Pedro Mir

Pedro Mir Poems

Pedro Mir Biography

Pedro Julio Mir Valentín (3 June 1913, San Pedro de Macorís – 11 July 2000, Santo Domingo) was a Dominican poet and writer, named Poet Laureate of the Dominican Republic by Congress in 1984, and a member of the generation of "Independent poets of the 1940s" in Dominican poetry. His father, a Cuban mechanical engineer, migrated from Cuba to the Dominican Republic in the early years of the Twentieth Century to be hired as Chief of Engineers of the Cristóbal Colón Sugar Refinery. Soon he married a young Puerto Rican girl and had a son whom he named Pedro Julio. Pedro Julio Mir spent his youth in the sugar refinery, which was located near the city of San Pedro de Macorís. His mother died prematurely, in 1917, which impressed upon him a profound sense of loss which he would later consider the root of his poetical vocation. In the early years of the 1930s, Pedro Julio Mir started writing and publishing his poems in Dominican newspapers (under the full name “Pedro Julio Mir”), as well as showing them to his friends. One of those friends, without his consent, took some verses to Juan Bosch, a prominent Dominican writer of the time. Bosch noticed the natural poetic fiber of the young author, but dismissed the verses saying that the poet, though talented, should “turn his eyes to his country”. When Mir was informed of Bosch’s reaction, he decided then to write his first social poems and this time, he sent them to Bosch himself. Bosch made no immediate remark, however he had the verses published very soon in his column of the Listín Diario, the most important Dominican newspaper of the time. The verses appeared under the name Pedro Mir (for some reason Bosch chose to drop the "Julio" middle name) and what later became a prophecy: "Is this young man the social poet we’ve been long waiting for?" The next years Mir kept writing and studying, obtaining a Doctor Degree in Law from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) State University in 1941 and starting a practice in an office of the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo. However, the pressure of the Trujillo dictatorship became unbearable, especially for anybody with social concerns. His poems were putting him up against the regime, so after receiving threats and feeling his life in danger, he fled to Cuba in 1947. The exile would last sixteen years, until the regime fell in 1963. During the exile he traveled to many countries, but spent most of the time in Cuba. It was while living precariously in Cuba that he wrote his famous poem "Hay un país en el mundo" (There is a country in the world). Originally published in Spanish in 1949, it has been translated to dozens of languages. In 1952, Mir published in Guatemala his Contracanto a Walt Whitman (canto a nosotros mismos) (Countersong to Walt Whitman (Song of Ourselves)), considered one of his most accomplished works. (Its title references Whitman's "Song of Myself".) Translated to many languages, the poem has been the subject of many studies in the United States and other countries. Mir returned to the Dominican Republic in 1963, during the democratic government of President Juan Bosch. After Bosch’s government was overthrown the same year, Mir, seriously ill, traveled again for a while, though he finally settled with his family in the Dominican capital in 1968, winning the Chair of Aesthetics at the UASD. Mir also committed himself to historical research. His essay Las raíces dominicanas de la doctrina Monroe (The Dominican Roots of the Monroe Doctrine) (1974) won the Annual History Award given by the Secretary of Education of the Dominican Republic. In 1975, his poem El huracán Neruda (The Hurricane Neruda) also won the Annual Poetry Award given by the Secretary of Education of the Dominican Republic. His only novel Cuando amaban las tierras comuneras (When They Loved the Communal Land) was published in Mexico in 1978 and has been highly regarded in the Dominican Republic as well as internationally. In 1984, the Dominican Congress named him "Poet Laureate of the Dominican Republic". In 1991, Mir traveled to New York to receive an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, honoris causa, from the Hunter College of the City University of New York. In 1993, Mir was awarded the Dominican National Literature Award for his lifetime achievements. Pedro Mir died peacefully on 11 July 2000 surrounded by his family, after a long pulmonary illness.)

The Best Poem Of Pedro Mir

9

For
what has a great undeniable poet been
but a crystal-clear pool
where a people discover their perfect
likeness?
What has he been
but a deep garden
where all men recognize themselves
through language?
And what
but the chord of a boundless guitar
where the fingers of the people play
their simple, their own, their strong and
true, innumerable song?
For that's why you, numerous Walt Whitman, who saw and ranted
just the right word for singing your people,
who in the middle of the night said
I
and the fisherman understood himself in his slicker
and the hunter heard himself in the midst of his gunshot
and the woodcutter recognized himself in his axe
and the farmer in his freshly sown field and the gold
panner in his yellow reflection on the water
and the maiden in her future town
growing and maturing
under her skirt
and the prostitute in her fountain of gaiety
and the miner of darkness in his steps beneath his homeland . . .
When the tall preacher, bowing his head
between his two long hands, said
I
and found himself united with the foundryman and the salesman
with the obscure traveler in a soft cloud of dust
with the dreamer and the climber,
with the earthy mason resembling a stone slab,
with the farmer and the weaver,
with the sailor in white resembling a handkerchief . . .
And all the people saw themselves
when they heard the word
I
and all the people heard themselves in your song
when they heard the word
I, Walt Whitman, a kosmos,
of Manhattan the son . . . !
Because you were the people, you were I,
and I was Democracy, the people's family name,
and I was also Walt Whitman, a kosmos,
of Manhattan the son . . . !

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