Muna Lee (1895–1965) was an American poet, translator, and activist whose work significantly advanced Pan-American cultural exchange. Known for her lyrical poetry and commitment to women’s rights, Lee became a prominent translator of Latin American literature, notably introducing Ecuadorian poet Jorge Carrera Andrade to English-speaking audiences with her acclaimed translation of Secret Country (1946). Her marriage to Puerto Rican poet and later governor Luis Muñoz Marín drew her into Puerto Rican cultural life, where she also served as director of International Relations at the University of Puerto Rico. Later, as a specialist in inter-American cultural affairs for the U.S. State Department, she championed artistic exchange across the Americas. Lee’s legacy endures in her translations and her efforts to foster a unified cultural identity throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Birth and Early Life
Muna Lee was born on January 29, 1895, in Raymond, Mississippi, the eldest of nine children. Her parents, Benjamin Floyd Lee, a self-taught druggist, and Mary Maud McWilliams Lee, encouraged her early interest in literature and art. The family eventually relocated to Hugo, Oklahoma, where Lee attended Blue Mountain College and later graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1913. She published her first poem soon after graduation, marking the beginning of a significant career in poetry and translation.
Early Literary Career and Translation Work
Lee became a widely published poet in national literary magazines, gaining early recognition in Poetry, Smart Set, and Contemporary Verse. Her work received the Lyric Prize from Poetry magazine in 1915, helping to establish her as a rising voice in American poetry. Around this time, she taught herself Spanish, leading to her work with the United States Secret Service as a translator during World War I.
It was her engagement with Latin American literature, however, that became a hallmark of her career. In 1925, Lee curated and translated a groundbreaking anthology of Latin American poetry for Poetry magazine, the first major publication of its kind in the United States. Among the featured poets was Ecuadorian Jorge Carrera Andrade, whose work she would later translate in Secret Country (1946). This critically acclaimed collection introduced Carrera Andrade to an English-speaking audience, earning Lee lasting recognition for her translation skill and vision. Lee also translated works by other prominent Ecuadorian poets in Poetry magazine, including Luis Aníbal Sánchez and Gonzalo Escudero Moscoso.
Marriage to Luis Muñoz Marín and Move to Puerto Rico
In 1919, Lee married Puerto Rican poet and future political leader Luis Muñoz Marín. The couple moved to Puerto Rico in 1920, where Lee became immersed in the island’s political and cultural life. They had two children together, but the marriage faced difficulties, and the two separated in 1938 before divorcing in 1946, just as Muñoz Marín was preparing for his successful political career as Puerto Rico’s first elected governor.
Activism and Advocacy for Women’s Rights and Pan-Americanism
Lee’s passion for Pan-Americanism and feminist causes was central to her life. In the late 1920s, she became a founding member of the Inter-American Commission of Women, advocating for women’s rights and suffrage at the Sixth Pan American Congress in Havana in 1928. After relocating to Washington, D.C., she became the director of national activities for the National Woman’s Party, actively working to secure employment rights and combat discrimination against women.
In 1927, she took on the role of director of International Relations at the University of Puerto Rico, facilitating academic and cultural exchanges between the United States and Latin America. Through her work, she championed Pan-American ideals, seeking to foster a more unified cultural identity across the Americas.
State Department Career and Lasting Contributions
In 1941, Lee joined the U.S. State Department as an inter-American cultural affairs specialist. For the next 23 years, she promoted cultural exchanges in literature, art, and film, advocating for the unity of the Americas through shared cultural experiences. Her contributions were recognized with the State Department’s Meritorious Service Award in 1952 and the Superior Service Award in 1963.
During this period, she also continued her literary work. Her 1950 poetry collection The Interval was celebrated, and her translations of Latin American poets, especially her work with Ecuadorian authors, remained a vital contribution to Pan-American literature. Lee’s translation of Secret Country stands as a significant achievement in bringing Latin American, and particularly Ecuadorian, literature to an English-speaking audience.
Translations of Poems by Ecuadorian Authors
SECOND LIFE OF MY MOTHER
I hear your familiar footsteps all about me,
your pace like a cloud's or a slow river's,
your presence making itself felt: your humble majesty
visiting me, subject of your eternal dominion.
Over a pale unforgettable time,
over green families prostrate on the ground,
over empty dresses and trunkfuls of weeping,
over a land of rain, you rule silently.
You walk in insects and in toadstools, your laws
are executed by my hand every day,
and your voice slips furtively through my mouth
softening the metal and ash of my voice.
Compass of my long earthly voyage.
Origin of my blood, source of my destiny.
When the featureless dust hid you in its lair
I woke astonished to find myself still alive.
And I tried to tear down the invisible doors,
and vainly, a prisoner, I prowled about them.
I hanged myself haplessly with a rope of sobs,
and calling on you, traversed the marshes of dream.
But you are here, living, all about me.
I am aware of you breathing gently
through those sweet things that gaze upon me
in heavenly order, ranged by your hand.
You inhabit the breadth of the morning sunlight
and with your accustomed care enfold me
in its weightless mantle of lofty light
still chilly with cocks and shadows.
You measure the liquid chirrup of insects and birds
making me a gift of the sweetness of earth,
and your tender signals keep guiding me,
my solitude filled with your hidden speech.
You are in all that I do, you inhabit my silence.
Yours is the mandate that stands at my shoulder
when night drinks up the colours
and your infinite presence fills hollow space,
I hear within me your prophetic words,
and throughout the vigil you companion me,
warning of things to come, incomprehensible keys,
births of stars, ages of the plants.
Dweller in the skies, live, live without years.
My original blood, my earliest light.
May your immortal life, breathing through all things
in vast simple chorus, surround and sustain me!
— Jorge Carrera Andrade
Translated by Muna Lee
BROTHER DOG
In the enormous tragic silence of the night, Francis, the monk of Assisi, with sunken eyes of immense tenderness, caressed the white body, the snow-white body, of a poor dog that died in the war.
To that body which had no soul, but which felt much, loved much, suffered much, Francis has given a tear and infinite pity.
Francis has wept, while afar nations made war.
It is the apocalyptic hour. Humanity is condensed into one long shriek. Hate asserts its supremacy. The great red cataclysm sows earth with tears and blood; tears of the child and of the beloved, and ancient crystallized tears of the venerable mothers who weep in dark alcoves where the cat whines sybaritically without knowing why.
Before the white body of the poor dog slain by chance bullets, the divine Francis wept.
— Luis Aníbal Sánchez
Translated by Muna Lee
Originally published in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, Volume XXVI, Number III, June 1925, edited by Harriet Monroe, in the Spanish-American Number.
OVERTONES
Holy ointment of the burning wound. Holy ointment
Of celestial cleansing. Olive branches
And a star. The wet heart of acanthus
Twisted about the fugitive sylph’s forehead.
Evoking the theme in a hautboy’s minors,
The small bell tinkles in the mouth of the tigress.
The heart of the sylph is a flute unfolding,
And our hearts are tall flames a-caper.
Puppet-master sylph, play upon your bagpipe!
Loudly laugh your white peal of human laughter.
Under the stony pupil of Medusa,
Let us quaff the amber blood of the apple!
— Gonzalo Escudero Moscoso
Translated by Muna Lee
Originally published in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, Volume XXVI, Number III, June 1925, edited by Harriet Monroe, in the Spanish-American Number.
References
- Wikipedia. Muna Lee (writer). Retrieved on November 11, 2024. Click to view.
- HathiTrust Digital Library. Miss Lee Ends Distinguished Years at State. Retrieved on November 11, 2024. Click to view.
- Poetry Foundation. Muna Lee. Retrieved on November 11, 2024. Click to view.
- Encyclopedia.com. Lee, Muna (1895–1965). Retrieved on November 11, 2024. Click to view.
- Google Books. A Pan-American Life: Selected Poetry and Prose of Muna Lee. Retrieved on November 11, 2024. Click to view.
- Poets.org. Muna Lee. Retrieved on November 11, 2024. Click to view.
- JonathanCohenWeb.com. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, Volume XXVI, Number III, Spanish-American Number. Retrieved on November 11, 2024. Click to view.