Ikons of the Past

This is not meant to be an all-encompassing anthology; rather, it represents personal choices I made on encountering the poets and poems in the original Spanish. These are poems by poets from colonial times into the twentieth century that I've enjoyed reading over many years: poets and poems that I treasure and now have bonded with through translation. Many of the poems have been published in books, journals and periodicals. Some of the poets are represented by more selections than others: simply a matter of the impact made on me by the selected pieces. These are poems that I wish others to enjoy through my interpretation in English of each poet's view of the human condition. ROBERT LIMA, award-winning poet, internationally-recognized critic, bibliographer, playwright and translator, is Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literatures at The Pennsylvania State University, as well as Fellow Emeritus of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies. He is an Academician of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española and a Corresponding Member of the Real Academia Española. He has been honored as a Distinguished Alumnus by Villanova University, inducted into the Enxebre Orden da Vieira in Spain and named Knight Commander in the Order of Queen Isabel of Spain by His Majesty King Juan Carlos I. A second knighthood, in the Imperial Hispanic Order of Charles V, was bestowed on him at The Alcázar in Segovia, Spain by the His Serene Highness, the Prince of Borbón.