Cosmic Canticle

by Ernesto Cardenal
translated by John Lyons

Northwestern University Press, 2002
Cloth: 978-1-880684-07-8 | Paper: 978-1-880684-93-1
Library of Congress Classification PQ7519.C34C2913 2002
Dewey Decimal Classification 861.64

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

ABOUT THIS BOOK

In this epic poem, Cardenal explores Latin American history by relating the evolution of the universe to the development of human understanding. Throughout, Cardenal blends the visible and the invisible, science and poetry, religion and nature, in 43 autonomous yet integrated cantos.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

ERNESTO CARDENAL MARTÍNEZ (1925–2020) is a Nicaraguan Catholic priest and was one of the most famous liberation theologians of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a party he has since left. From 1979 to 1987 he served as Nicaragua's first culture minister. Cardenal was the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived for more than ten years. He is also famous as a poet, having authored more than 60 volumes of poetry, essays, and criticism.

John Lyons is an Anglo-Irish poet, musician, educator, and artist currently living in London. He is well-known for his translations of Latin American poetry, including Cosmic Canticle by Ernesto Cardenal, and works by Neruda, Borges, and Augusto Monterroso.

REVIEWS

"Ernesto Cardenal is one of the most important poets writing today. He is one of the giants, in the tradition of Neruda and Guillen." —Amiri Baraka

"A towering piece of work, a quite extraordinary achievement." —Harold Pinter

"[Ernesto Cardenal's] Cosmic Canticle arrives like songs from the darkness, questioning who we are and where we came from and keeping the tradition of the long poem alive. From its first cantiga, 'Big Bang,' in which Cardenal speculates upon our origins, to the here-and-now of later cantigas, he sees signs of hope: 'This universe repeating itself after each Big Bang / to be better each time / until it becomes the perfect cosmos.' In the last cantiga, 'Omega,' he calls out names and celebrates the relations of all humankind: 'Love is the synthesis of the universe.' This is, then, a book of faith—faith in humanity and in a creator. As the work of an ordained priest, this comes as no surprise, although Cardenal's continuing impulse to write such stunning poetry is ever a wonderful surprise." —Raul Niño, ALA Booklist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANTIGA 1
Big Bang

CANTIGA 2
The Word

CANTIGA 3
Autumn Fugue

CANTIGA 4
Expansion

CANTIGA 5
Stars and Fireflies

CANTIGA 6
Beyond And Closer to Home

CANTIGA 7
The Infinitesmal Calculation Of The Apples

CANTIGA 8
Condensations And Vision of San José De Costa Rica

CANTIGA 9
Song Of Spacetime

CANTIGA 10
Canticle of the Sun

CANTIGA 11
Gaia

CANTIGA 12
Birth of Venus

CANTIGA 13
The Tree Of Life

CANTIGA 14
The Hand

CANTIGA 15
Nostalgia For Paradise

CANTIGA 16
The Darkest Before Dawn

CANTIGA 17
Journeys In The Night

CANTIGA 18
Flights of Victory

CANTIGA 19
Towards The New Man

CANTIGA 20
The Music Of The Spheres

CANTIGA 21
Robber Barons

CANTIGA 22
In An Unexceptional Galaxy

CANTIGA 23
Room 5600

CANTIGA 24
Latin American Documentary

CANTIGA 25
Visit To Weimar

CANTIGA 26
On Earth As In The Heavens

CANTIGA 27
Dance Of The Millions

CANTIGA 28
Epithalamium

CANTIGA 29
Quantum Canticle

CANTIGA 30
Dance Of The Stars

CANTIGA 31
The Empty Grave

CANTIGA 32
In The Heavens There Are Dens Of Thieves

CANTIGA 33
The Deep Outer Darkness

CANTIGA 34
Ancient Sobbing Light

CANTIGA 35
Like the Waves

CANTIGA 36
The Grave Of The Guerrilla

CANTIGA 37
Cosmos As Communion

CANTIGA 38
Assaults On Heaven From The Earth

CANTIGA 39
"The Desired Of Nations" (Of Peoples)

CANTIGA 40
Flight and Love

CANTIGA 41
The Canticle Of Canticles

CANTIGA 42
A Certain Something That They Still

CANTICA 43
Omega

Bibliography

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