"To the Poets of the Future" Author: [Spanish] Cernuda Publisher: People's Literature Publishing House

But I don't care that no one understands

Between these nearly contemporary bodies,

They don't live like me.

This body from the crazy land

Struggling to become wings to reach the wall of space

It is that wall that separates my years from your future.

I just want my arm to meet another friendly arm,

Another pair of eyes sharing what I see.

Even though you don't know how I love you today

White abyss in future time

Find the shadow of your soul and learn from her

To settle my passions in new terms.

——Cernuda, "To the Poets of the Future"

If the art of poetry has its patron saints, like Dickinson and Paul Celan, then Cernuda is among them.

--Harold Bloom

The most un-Spanish Spanish poet.

—Octavio Paz

Luis Cernuda (1902-1963) is a Spanish poet. He was born in Seville in the south and had a strong interest in poetry since childhood. He received a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Seville, but never worked as a lawyer or judge. Under the influence of the poet Salinas, he began to publish poems in magazines. In Madrid, he met poets such as Lorca and Aleixandre. Later, due to the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile in Britain, the United States, and Mexico, and was unable to return to his country until his death. Cernuda was a controversial member of the "27 Generation". He was deeply influenced by the European poetry tradition, and his works also deeply influenced several generations of Spanish poets.

About the Translator

Fan Ye teaches at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Peking University. He has translated Vicente Aleixandre's poetry collection "Shadows of Paradise", Gabriel García Márquez's novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude", Julio Cortázar's short story collections "All Fires Become One" and "The Story of Cronopio and Fama", and has written an essay collection "The Poet's Slowness".