Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems

The first complete bilingual edition of Julia de Burgos’s poetry, translated by Jack Agueros and published by Northwestern University Press. Song of the Simple Truth gathers more than two hundred poems, including many that had been lost or scattered across obscure publications, and presents them in Spanish and English on facing pages.

Why Start Here

This is the only place where all of Burgos’s poetry lives under one roof. Her three original collections, Poema en veinte surcos (1938), Cancion de la verdad sencilla (1939), and the posthumous El mar y tu (1954), are presented alongside uncollected work, giving you the full arc of her short, blazing career. The bilingual format means you can read the English translations while checking them against her original Spanish, which matters because her rhythms and wordplay are integral to the experience.

Starting here lets you discover for yourself why poems like “Yo misma fui mi ruta” (“I Was My Own Path”) and “Rio Grande de Loiza” have become touchstones of Latin American literature. You can dip in and out, following your curiosity, or read chronologically and watch a young schoolteacher from Carolina transform into one of the most daring poets of her generation.

What to Expect

A thick bilingual volume that covers every phase of Burgos’s writing life. The early poems are lush and romantic, full of rivers and tropical landscapes. The middle period sharpens into political urgency and feminist self-assertion. The late poems, written in exile in New York and Cuba, carry a deeper melancholy. Throughout, her voice is unmistakable: passionate, musical, and uncompromising. The page count is substantial, but these are poems, not prose, so you can read at whatever pace feels right.