Poetry
Sóngoro cosongo
Not translated into English
Nicolás Guillén · 1931
Synopsis
Nicolás Guillén's second collection, a year after Motivos de son, from which it takes an onomatopoeia imitating the drum to make it its title. The prologue presents mulatto verses and asserts that the spirit of Cuba is mixed. The poems range from the bongo to the rumba, from a little Black boxer to the sugar cane, from a funeral wake to the cry of a street vendor, and speak more frankly than the first book about oppression on the island.
Context
The title takes up a line from the poem Si tú supiera, published the year before. With the Puerto Rican Luis Palés Matos, Guillén is regarded as one of the inventors of so-called negroid poetry, but he himself calls his verse mulatto. The book brings together, among others, Llegada, La canción del bongó, Rumba, Canto negro, Velorio de Papá Montero, Caña and Pregón. The BnF knows of no French translation of the collection, only Spanish editions, including a Madrid anthology of 1991.
Who it is for
Short, highly rhythmic poems, meant to be read aloud; the onomatopoeia and the spoken language are lost in translation.
Prizes and reception
No prize for this book; its author is regarded as the national poet of Cuba.
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