[Issue #1, Winter 1997-98]
Two Poems by César Vallejo
Translated by Mary Sarko
In the autumn of 1937, César Vallejo (1892-1938) went through a period
of intense poetic activity, writing his book of poetry about the Spanish
Civil War, "Spain, Take This Cup From Me" (1939), as well as much
of his other posthumous poetry, usually published with the title "Human
Poems" (1939). In this latter collection, which Vallejo himself did
not complete as a book, the hardships and cruel realities of the 1930s often
form a background. This was a time not only of economic crisis but also
of the advancement and solidification of Fascism in Western Europe. In his
poems and essays from this period Vallejo questions the role of intellectuals
in the political process and tries to forge a poetics that breaks with the
rigid, conservative ideologies of the epoch. As a result, much of the poetry
in the "Human Poems" collection deals with the nature of writing.
If in the ideology of Fascism the individual is reduced to an essentialized
category, Vallejo subverts this process by refusing to give a fundamental
meaning to the writing process or the poetic subject. The following two
poems, both of which subtly allude to Walt Whitman, make it clear that the
poetic "I" is not a cohesive whole nor an entity that can be known
empirically. In "Poem to be Read and Sung," the female persona
has often been interpreted as a double of the poet, an interpretation which
is supported by poems such as "Trilce IX," which ends with the
poet saying: "And the soul of the absent one is female. And my soul
is female."
-- M. S.
POEMA PARA SER LEIDO Y CANTADO / César
Vallejo
Translation: POEM TO BE READ AND SUNG / César
Vallejo
QUEDÉME A CALENTAR LA TINTA / César
Vallejo
Translation: I STAYED ON TO HEAT THE INK / César
Vallejo
____________________
Mary Sarko is a translator by trade, living in Madison, Wisconsin. She has
spent the last few years translating poetry from the Spanish Civil War.
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