El Nica and Don Antonio : Translations from the Spanish of Ruben Dario and Antonio Machado

The book gathers the work of two eminent writers with a view to making a window on Spain and Latin America as they were at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. These were two very different writers; but they knew and admired each other's writing. The Nicaraguan was a little older (born in 1967, while A.M. was born in 1875), and since he got an early start as a writer, his work was available to Machado. They belong together partly because they are so very different--together they give an idea of what was happening in the literary and intellectual worlds of Spain and Latin America. Included here are "e;Colloquy of the Centaurs"e; and "e;Epistle"e;, two long poems by Daro; and "e;The Land of Alvargonzalez"e;, by Machado, perhaps his best known work, and his longest in the poetic form. The translations are from Spanish into English free verse, which is rather nicely adapted to this purpose, being noticeably not prose, yet not heavily burdened with prosodic enterprises. The attempt is to offer some good things by these authors, thus encouraging readers to take up the originals, which are very nice, very nice.