Sunday, January 10, 2010

GABRIELA MISTRAL,SWEETHEART OF CHILE and LATIN AMERICA

modified 4.7.11
blography by: MOJ







gabriela mistral and her books: madwomen and my name is gabriela
modified 4.7.11
GABRIELA MISTRAL,LUCILA GODOY ALCAYAGA,POET AND DIPLOMAT
b.APRIL 7,1889,VICUNA,CHILE
d.JAN 10,1957,HEMPSTEAD,NEW YORK
GABRIELA MISTRAL IS THE FIRST CHILEAN AND LATIN AMERICAN WOMAN WHO WON NOBEL PRIZE of LITERATURE IN 1945,
"FOR HER LYRIC POETRY WHICH INSPIRED BY POWERFUL EMOTIONS,HAS MADE HER NAME A SYMBOL OF THE IDEALISTIC INSPIRATIONS OF THE ENTIRE LATIN AMERICAN WORLD."
SHE CHOSE HER PEN NAME FROM TWO OTHER POETS:GABRIELE D' ANNUNZIO,THE ITALIAN POET AND WRITER OF 19TH CENTURY, AND FREDERIC MISTRAL,A FRENCH POET OF 19TH CENTURY WHO IN 1904 SHARED NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE.
GABRIELA MISTRAL PUBLISHED HER FIRST COLLECTION OF POETRY,CALLED DESOLACION IN 1922...

la bruma espesa,eterna para que olvide donde
me ha arrojado la mar en su ola de salmuera
la tierra a la que vine no tiene primavera
tiene su noche larga que cual madre me esconde/

fog thickens,eternal so I may forget where
the sea has thrown me in its wave of brine
the earth i have come to knows no spring
it has its long night that like a mother hides me

GABRIELA MISTRAL TAUGHT IN SCHOOL,IN TEMUCO,THE SAME HUMBLE TOWN OF PABLO NERUDA THAT HE WRITES ABOUT IT IN HIS "CONFIESO QUE HE VIVIDO" OR MEMOIR...
Around this time, atall lady who wore long long dresses and flat shoes came to temuco.She was the new principal of the girls' school.She was from our southernmost city,from Magellan,s snow.Her name was Gabriela Mistral.
Pablo Neruda,the poet,continues:
I used to watch her passing through the streets of my hometown,with her sweeping dresses and I was scared of her.But when I was taken to visit her,I found her to be very gracious.In her dark face,as Indian as a lovely Araucanian pitcher,her very white teeth flashed in full,generous smile that lit up the room.
Mistral gives Neruda some books of Russian novels in their visits as "the most extraordinary thing in world literature"...Neruda says:Gabriela introduced me to the dark and terrifying vision of the Russian novelists and that Tolstoy,Dostoevsky and Chekhov soon occupied a special place deep within me...
She wrote her poems of the mother and child,poems worked in flawless prose,polished and graceful.for her prose was often her most penetrating poetry.
She ddscribe pregnancy,birth,and growth in these poems...
Years later ...at the time of her memorable triumph,of her nobel prize,she had to pass Temuco
on her way to recieve the honor...Gabriela Mistral managed to pass through at night ,she took a night train so as not to accept Temuco's copihues.
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PABLO NERUDA HERE WRITES ONE OF HIS LOVE LETTERS IN FORM OF PROSE POEM,TO HIS FRIEND AND FELLOW POET AND DIPLOMAT:
YOU COME HERE GABRIELA,BELOVED DAUGHTER OF THESE WILD MUSTARD BLOSSOMS,THESE ROCKS,THIS GIANT WIND.WE ALL WELCOME YOU JOYOUSLY.NO ONE WILL FORGET YOUR SONGS TO THE HAWTHORNS,TO THE SNOWS OF CHILE.YOU ARE CHILEAN.YOU BELONG TO THE PEOPLE.NO ONE WILL FORGET YOUR "CURSED WORD"
YOU ARE A MOVING FRIEND OF PEACE.FOR THOSE AND OTHER REASONS,WE LOVE YOU.
YOU COME GABRIELA,TO THE WILD MUSTARD PLANTS AND THE HAWTHORNS OF CHILE.IT IS ONLY RIGHT THAT I GIVE YOU THE TRUE WELCOME OF THE BLOSSOMS AND THE THORNS,IN KEEPING WITH YOUR GREATNESS AND OUR UNBREAKABLE FRIENDSHIP.SEPTEMBER'S DOORS ,MADE OF ROCK AND OF SPRINGTIME,SWING OPEN FOR YOU.NOTHING MAKES MY HEART HAPPIER THAN TO SEE YOUR WIDE SMILE ENTER THIS SACRED LAND MADE TO BLOSSOM AND SING BY THE PEOPLE OF CHILE.
IT'S MY GOOD LUCK TO SHARE WITH YOU THE ESSENCE AND THE TRUTH WHICH,BECAUSE OF OUR VOICES AND OUR WORDS,WILL BE HONORED .
MAY YOR MAGNIFICENT HEART REST,LIVE,FIGHT,SING,AND HAVE OFFSPRING ,IN THE ANDEAN AND OCEAN SOLITUDE OF OUR COUNTRY.I KISS YOUR NOBLE FORHEAD AND RENDER HOMAGE TO YOUR UNIVERSAL POETRY...

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