The poem "Mis libros" ("My Books") from Gabriela Mistral's collection Desolación (Despair, 1922) can be found in full in its original Spanish on the Universidad de Chile website and in partial translation on the Poetry Foundation website. Several figures are referred to over the course of this poem: Francis of Assisi, Mistral herself, Amado Nervo, Job and Kempis (I assume I've got these two references right), Veronica (this one I learned about just now), and two that I find more puzzling: "the great/supreme Florentine" and "Mireya". In context (emphasis mine):
Sustentaste a mis gentes con tu robusto vino
y los erguiste recios en medio de los hombres,
y a mí me yergue de ímpetu sólo el decir tu nombre;
porque de ti yo vengo, he quebrado al Destino.Después de ti, tan sólo me traspasó los huesos
con su ancho alarido, el sumo Florentino.
A su voz todavía como un junco me inclino;
por su rojez de infierno, fantástica, atravieso.[...]
¡Poema de Mistral, olor a surco abierto
que huele en las mañanas, yo te aspiré embriagada!
Vi a Mireya exprimir la fruta ensangrentada
del amor, y correr por el atroz desierto.
Translated by Google (please feel free to edit my post with a better translation if you have one!)
You sustained my people with your strong wine
and raised them strong in the midst of men,
and I am lifted up by the mere mention of your name;
because I come from you, I have broken Destiny.After you, only
the supreme Florentine pierced my bones with his loud cry.
To his voice I still bow like a reed;
through his fantastic redness of hell I cross.[...]
Poem by Mistral, smell of open furrow
that smells in the mornings, I breathed you in, intoxicated!
I saw Mireya squeeze the bloody fruit
of love, and run through the atrocious desert.
The more professional translation found on the Poetry Foundation page has:
You sustained my people with your strong wine
and you made them stand strong among men,
and just saying your name gives me strength;
because I come from you I have broken destiny.After you, only the scream of the great Florentine
went through my bones.
Who are the two people being referred to here?
