Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. Facing page translation from the Spanish, with a foreword by John Oliver Simon. Introduction by Gonzalo Rojas. One of the greatest contemporary Chilean poets, Gonzalo Rojas was born in Lebu, Chile in 1917, the seventh son of a coal miner. His vocation as a poet, he suggestS, began with a stroke of lightning, when one of his brothers spoke the word RE-LAM-PA-GO, which suddenly seemed more awe-inspiring than the force of nature. "Since then I have lived in the zumbido, the buzzing of words." From 1936, when Rojas joined the surrealist group Mandragora, to the present RoJas has published many major collections of poetry. Rojas has received most of the major prizes of the Spanish-speaking literary world, including the Premio Reina Sofia, and has been nominated for a Nobel Prize. This new volume brings to the English-language audience a large selection of poetry by one of the most revered contemporary writers.

Gonzalo Rojas was born in Lebu, Chile in 1917, the seventh son of a coal miner. He is the author of 27 books of poetry, awarded the Premio Reina Sofia by the King of Spain and the Chilean National Prize for Literature.