The Daily Glance
Luis Cernuda: Desolation of the Chimera is a bi-lingual collection of Cernuda's late poetry translated and introduced by Stephen Kessler. In his introduction, Kessler does a nice job of explaining the main themes of Cernuda's life. Before this collection, I mostly knew of him as a member of the Generation of 27 (with the like of Alberti and Lorca). Kessler filled in his story by telling us that after he fled Spain, he ended up at Mount Holyoke before heading to Mexico. From his poetry, it's obvious that his time in Massachusetts was a real exile for him, while Mexico seemed to liven up his work mostly because he fell in love again. Really, I wonder how his being an openly gay poet was viewed at Mount Holyoke during the 1950s. Throughout the book, he expresses a sense of nostalgia for his youth in Spain and a distress at his exile. Ultimately, it feels like he is writing these pieces for himself.
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