Mexican poet Jaime Sabines dead at 72
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY -- Jaime Sabines, considered to be among the top Spanish-language poets, died Friday at the age of 72. Sabines who had suffered from cancer, died at his home in Mexico City. Sabines' writings were considered sparse and stark and vivid in imagery. He wrote mostly about love and death, but focused on other subjects as well, such as a small ode to Johann Sebastian Bach. Mexico appreciated him for the enlightenment of his thought, the simplicity of his character and the firmness of his convictions, President Ernesto Zedillo said. He expressed condolences to Sabines' family, the government news agency Notimex reported. The late Nobel laureate Octavio Paz, one not given to idle praise, had called him "one of the best poets in our language." Among Sabines' best known poems were "You Have What I Look For," "I Don't Know If For Certain," "The Poet and Death" and "Of Death." Sabines, a largely reclusive man, was born in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the southern state of Chiapas to a politically influential family. He served as a congressman for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party from 1976 to 1979 and in 1988. Among the prizes he won were the Chiapas Prize in 1959, the Xavier Villaurrutia in 1972, the Elias Sourasky in 1982 and the National Letters in 1983. He is survived by his wife, Josefa Rodriguez de Sabines, son Julio, and daughters Judith Jazmin and Julieta. A funeral service was to be held today.