Songs of Life and Hope/Cantos de vida y esperanza

Written over the course of seven years and in many locales in Latin America and Europe, the poems in Cantos de vida y esperanza reflect both Darío’s anguished sense of modern life and his ecstatic visions of transcendence, freedom, and the transformative power of art. They reveal Darío’s familiarity with Spanish, French, and English literature and the wide range of his concerns—existential, religious, erotic, and socio-political. Derusha and Acereda’s translation renders Darío’s themes with meticulous clarity and captures the structural and acoustic dimensions of the poet’s language in all its rhythmic sonority. Their introduction places this singular poet—arguably the greatest to emerge from Latin America in modern literature—and his best and most widely known work in historical and literary context. An extensive glossary offers additional information, explaining terms related to modernismo, Hispanic history, mythological allusions, and artists and writers prominent at the turn of the last century.

Rubén Darío was a leading modernist poet, renowned for his innovations in Spanish poetry. Born in Nicaragua, he lived in Chile, Argentina, and Spain.
Will Derusha is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Alberto Acereda is Associate Professor of Spanish at Arizona State University. They are the coeditors and translators of Selected Poems of Ruben Darío: A Bilingual Anthology.