A major Nicaraguan poet and critic, Ernesto Mejía Sánchez (1923–1985) was a leading member of Nicaragua’s influential group of poets known as the Generation of 1940, along with his friend Ernesto Cardenal. “Vigils” is from Mejía Sánchez’s Contemplaciones europeas (European Contemplations, 1957). Read More Cardenal recently said that Mejía Sánchez “never knew he’d been translated by the great North American poet [William Carlos Williams].” That would have thrilled him, added Cardenal. Other books of poetry by Mejía Sánchez include La carne contigua (Adjoining Flesh, 1948), El retorno (The Return, 1950), and La impureza (Impurity; written in 1950 and published in 1972). His use of highly-crafted poetic language distinguishes his work, along with his themes of solitude, purity, good and evil, the importance of love, and the joy of poetry and life itself.