Poetry
Sunstone
Piedra de sol
Octavio Paz · 1957
Synopsis
A long poem of 584 lines, as many as the days in the synodic revolution of Venus measured by the Aztec calendar. It forms a single circular sentence: the last six lines repeat the first six, and the poem can begin again. Carried by this continuous momentum, the poem explores time and memory, carnal love, art and writing.
Context
The poem appeared in 1957 at the Fondo de Cultura Económica, in the Tezontle series, then closed the collection La estación violenta in 1958. In Mexico it is seen as the work of a poet who leaves his European models for his own roots. It was quickly translated: into French by Benjamin Péret (Gallimard, 1962), into English by Muriel Rukeyser (1962), then by Eliot Weinberger, who made it in 1987 the first poem of his collected works in English.
Who it is for
A single poem of about twenty pages, to be read in one sitting and aloud; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
The poem that made its author an international figure, counted among the most important in Spanish-language poetry.
Sources for this page 10
The pages consulted to check this page.