Poetry
Nostalgia for Death
Nostalgia de la muerte
Xavier Villaurrutia · 1938
Synopsis
A collection built around a series of nocturnes, in which the night is the place of a confrontation with emptiness, silence and death. In “Nocturno en que nada se oye”, the poet leaves “su estatua sin sangre” in the tomb of the bed and descends endlessly; elsewhere come angels, the rose, the sea, fear. The verses play on sounds and repetitions (“mi voz que madura / y mi voz quemadura”), and death appears in them as a presence one can feel nostalgia for, up to the décimas that close the book.
Context
The first edition appeared in 1938 in Buenos Aires, from Sur; it still contains only part of the nocturnes and five dizains of “Décima muerte”. The second, published in Mexico City in 1946 by Mictlán, changes the order, adds poems at the author's request and gives the complete poem. Octavio Paz devoted a book to the poet; Eliot Weinberger's English translation appeared in 1992, together with Paz's study.
Who it is for
Short, highly wrought pieces, built on play with sounds, to be read slowly; translated into English, no French translation of the collection found.
Prizes and reception
The major book of its author, which brings together his most significant poetry; one of the peaks of Mexican poetry of its century.
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