But, as the 38-year-old writer from Union City, N.J., puts it, he ``knew even then that to commune with superior beings one must ascend to their heights.''

So he clambered up a ladder in the garage of his childhood home in Havana to read a book containing Marti's Versos sencillos, published in 1891. He scanned the neat quatrains of eight-syllable lines, anticipating their rhythm. He noted in the language what he calls ``the polish of antiquity.'' Perched atop the ladder, he began to recite the verses that contain some of Marti's most cherished phrases.

``Yo soy un hombre sincero/ De donde crece la palma/ Y antes de morirme quiero/ Echar mis versos del alma . . .''

Just eight years later, as an adolescent growing up in Brooklyn, Tellechea began to translate the verses into English:

``A sincere man am I/ From the land where palm trees grow/ And I want before I die/ My soul's verses to bestow . . .''

It would become his life's work, to interpret Marti's verses, to convey not only their words, but also the breadth of their passion. He set out to echo their rhythm -- and, yes, their rhymes.

Massive task

It was a good thing Tellechea took on this massive task when he was just a child, before he would learn about the limits of academic thinking, or even suspect that one day rhyme would be considered unpoetic.

He plucked at the verses as if they were a grand harp from which he could produce a thousand melodies. It took him two years to go from the first poem to the 46th. And then, because it is harder to produce just one perfect melody than thousands of just-so ones, he reworked his translations for another 18 years.

After all, these were not-so-simple verses.

``The only thing that made the Simple Verses  simple was the rhyme. And if they were to remain true to themselves in a translation, they had to remain in rhyme,'' says Tellechea, who was in Miami this week to take part in a Miami-Dade Public Library Hispanic Heritage event, where I was invited to read.

To fully capture Marti, Tellechea studied the poet's life, his vast collection of writings, and his political role in bringing together the forces of Cuban independence against Spain at the end of the 19th Century.

Nuggets of wisdom

In the process, Tellechea climbed many figurative ladders to commune with Marti. He even jokes about wonderful ``visits'' with the poet, during which Marti dispensed nuggets of wisdom -- but only about poetry.

Through the years, the verses mirrored their interpreter, he says. ``They actually grew up with me.''

The fruit of his 20-year effort is a nicely textured set of verses, a work that is more an interpretation of Marti's essence than a strictly literal translation. And, most remarkably, the stanzas rhyme. Because of this, Tellechea's translation was rejected by a series of academic presses. It was finally published last year by the University of Houston's Arte Publico Press.

``The Versos sencillos  are our national epic. Our Beowulf. Our Iliad and our Odyssey,'' says Tellechea. ``I began with a consciousness that my work would be completed and published one day. There was never a doubt.''

Not only are his translations captured in his book, all 46 poems will be inscribed on stones around a public sculpture honoring Marti at Miami's Eighth Street Metromover station.

It is said Marti, in his late years, often carried his verses and gave them to friends as gifts. Thanks to his most faithful student, the gifts still multiply in our midst.