A List
2/6/06

SLU PROF'S TRANSLATIONS IN NEW PENGUIN CLASSICS VOLUME

CANTON - A new Penguin Classics book, Rubén Darío: Selected Writings, includes translations of the Nicaraguan author's work by St. Lawrence University Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Steven F. White.

The volume, edited and with an introduction by author and National Public Radio commentator Ilan Stavans, includes translations by White, Andrew Hurley and Greg Simon.

The publishers state, "Born in Nicaragua, Darío (1867-1916) is known as the consummate leader of the Modernista movement, an aesthetic trend that swept the Americas from Mexico to Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Seeking a language and a style that would distinguish the newly emergent nations from the old imperial power of Spain, Darío's writing offered a refreshingly new vision of the world - an artistic sensibility at once cosmopolitan and connected to the rhythms of nature. The first part of this collection presents Darío's most significant poems in a bilingual format and organized thematically in the way Darío himself envisioned them. The second part is devoted to Darío's prose, including short stories, fables, profiles, travel writing, reportage, opinion pieces and letters. A sweeping biographical introduction by distinguished critic Stavans places Darío in historical and artistic context, not only in Latin America but in world literature."

The publication marks the first time that Darío's work appears in a Penguin Classics volume, and it includes suggestions for further reading, a bibliography and a glossary.

White, Stavans and Simon recently traveled to Nicaragua, to present the book at the fourth annual symposium on Darío's work.

A St. Lawrence faculty member since 1987, White has edited and translated anthologies of contemporary poetry from Nicaragua, Chile and Brazil. He is the author of Modern Nicaraguan Poetry: Dialogues with France and the United States (1993) and El mundo más que humano en la poesía de Pablo Antonio Cuadra: Un studio ecocrítico (2002). White is a corresponding member of the Nicaraguan Academy of the Language and a former Fulbright Fellow.

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For more information: Penguin Classics