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Versos sencillos (Simple Verses)
The man whose poems became 'Guantanamera' wrote them homesick, anxious and in exile. Sometimes the way through is saying it simply. 🌹
Who it's for
Martí wrote these poems in exile, during what his prologue describes as an anxious winter after which a doctor sent him to the mountains, so the sequence itself models turning to simple, sincere expression as a way through strain and homesickness.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Published in October 1891, this collection of 46 short poems by Cuban writer José Martí was largely written in 1890 while he was convalescing in Haines Falls in the Catskill Mountains during his exile. The poems are written in four-line stanzas of eight-syllable verse in clean, sparse language with regular rhyme. Verses from the collection were later adapted into the folk song 'Guantanamera'.
Where to find it
The Spanish original (1891) is public domain and free online. English and bilingual translations (e.g. Anne Fountain's) are in print and in libraries; many recordings of 'Guantanamera' use its verses.
Before you start
Heads up: A young woman's death after heartbreak.
Age: Ages 12+
One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings;W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Chapter 1
