tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407624264627208128.post7920323251788758690..comments2024-01-26T21:38:25.924-08:00Comments on Duane's PoeTree: Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal writesDuanesPoeTreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17053093400086634552noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407624264627208128.post-44105658338887518242018-12-22T14:34:42.481-08:002018-12-22T14:34:42.481-08:00Although Peruvian writer César Vallejo only publis...Although Peruvian writer César Vallejo only published 3 books of poetry in his lifetime he was widely regarded as 1 of the best poets of the century. When he was 28 he was arrested for his alleged role in looting and burning a house. The court indicted the victims but not the criminals and invented testimonies and attributed them to people who subsequently declared that they had never been to the place where the crime had been committed. A material witness was shot and killed en route. Vallejo was given a temporary release after spending 112 days in jail (during which time, writing anonymously, he won a poetry competition sponsored by the local government). Two years later, in 1923, under the threat of further incarceration, he fled to France. He was expelled for his political activity in 1930 and spent 2 years in Spain, where he joined the Communist party, and returned to Paris in 1932. He returned to Spain for another 2 years during the Spanish civil War and died in poverty in Paris in 1938. <br /><br />And if after so many words,<br />the word doesn’t survive!<br />If after the wings of birds,<br />the standing bird doesn’t survive!<br />It would be better, honestly,<br />to consume everything and be done with it!<br /><br />To have been born in order to live off our death!<br />To lift ourselves up by our own disasters<br />from the sky to the earth,<br />watching for the right moment to blot out<br />our darkness with our shadow!<br />It would be better, frankly,<br />to consume everything and to hell with it!<br /><br />And if after so much history, we succumb<br />not to eternity<br />but to these simple things,<br />like sitting at home or settling in to think!<br />And if we then discovered<br />all of a sudden that we’re living—to judge<br />by the height of the stars—off a comb<br />and the stains on a handkerchief!<br />It would be better, honestly,<br />to consume everything, of course!<br /><br />They’ll say that we have<br />in one eye a lot of grief<br />and in the other eye, too, a lot of grief<br />and in both, wherever they look, a lot of grief…<br />So… It’s clear! So… Not a word!<br /><br />-- Dave Bonta tr. of "Y si después de tántas palabras"DuanesPoeTreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17053093400086634552noreply@blogger.com