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Mario Benedetti

マリオ・ベネデッティ

Mario Benedetti

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1920-09-14 （Paso de los Toros, Tacuarembó Department, Uruguay）
Died
2009-05-17 （Montevideo, Uruguay） age 88
Nationality
Uruguayan
Languages
Spanish, German
Residence History
Paso de los Toros (birthplace) → Tacuarembó (early childhood) → Montevideo (long-term residence) → Buenos Aires (stay/work) → Lima (detained and deported) → Havana (stay) → Palma de Mallorca (exile period) → Madrid (alternating residence)

Career

Occupations
novelist, poet, journalist, translator, essayist
Active Years
1934-2009
Memberships
Generación del 45 (literary movement)
Influenced By
Carlos Quijano (journalist/editor), Franz Kafka (influence via translations and reading)
Influenced
Generations of Latin American writers and poets, Contemporary Uruguayan writers

Education

Deutsche Schule Montevideo
Period: 初等教育（1930年代）
Country: Uruguay
Attended primary education where he learned German; later withdrawn by his father and pursued intermittent self-education.

Awards

Orden Félix Varela
1982
Organization: Consejo de Estado de Cuba
Result: 受賞
Medalla Haydée Santamaría
1982
Organization: Consejo de Estado de Cuba
Result: 受賞
International Botev Prize
1986
Organization: International Botev Prize body
Result: 受賞
Premio Llama de Oro
1987
Work: Primavera con una esquina rota
Result: 受賞
Medalla Gabriela Mistral
1995
Result: 受賞
Premio Especial Bartolomé Hidalgo
1996
Work: essays
Result: 受賞
Gran Premio Nacional a la Actividad Intelectual
1999
Organization: Ministry of Education and Culture (Uruguay)
Result: 受賞
Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana (VIII Prize)
1999
Result: 受賞
Medalla Pablo Neruda
2005
Result: 受賞
Menéndez Pelayo International Prize
2005
Organization: Menéndez Pelayo Foundation
Result: 受賞
Premio Alba (Letras category)
2005
Category: Letras
Organization: Premio Alba
Result: 受賞
Orden Francisco de Miranda Primera Clase
2005
Result: 授与

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Truce (La tregua)

1960 Novel (diary-style novel; love/life fiction) 160 pages

A diary-style novel following Martín Santomé, a middle-aged office worker. It explores loneliness, a brief rekindling of life and love, and a transient period of happiness—the 'truce'.

lonelinessrebirtheveryday lifelove and disappointment
Adaptations
  • [film] The Truce / Sergio Renán (1974)
Translations
  • English translation: The Truce (Benjamin Graham; also later translations)

Thanks for the Fire (Gracias por el fuego)

1965 Novel (social/family critique) 240 pages

A novel portraying family, power and moral decline. It uses political and social themes to frame a personal story.

power and corruptionfamily relationspersonal ethics
Adaptations
  • [film] Gracias por el fuego (film adaptation) / Sergio Renán (1984)
Translations
  • Has English translation(s)

Office Poems (Poemas de oficina)

1956 poetry 96 pages

A collection of poems focused on office life and everyday labor, notable for its delicate rendering of ordinary moments.

everyday lifelaborfragments of love

Springtime in a Broken Mirror (Primavera con una esquina rota)

1982 novel 320 pages

A long novel intertwining history, memory and personal stories, blending political backdrop with intimate recollections.

memorypolitics and the personalcontinuity of time
Translations
  • English translation: Springtime in a Broken Mirror (translated by Nick Caistor)

Bibliography

  • La víspera indeleble (1945)
  • Poemas de oficina (1956)
  • Quién de nosotros (1953)
  • La tregua (1960)
  • Gracias por el fuego (1965)
  • Primavera con una esquina rota (1982)
  • Obras completas (1996, 28 volumes)

Adaptations

  • La tregua adapted into film in 1974 (directed by Sergio Renán)
  • Poems used and read in the 1992 Argentine film El lado oscuro del corazón (The Dark Side of the Heart)

Translations by Author

  • Translated Franz Kafka into Spanish for Uruguayan editions (translations from German)

Translations of Works

  • La tregua has been translated into more than 20 languages
  • Primavera con una esquina rota has English translation

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise, emotionally resonant narrationrealistic attention to everyday detailprose and poetry often infused with social and political concerns
Recurring Motifs
loneliness and renewaldelicate observations of everyday lifeexile and displacementlove and memory

Health

  • asthma
    晩年（特に最後の10年）
    He spent winters in Madrid to avoid cold; as his health declined he eventually remained in Montevideo.
  • respiratory and intestinal problems (late life)
    死の前年頃から
    Reported to have suffered for more than a year; these problems contributed to his death.

Legacy

Mario Benedetti is regarded as one of the most important Latin American writers of the latter 20th century. His poetry, novels and essays—combining social/political themes with intimate depictions of everyday emotion—earned international recognition. His works have been translated widely and adapted for film and theater.

Museums

  • Mario Benedetti Foundation Montevideo, Uruguay

Academic Societies

  • Latin American literary studies groups
  • Generación del 45 (literary movement)

Archives

  • Papers and archives held at the Mario Benedetti Foundation

In Popular Culture

  • La tregua's 1974 film adaptation and the use of his poems in the 1992 film El lado oscuro del corazón brought his work into popular culture.

Quotes

  • "My life has been like a fraud. My art has consisted in its not being noticed too much."
    Source: Fragment of his last poem dictated to his secretary (2009) (2009)

Trivia

  • Published more than 80 books; works translated into over 20 languages.
  • Considered one of the first translators of Franz Kafka into Spanish in Uruguay.
  • Married to Luz López Alegre for over six decades.
  • Lived in exile from 1973 to 1985 during Uruguay's civic-military dictatorship.