The Complete Posthumous Poetry

César Vallejo

Univ of California Press, Sep 29, 1980 - Literary Criticism - 339 pages

The Translation judges for the National Book Awards--Richard Miller, Alastair Reid, Eliot Weinberger--cited Clayton Eshleman and Jose Rubia Barcia's translation of Cesar Vallejo's The Complete Posthumous Poetry as follows: "This, the first National Book Award to be given to a translation of modern poetry, is a recognition of Clayton Eshleman's seventeen-year apprenticeship to perhaps the most difficult poetry in the Spanish language. Eshleman and his present collaborator, Jose Rubia Barcia, have not only rendered these complex poems into brilliant and living English, but have also established a definitive Spanish test based on Vallejo's densely rewritten manuscripts. In recreating this modern master in English, they have also made a considerable addition to poetry in our language."

Contents

• Nómina de huesos: 2
• Payroll of bones3: 3
• El momento más grave de la vida: 8
• The gravest moment in life: 9
• Voy a hablar de la esperanza: 16
• We probably already were of a compassionate age 19: 19
• Una mujer de senos apacibles 22: 22
• Longing ceases ass in the air: 25
• Existe un mutilado: 28
• Behold that today I salute 33: 33
• Lomo de las sagradas escrituras: 34
• Four consciousnesses: 39
• Entre el dolor y el placer 40: 40
• hat overcoat gloves: 45
• GLEBA: 52
• GLEBE: 53
• Dulzura por dulzura corazona: 58
• Sweetness through heartsown sweetness: 59
• La vida esta vida: 64
• Life this life: 65
• De disturbio en disturbio: 70
• From disturbance to disturbance: 71
• Por último sin ese buen aroma: 76
• Finally without that good continuous 77: 77
• Los mineros salieron de la mina: 82
• The miners came out of the mine: 83
• Piensan los viejos asnos: 90
• Old asses thinking: 91
• La rueda del hambriento: 96
• The hungry mans wheel97: 97
• Calor cansado voy 98: 98
• Heat tired I go 99: 99
• Poema para ser leído y cantado: 104
• Poem to be read and sung: 105
• Oh botella sin vino: 110
• Oh bottle without wine: 111
• Quiere y no quiere su color: 116
• My chest wants and does not want 117: 117
• La paz la abispa el taco: 122
• The peace the whasp the shoe heel: 123
• De puro calor tengo frío: 128
• It is so hot I feel cold: 129
• Escarnecido aclimatado al bien: 134
• Mocked acclimated to goodness: 135
• Traspié entre dos estrellas: 140
• Stumble between two stars: 141
• A lo mejor soy otro 146: 146
• Chances are Im another: 147
• Marcha Nupcial: 152
• Wedding March153: 153
• Intensidad y altura: 156
• Intensity and height: 157
• Qué me da que me azoto ?: 162
• Whats got into me that I am whipping myself: 163
• Un hombre está mirando a una mujer: 168
• A man is looking at a woman: 169
• Un hombre pasa con un: 176
• A man walks by with a stick of bread: 177
• Hoy le ha entrado una astilla: 182
• Today a splinter has gotten into her: 183
• Yuntas: 188
• Couplings: 189
• Viniere el malo con un trono: 196
• That the evil man might come with a throne: 197
• Ello es que el lugar donde: 202
• The fact is that the place where: 203
• En suma no poseo para expresar: 208
• In short I have nothing with which to express: 209
• Los desgraciados: 214
• The miserable: 215
• ESPAÑA APARTA DE MÍ ESTE CÁLIZ 19371938: 222
• Facsimiles of Vallejos Worksheets: 272
• BATTLES IN SPAIN: 280

About the author

Primarily a poet and one of Latin America's finest of the twentieth century, Vallejo also wrote several novels and plays with a strong social content. His situation as a mestizo of part Indian blood, his humble social background, and the political and social discrimination to which he was subjected because of these factors, created the profound psychological tensions and alienation from society that mark his work. His work is permeated with a sense of the dignity of the oppressed Indian and a spirit of rebellion. In his first volume, The Black Heralds (1918), he used the techniques of symbolism to express bitterness at his suffering and condition of isolation. Trilce (1922) is one of the most original works of modern poetry, with an innovative syntax and structure that transcend normal logical rules to express the poet's feeling of solitude and the helplessness of oppressed peoples. After the publication of Trilce, Vallejo moved to Paris, where he lived in poverty and was harshly treated because of his political opinions. In poetry of a simpler structure and form, his posthumously published Human Poems (1939) and Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me (1939) reveal his anguish over the Spanish civil war and his sense of solidarity with combatants for peace and freedom.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Complete Posthumous Poetry; Emersion: Emergent Village Resources for Communities of Faith Series
• Author: César Vallejo
• Translated by: Clayton Eshleman, José R. Barcia
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Univ of California Press, 1980
• ISBN: 0520040996, 9780520040991
• Length: 339 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / European / General; Poetry / General