Nicolás Guillén, poet
(1902-1989)

Nicolás used to say he had “been born in a printing house”. His permanent closeness to printed matter exerted a decisive influence over his poems and over his own brand of creativeness: “exas-peratingly thorough and absurdly whimsical”, according to his own words. He liked to ponder everything he said or did, that’s why he did not improvise. One day he stated: “I read what I write over and over again, and I write it al over again by dint of changes. To me it is like appearing neat, bathed and even perfumed—which I also like—before the people”.

I became acquainted with this habit of his when once I naively commented: It must be easy for you to write. He then laughed with that hearty laugh of his, took my hand and showed me “something that could be a verse”. I understood his laughter when I saw so many corrections in such a small piece of paper.

I always find something new in Nicolás; perhaps it is due to the intense life I led with him, to the experiences from which he nurtured me. Sometimes I surprised him in his own private cloud, immersed in creation. He then remained absolutely silent, absorbed, contemplating the landscape or the sky without seeing them as he toyed with a pencil. He said he felt “...inspired anywhere, I pick up a sheet of paper and I write, for one must not let ideas escape; one has to hold on to an idea and then find a place for it somewhere”.

From the on-line magazine Habanera
See rest of the article: http://www2.ceniai.inf.cu/cultura/revistas/habanera/1-97/art15e.html

From: Nicolás Guillén, Nueva antología mayor, Editorial Letras Cubanas, La Habana, 1979.
Nicolás Guillén, Tengo 2, EGREM, La Habana, S/F.