SERRAT LEE A BENEDETTI

Una antolog a personal con motivo del centenario del autor uruguayo, el poeta contempor neo en espa ol m s querido por varias generaciones de lectores. «Yo soy poeta / se ores: / y usted debe saber que los poetas / vivimos a la vuelta de este mundo.

«No es f cil escoger lo m s representativo entre la extensa obra de Benedetti, pero conf o en que en esta antolog a est n representados todos los Benedettis que Mario cargaba en su mochila -el oficinista rutinario, el montevideano de clase media, el periodista comprometido, el viajero curioso, el militante de la patria dom stica, el exiliado y el desexiliado, y tambi n el intelectual parcial, el luchador pol tico y, por supuesto, el poeta minucioso y trabajador que nunca dej de ser-, con la esperanza de que esta selecci n pueda resultarle tan til al lector familiarizado con el mundo literario del poeta uruguayo como a aquel que llegue por primera vez a sus versos. Mario Benedetti ha sido uno de los escritores m s fecundos y populares de Am rica Latina. Un hombre de aspecto fr gil y sencillo, de gesto y voz mesurada, que acerc a la gente su palabra despojada de solemnidad. Escribi , a contramano de las modas imperantes y de la cr tica, historias que son las peripecias del hombre medio. Visit todos los g neros literarios: la novela, el relato, el teatro, pero fue la poes a su g nero predilecto, el que marc m s intensamente su vocaci n y el m s abundante y popular de toda su obra. Probablemente Benedetti sea el poeta m s le do en nuestro idioma y, con toda seguridad, el m s cantado. -Joan Manuel Serrat ENGLISH DESCRIPTION SERRAT READS TO BENEDETTI A personal anthology to mark the centenary of the Uruguayan author, the most-loved, contemporary poet in Spanish by many generations. 'I am a poet / gentlemen: / and you should know that poets / live around the world.' 'It is not easy to choose the most representative among Benedetti's extensive work, but I trust that this anthology represents all the Benedettis that Mario carried in his backpack - the routine office worker, the middle-class Montevideo man, the committed journalist, the curious traveler, the lover of the homeland, the exiled and the repatriated, as well as the partial intellectual, the political fighter and, of course, the meticulous and hard-working poet who never ceased to be -, in the hope that this selection may prove as useful to the reader familiar with the Uruguayan poet's literary world as to the one who's reading his verses for the first time. Mario Benedetti has been one of the most fruitful and popular writers in Latin America. A man with a fragile and simple appearance, with a measured gesture and voice, who brought his word to the people, stripped of solemnity. He wrote, against the prevailing fashions and criticism, stories that are the adventures of the average man. He visited all literary genres: the novel, the short story, the play, but poetry was his favorite genre, the one that most intensely marked his vocation and the most abundant and popular of all his work. Benedetti is probably the most widely read poet in our language and, certainly, the most sung. -Joan Manuel Serrat