The Nobel Prize in Literature 1990
Prize motivation: "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"
Born: 31 March 1914, Mexico City, Mexico
Died: 19 April 1998, Mexico City, Mexico
Octavio Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City. On his father’s side, his grandfather was a prominent liberal intellectual and one of the first authors to write a novel with an expressly Indian theme. Thanks to his grandfather’s extensive library, Paz came into early contact with literature. Like his grandfather, his father was also…
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Works in Spanish Poetry Luna silvestre. – México : Fabula, 1933 No pasaran!. – México : Simbad, 1936 Raíz del hombre. – México : Simbad, 1937 Bajo tu clara sombra y otros poemas sobre España. – Valencia : Españolas, 1937 Entre la piedra y la flor. – México : Nueva Voz, 1938 A la orilla…
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Swedish Academy The Permanent Secretary Press release October 11, 1990 The Nobel Prize in Literature 1990 This year the Nobel Prize for Literature goes to the Mexican writer, poet and essayist Octavio Paz, honouring a writer of Spanish with a wide international perspective. Paz published his first collection of poems while still in his teens.…
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English Motion If you are the amber mare I am the road of blood If you are the first snow I am he who lights the hearth of dawn If you are the tower of night I am the spike burning in your mind If you are the morning tide I am the first bird’s…
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Spanish Movimiento Si tú eres la yegua de ámbar yo soy el camino de sangre Si tú eres la primer nevada yo soy el que enciende el brasero del alba Si tú eres la torre de la noche yo soy el clavo ardiendo en tu frente Si tú eres la marea matutina yo soy el…
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Read an excerpt from a book written by a Nobel Laureate in Literature. Or choose a poem from an array of poetry excerpts. Pick a title! Prose Excerpt from Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Nobel Laureate in Literature 2016 Excerpt from Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Laureate in Literature 2015 Excerpt…
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Spanish Conferencia Nobel 1990 La búsqueda del presente Comienzo con una palabra que todos los hombres, desde que el hombre es hombre, han proferido: gracias. Es una palabra que tiene equivalentes en todas las lenguas. Y en todas es rica la gama de significados. En las lenguas romances va de lo espiritual a lo físico,…
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English Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1990 (Translation) In Search of the Present I begin with two words that all men have uttered since the dawn of humanity: thank you. The word gratitude has equivalents in every language and in each tongue the range of meanings is abundant. In the Romance languages this breadth spans the…
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by Anders Cullhed What is time? Time is one of the main problems of Western philosophy and literature. Ever since the thinkers of classical Greece tried to understand the swiftness of our seconds, minutes and hours – the impossibility of stepping into the same river twice – the problem of time has haunted our imagination.…
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