A seminal work in Latin America's modernismo movement, this first
anthology of verse by José Martí is available in a complete English
translation for the first time. This accessible, annotated edition
includes a critical introduction, presented in both English and Spanish,
which explores the volume's historical and literary contexts and
addresses issues of the translation. Composed after domestic separation
from his wife and infant son, and after his second exile from Cuba due
to his involvement in the Guerra Chiquita, the 15 poems that comprise
the collection demonstrate a poet-hero whose revolutionary spirit would
ultimately lead to his participation--and subsequent death--in the
conflict that freed Cuba from the Spanish yoke.