" Qu hago yo encaramado en esta percha de honor, yo que siempre he considerado los discursos como el m s terror fico de los compromisos humanos?" --Gabriel Garc a M rquez Los textos que Gabriel Garc a M rquez ha reunido en este libro fueron escritos por el autor con la intenci n de ser le dos por l mismo en p blico, ante una audiencia, y recorren pr cticamente toda su vida, desde el primero, que escribe a los diecisiete a os para despedir a sus compa eros del curso superior en Zipaquir , hasta el que lee ante las Academias de la Lengua y los reyes de Espa a al cumplir ochenta a os. Estos discursos del premio Nobel nos ayudan a comprender m s profundamente su vida y nos desvelan sus obsesiones fundamentales como escritor y ciudadano: su fervorosa vocaci n por la literatura, la pasi n por el periodismo, su inquietud ante el desastre ecol gico que se avecina, su propuesta de simplificar la gram tica, los problemas de su tierra colombiana o el recuerdo emocionado de amigos escritores como Julio Cort zar o lvaro Mutis, entre otros muchos. El lector tiene entra sus manos el complemento indispensable a una obra narrativa que nos seguir hablando en un largo porvenir. **** "What am I doing here on this perch of honor, when I have always considered speeches the most terrifying of human obligations?" The speeches that Gabriel Garc a M rquez has gathered in this collection were written by the author with the intention of being read by him before an audience, and span the course of nearly his entire life; from the first, a farewell written at seventeen to his fellow students at Zipaquir , to his appearance before the Spanish-language Academies and the kings of Spain on his eightieth birthday. Combined, these speeches provide a more profound understanding of the life of this Nobel Prize winner, revealing his fundamental creative and civil obsessions: his intense aptitude for literature and writing; his passion for journalism; his concerns over looming environmental dangers; his proposal for the simplification of grammar; the problems facing his beloved Colombian homeland; and the loving memory of fellow writers like Julio Cort zar and lvaro Mutis, among many others. In Yo no vengo a decir un discurso (I did not come to give a speech), the reader holds in his/her hands the essential complement to a body of work that will continue speaking to us for a long time to come.
