Where should I start with Vallejo (1 Viewer)

[Jerzy]

never read him
looking either for english only or bilingual texts
any recomendations as far as the better translations?

also, I ask feeling a bit embarrassed, which Buk novel do you all recomend?

I've only read his poetry, maybe about 8 books or so, never his novels

Peace


Hoping everyone had a good holidays

 

[Digney in Burnaby]

The only book I have of Cesar Vallejo is "Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems" edited by Robert Bly. Various translators. Randomly reading some of them I find myself wanting to edit words out that make the read a bit clumsy for me. Of course I can't read the originals in Spanish so this is a conceit of mine that I should rid myself of. Really, you're probably going to have to rely on your local library (hopefully you're in a major metropolitan area). Even then the choices might be slim or none.

As far as a Buk novel to start with, why not Post Office? It was his first, written in the heat of leaving the blessed corporation.

 

[the only good poet]

the complete postumous poetry (University of california press), translated by clayton eshleman and jose rubia barcia, beats anything in english for me.

 

[Jerzy]

Thanks for the replies.

Did Buk mention in one of his poems that Vallejo offed himself through hunger?

I'm not one to necessarily be fascinated by death through suicide, but I do believe that one's death can tell us (or ourselves) a lot about the life in question.

To starve oneslf!? Makes me wonder (not withstanding insanity) that that type of person could be capable of anything. Anything.

(Now I'm thinking of Proust....Did he go out the same way?)

Hope everyone enjoys their dinner tonite....Really, I do.

 

[the only good poet]

i believe vallejo didn't intentionally starve himself, but he did live through some politically turbulent times, and was forced to go to ground for the things he had written. obviously it's hard to sustain yourself in such a situation: unable to work, reliant on others...i guess that's what b meant when he says that vallejo starved for his art.

 

[the only good poet]

speaking of vallejo, i see where BS published some of eshleman's translations (Sparrow#65). i wonder if this was how CB was introduced to the late peruvian's poetry.

 

[Jerzy]

Thanks for clearing up my cloudy memory (AKA My Bull Shit)

Went back to the source and realized somehow I melded Buk's "Vallejo" with another poem, which is basically a list of authours/artists who died tragically, suicided, went nuts.

Either way, The Late Peruvian is stuck in my craw so I'm bound to get acquainted.

 

[poptop]

A Spanish Poet

never read him [Vallejo]
looking either for english only or bilingual texts
any recomendations as far as the better translations?

On the subject of Spanish language poets, I'd like to recommend
the works of Spain's Vicente Aleixandre"”the man who received the
well-deserved Nobel Prize for literature in 1977. His work
A Longing For The Light: Selected Poems of Vicente Aleixandre
is a bilingual collection of 68 poems and two prose pieces which
surveys fifty years of his life. The translations are superb. His
writings praise the beauty of nature, women, the earth and the
sea. His love poems are staggering. Some of his poems express
the sadness for the people who have lost the passion and free
spirit that he saw in nature. I actually prefer his poems to those
of Neruda and Vallejo, though I greatly value their poetry. These
men were not dry intellectuals. They were on fire and freely
bared their chests to the thought of death and the unknown.
They also wrote as men who enjoyed the strong, dramatic polarity
between men and women, and met the fire of love with their
own fire and a smoldering tenderness. Such aliveness. I regret
that I no longer have his amazing collection of prose and poems,
but the aura of his love poems remains in my mind like
diamonds in a sea of jewels and the manly passion of it all.

"”Poptop.

 

[ROC]

Ahh poptop... you romantic old bugga :)