain to peek at a world that I felt was lost, one of true dedication to the culture and art as an inmportant facet of human experience.
Even more so today than ever before, when there seems to be an active anti-intellectualism stance when contemplating art, it is important to push ourselves to go beyond what we can fuly comprehend, to dive deeper into genres and authors that we deem too old or too far removed from our daily experience.
In terms of the quality of the writing, I can't really judge it, but I did enjoy it. Some passages of the poems struck me as particularly beautiful or mordant, depending on the tone. Some short stories were inscrutable, others were so simple and brilliant.
I'll add some fragments that I really liked, all from different poems or short stories. If I tried to translate them myself, I wouldn't do them justice, so I'll leave them in Spanish, as a small treasure for those followers that speak it, or a small challenge for those who wish to translate them by themselves.
Again, I won't score poetry, not even that in prose.
My Other 2024 Readings.
Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Rubén Darío
My Favorite Poem of the book:
"Románticos somos... ¿Quién que Es, no es romántico? Aquel que no sienta ni amor ni dolor, aquel que no sepa de beso y de cántico que se ahorque de un pino: será lo mejor"
My Full Review:
Pending review, I promise I'll revisit because I love Ruben Dario's works.
My Other 2024 Readings.