Florentino and the Devil, a famous poem in Venezuela, is the story of a poetic duel, a contrapunteo, between Florentino, a llanero (a cattleman of the plains) and The Devil. Singing to a traditional joropo accompaniment on harp, four-stringed guitar and maracas, the contenders improvise rapid rhymes, trading thrust and counterthrust like swordsmen, showing off their mastery and boasting of their accomplishments, each trying to reduce the other to silence. Alberto Arvelo Torrealba, 1905-1971, was a poet in the tradition of the "Bards of the Plains". Born in Barinas, he taught Spanish language…mehr
Florentino and the Devil, a famous poem in Venezuela, is the story of a poetic duel, a contrapunteo, between Florentino, a llanero (a cattleman of the plains) and The Devil. Singing to a traditional joropo accompaniment on harp, four-stringed guitar and maracas, the contenders improvise rapid rhymes, trading thrust and counterthrust like swordsmen, showing off their mastery and boasting of their accomplishments, each trying to reduce the other to silence. Alberto Arvelo Torrealba, 1905-1971, was a poet in the tradition of the "Bards of the Plains". Born in Barinas, he taught Spanish language and literature and published his first volume of verses, Música del Cuatro, in 1928. In 1940 the first version of Florentino y el Diablo appeared in his Glosas al Cancionero. A lawyer and educator, he became President of the State of Barinas and of the Technical Council of Education, a Judge of Appeal, Ambassador to Bolivia and to Italy, Minister of Agriculture and Stockbreeding, and a member of the Academia Venezolana de la Lengua. Here at last is his Florentino y el Diablo in a remarkable English version. Gloria Carnevali, the former Venezuelan cultural attaché in London, has advised the award-winning rhyming translator Timothy Adès. Her commentary on the poem is a masterly pen-portrait of the world of the cattlemen on the great parched and flooded plains of Venezuela.
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba, lawyer, educator and poet, author of the famous poem Florentino y el Diablo. Born 4 September 1905 in the city of Barinas, he was a schoolboy there and went on to the Liceo in Caracas where he took his bachelor's degree in 1927. He studied law in the Central University of Venezuela, qualifying as an Advocate and, in 1935, as a Doctor of Political Science.A poet in the tradition of the "Bards of the Plains", he published his first volume of verses, Música del Cuatro, in 1928. A dedicated teacher, he taught Spanish and Literature in various Colleges and Liceos of the Metropolitan Zone, 1935-6: Sacred Heart of Jesus College, Sucre College, Polytechnic Institute, Liceo Caracas, Andrés Bello and Fermín Toro. He became Technical Inspector of secondary education in the Federal District, and of primary education in Barinas and Apure, in 1936, and was appointed Secretary of the Government of Portuguesa State, 1937, and President of the Technical Council for Education, 1940. In the same year he published his Glosas al Cancionero, a model of poetry with popular roots which also contained the first version of his poem Florentino y el Diablo.In 1941-44 he was President of the State of Barinas. While in office, he dredged the riverbeds of the Pagüey and the Masparro, and restored the routes of commerce in the western Plains region. A member of the Court of Appeal, 1948, Ambassador of Venezuela in Bolivia, 1951-2, and in Italy, 1952, he was then Minister of Agriculture and Stockbreeding, 1952-5. Retiring from politics, he devoted himself to his profession and his literary calling. He published a study of the poet Francisco Lazo Martí (of the State of Guárico) in 1965, followed by that poet's Collected Poetic Works in 1967. His own translations of Giuseppe Ungaretti appeared in 1969. The author died in Caracas on 28 March 1971.
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