La encontré sentada en una vieja rama sin hojas, con los ojos empapados en lágrimas y balbuceando entre sollozos un nombre al que no pude poner cara. Apoyé mi diminuta mano sobre la corteza del árbol y alcé mi rostro en el aire, con la boca entreabierta y el corazón agitado por la extraña sensación que ahora corría por mis venas. Ella me miró, y yo asustada volví sobre mis pasos, hasta que a punto estuve de tropezar con mis propias pisadas. Ella me sujetó de la mano antes de que yo cayera y me dañara por lo que le di las gracias de inmediato, y aunque ella negó con la cabeza mi agradecimiento, se puso de rodillas y me besó ambas manos, mientras me susurraba suavemente al oído unas mágicas palabras que aún no he podido olvidar a pesar del paso de los años.
En algún lugar... Desde mi ventana la veo cada mañana, luciendo un nuevo conjunto según su estado de ánimo. Entalla su torso de colores claros en primavera y tonalidades oscuras en el invierno. Se cambia dos veces al día de camisa, y se remanga en verano las prendas. En la primavera es cuando más bonita la encuentro, pues las flores que se ha puesto ensalzan su figura y realzan su belleza. No es la misma tierra que veo desde mi ventana. Si camino o me alejo de ella, en cada zona es distinta, pero en el fondo sé que sigue siendo ella. Los poetas hablan de su forma y su figura, le dedican miles de versos y se compilan millones de poemas para recordarnos que siempre será la musa de quienes la miran. Reconozco que yo también he caído rendida a sus pies y me sumo a esta causa dedicándole los más bellos versos que de mi alma brotan cuando pienso en ella en este libro titulado: "Me enamoré de tierras extrañas".
Desde el fondo del mar y hacia las estrellas, un delgado hilo nos une con ellas Mentiras verdades causa o consecuencia relatos del alma brotando en la hierba Figuras obtusas con gracia y torpeza ilustran espacios bailan con las letras Anécdotas, credos poesias, vivencias palabras mestizas de cal y de arena. From the deepest sea and beyond the stars A thin thread is linking them whit us Lies, trurhs cause or consecuense stories from the soul spoutring from the herb Obtuse figures with clumsiness and grace ilustrate the spaces dancing with the letters Anecdotes, creeds, poems, experiences halfbreed words, of sand and lime.
This graceful translation and bilingual edition, now in paperback, is the first to bring English readers a representative sampling of the poetry Delmira Agustini published before her untimely death on July 6, 1914 at the age of twenty-seven. Translated by native Uruguayan Alejandro Cáceres and including work from each of Agustini's four published books, Selected Poetry of Delmira Agustini: Poetics of Eros is a response to a resurgent interest not just in the poems but in the passionate and daring woman behind them and the social and political world she inhabited. Delmira Agustini was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on October 24, 1886 to wealthy parents of German and Italian descent. She published her first volume of poetry when she was twenty-one and followed with two more in the next six years: the fourth volume was a posthumous publication. Her life was cut short in 1914, when Enrique Job Reyes, her ex-husband, shot her to death and then turned the gun on himself. Carefully selected for this bilingual, en face edition, the poems collected here track and highlight Agustini's development and strengths as an artist—including her methods of experimentation, first relying on modernista forms and later abandoning them—and her focus on the figure of the male, which she portrays as the crux of devotion and attention but deems ultimately unreachable. Cáceres's introduction presents biographical information and situates Agustini's work and life in a larger political, historical, and literary context, particularly the modernismo movement, whose followers broke linguistic and political ties with the pathos and excesses of romanticism.
Dependence, Independence, and Death: Toward a Psychobiography of Delmira Agustini depicts the life of Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini (1886-1914) based on her poems and other writings. These works give evidence of two constructs related to a psychological conflict in her life. The first is a dependence/independence dichotomy, thematized as a polarized love relationship between speaker and Other, who can represent two individuals or dual aspects of the poet's self. The second involves the poet's fascination with death, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when she is murdered by her ex-husband at the age of twenty-seven.
Delmira Agustini (1886–1914) has been acclaimed as one of the foremost modernistas and the first major woman poet of twentieth-century Spanish America. Critics and the reading public alike were immediately taken by the originality and power of her verse, especially her daring eroticism, her inventive appropriation of vampirism, and her morbid embrace of death and pain. No work until now, however, has shown how her poetry reflects a search for an alternative, feminized discourse, a discourse that engages in an imaginative dialogue with Rubén Darío's recourse to literary paternity and undertakes an audacious rewriting of social, sexual, and poetic conventions. In the first major exploration of Agustini's life and work, Cathy L. Jrade examines her energizing appropriation and reinvention of modernista verse and the dynamics of her breakthrough poetics, a poetics that became a model for later women writers.
English Language: “Sinfonía Blanca / White Symphony” is a true story with the appearance of a novel and was written by its author after the death of her father during the COVID-19 pandemic. It narrates Lorna’s journey after discovering and reading the manuscript of an unfinished book left by her father, along with his personal diaries, and listening to audio cassettes recorded during his lifetime. Going through his belongings, she learns of his relationship with different women and the influence they had on his life as a painter. The book focuses on her father’s personal struggles and obsession with completing a collection of 21 paintings of his favorite muse. It is about how artist Manuel Pérez Llanes dedicated his artistic life to painting replicas to financially subsist and how he fought against his internal contradictions about art, morals, values and women to leave a legacy to his two daughters, the original paintings of her own collecting, as he battled his aging mind and memory loss. The author shows off her many years of writing news reports for television newscasts and tells the story in a simple, direct and to the point manner; facilitating a comfortable and easy reading experience. Spanish Language: “Sinfonía Blanca” es una historia real con apariencia de novela y fue escrita por su autora tras el fallecimiento de su padre durante la pandemia del COVID-19. Narra la travesía personal de Lorna al descubrir y leer el manuscrito de un libro inconcluso dejado por su padre, junto con sus diarios personales, y escuchar los casetes de audio grabados durante su vida. Revisando sus pertenencias, ella se entera de su relación con distintas mujeres y de la influencia que éstas tuvieron en su vida como pintor. El libro se concentra en las luchas personales y la obsesión por completar una colección de 21 cuadros de su musa favorita. Trata sobre cómo el artista Manuel Pérez Llanes empeñó su vida artística en pintar réplicas para sobrevivir financieramente y de cómo luchó contra sus contradicciones internas sobre el arte, la moral, los valores y las mujeres para dejar un legado a sus dos hijas, los cuadros originales de su propia creación, mientras batallaba contra su mente envejecida y su pérdida de la memoria. La autora hace gala a sus muchos años de escribir reportajes noticiosos para telediarios y relata la historia de forma sencilla, directa y al grano; facilitándole una lectura cómoda y rápida al lector.
