Idea Vilariño (Montevideo, 1920-2009) fue una poeta, ensayista y crítica literaria uruguaya perteneciente al grupo de escritores denominado Generación del 45. Dentro de sus facetas menos conocidas se encuentran la de traductora, compositora y docente. Vilariño was one of the outstanding figures of Uruguayan poetry, with her lyric creations collected in works such as “La Suplicante” (The Supplicant), “Poemas de Amor” (Love Poems) and “Nocturnos” (Nocturnes). Also known as an essayist and literary critic, she was a member of the writers’ group called the Generation of 45, to which Mario Benedetti, 88, also belonged and who is currently in a Montevideo hospital in critical condition. Idea Vilariño worked as a high-school literature teacher from 1952 until the 1973 military coup in Uruguay. Her translations and Shakespearean studies have been hailed throughout Latin America’s academic world. After the dictatorship in 1985, she became head of Uruguayan literature in the Humanities and Education Sciences Faculty of the University of the Republic. In her work as a lyricist, two legendary works stand out: “A una Paloma” (To a Dove), set to music by Daniel Viglietti, and “La Cancion y el Poema” (The Song and the Poem), with a melody by Alfredo Zitarrosa.