Mario Benedetti Farrugia[1] (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmaɾjo βeneˈðeti] ⓘ; 14 September 1920 – 17 May 2009),[2] was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet and an integral member of the Generación del 45.

[7] Mario completed six years of primary school at the Deutsche Schule Montevideo, where he also learned German, which later allowed him to be the first translator of Franz Kafka in Uruguay.

At the age of 14 he began working, first as a stenographer and then as a seller, public officer, accountant, journalist, broadcaster and translator.

[10] He wrote for the weekly Uruguayan newspaper Marcha from 1945 until it was forcibly closed by the military government in 1973, and was its literary director from 1954.

His poetry was also used in the 1992 Argentine movie The Dark Side of the Heart (El lado oscuro del corazón), in which he read some of his poems in German.

In the last ten years of his life, Benedetti suffered from asthma and, in order to avoid the cold, spent his winters in Madrid where it was summer, though as his health deteriorated he eventually remained in Montevideo.

Mi vida ha sido como una farsa Mi arte ha consistido En que esta no se notara demasiado He sido como un levitador en la vejez El brillo marrón de los azulejos Jamás se separó de mi piel My life has been like a fraud My art has consisted In its not being noticed too much I've been like a levitator in my old age The brown sheen of the tiles Never came off my skin He died in Montevideo on 17 May 2009.