Cántico

Jorge Guillen belongs to a brilliant cluster of Spanish poets, a generation once defined by Salinas, one of its members, as "born under a lyrical star." Towards the end of his life Guillen's most famous work "Cantico" - the fruit of some 30 years of labour - was recognized as a masterpiece and stands alongside the poetical works of Lorca, Alberti and Cernuda. Most usefully translated as a hymn or song of praise, "Cantico" is an antidote to today's world of doubts, fears, conflicts and seductive philosophies of despair. The attitude to life it holds out to its readers is summed up in the epitaph on Guillen's tomb in the English cemetery in Malaga: "Aqui yace un enamorado de la vida" ("Here lies a lover of life").