La Cuento-Mundo / The World Counting

Originally written in Spanish by Chilean, Nobel Prize winning poet, Gabriela Mistral, and now translated by Doreen Stock, these poems speak to a newborn baby of the elemental things of our world, touching on the most powerful forces in the universe: light, water, air, fire. Deceptively simple, they call forth what it means to be human, to be born human, and to live in the midst of profound mystery touching the core of existence.

I'm so grateful for these wonderful translations of Gabriela Mistral's strange, loving poems to a newly born child. They are deep with mysterious imagery and tenderness, and these versions are a great contribution to our understanding of one of the finest 20th century poets.

-MATTHEW ZAPRUDER, I Love Hearing Your Dreams and How to Continue

This is a poetry collection to read slowly and savor whenever one needs a reminder of life's beauty. Stock's love of language and her deep sense of the sacred shine through on every page as time pauses before the miracle of new life.

-ELANA ROSEN-BROWN, Rabbi, Congregation Rodef Shalom, San Rafael, CA

Doreen Stock delivers the brilliance of Gabriela Mistral in the ways only a great translator can, one intimately connected not only at the level of the word, but the syllable, the very clay from which Mistral draws her breath to form this litany of fire, of loam, this trembling halfway between the body and the soul.

-MARCELO CASTILLO HERNANDEZ, Cenzontle and Children of the Land