Review; Stories and Poems/Cuentos y Poesías: A Dual-Language Book by Rubén Darío

Last year, I read the poetry and short story collection Stories and Poems/Cuentos y Poesías: A Dual-Language Book by Rubén Darío. As the author is from Nicaragua, I can finally cross off that country in terms of my World Literatuer Project and today I'll post my review.

Description from Goodreads
One of the most important Latin-American writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Nicaraguan poet and essayist Rubén Darío (the pen name of Félix Rubén García Sarmiento) is considered the high priest of the modernismo school of literature, known for its dazzling verbal virtuosity and technical perfection. The present volume contains a rich selection of Darío's best poems and stories, carefully chosen from Azul (Blue), Prosas profanas (Worldly Hymns), Cantos de vida y esperanza (Songs of Life and Hope), El canto errante (The Wandering Song), and Poema del otoño (Poem of autumn). Stanley Appelbaum has provided accurate English translations (line for line in the poetry section) on the pages facing the original Spanish, as well as an informative introduction to Darío's life and work, and annotations to the individual stories and poems. The result is a superb resource for any student of Spanish language and literature or anyone interested in one of the earliest and most influential literary movements of the twentieth century.

My Thoughts on the Book
Personally I prefered the short stories over the poems, not because the poems were bad, but because of the translation. If I had been better in Spanish, I might have enjoyed the poems a bit more as a lot was lost in translation so to speak.

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