B003EEN38U EBOK The Complete Poetry A Bilingual Edition nodrm
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And I am now at the point of dying, before being at the point of growing old. I will die of life and not of time.
"Behold that today I salute ..." (page 359)
sprouts a distAnce It appears that Vallejo put the capital "A' in the word distanciA to make fun of the rhyme and musicality of the whole quatrain up to that point. By capitalizing the single "a" in distance, I intend to throw the accent onto that syllable, creating a similar effect.
ssssuch regular codes An attempt to pick up the ttttales codigos regulates of the original. A few lines later, the Spanish un (a) is written as hun. Since the "h" is not pronounced, the distortion cannot be sounded but only viewed. This sort of visual distortion occasionally occurs throughout all Vallejo's books.
Height and Hair (page 361)
An earlier version of this poem, entitled "Lofty Attitude" ("Actitud de excelencia") exists and might be translated as follows:
"Four consciousnesses ..." (page 367)
This poem and the following six are from the book Contra el secreto professional, which according to Georgette was written for the most part between 1927 and 1928 (but not published until 1973, edited by Georgette, in Lima, by Mosca Azul Editores). This poem and the following two were apparently written out as prose poems and then rewritten by Vallejo as poems.
"Between pain and pleasure..." (page 369)
To the instantaneous meaning of eternity The third stanza of this poem, as originally written out in prose, appears to have read:
To the instantaneous meaning of eternity corresponds this absurdity that identifies us today. But to your volume of temporal good-bye, solely corresponds the inexorable arrival.
Languidly Her Liquor (page 373)
a priestess of love The Spanish cura de amor, on which our English phrase is based, could also be translated "as a cure for love," modifying el yantar de oracion instead of mama. A few lines later, mi madre iba sentada (my mother went sitting) is another typical construction in this piece, coherent and at the same time irrationally dense. We translate literally when a phrase is not idiomatic and appears to have been invented, as a neologism, by Vallejo.
playing her entrails with infinite frets In Spanish tocar means "to knock," "to touch," and "to play" and when connected to trastos (originally written as trastes), suggests the playing of a stringed instrument, with entrails taking the place of heart or feeling. By altering one letter, Vallejo changed trastes (stops, frets) to trastos (junk, implements), and we have had to translate the word as if it were trastes, since to render the latter word would eliminate the musical image.
Miguel has made me blush. With his bLush (me ha echado Miguel al pavo. A su paVO) A Peruvian idiomatic expression the meaning of which is not clear, although we feel it is probably connected with subirsele a uno el pavo (to blush). A literal translation would be: "Miguel has thrown me to the turkey. To his turKEY."
the hen was the widow of her children From this line on, the original version varies considerably from the final one:
the hen was the widow of her children, the hen is the eternal bride of the mammalian. All the eggs were found empty. The brooder afterward had the word and, in an elegant construction, past, present and chirping.
One story, two stories, three stories.
No one frightened her. And in case she was frightened, no one allowed himself to be lulled by her clucking nor by her viviparous chill.
-Where are the old hen's children?
-Where are the old hen's chicks?
Afterward botanical works were scarce in the hamlet.
One little eye, two little eyes, three little eyes.
One story, two stories, three stories.
The Footfalls of a Great Criminal (page 377)
This prose poem, along with the next, are not to be found in the RGV edition. Gonzalez Vigil considers them lyric-narratives, closer to stories than to poems. I disagree and so have included them. They come from Cesar Vallejo, Poesia complete, edited by Raul Hernandez Novas (Havana: Editorial Arte y Literatura, 1988).
Black Stone on a White Stone (page 381)
TITLE According to Carlos del Rio Leon (in Caretas [April 1966]), the title of this poem is based on the fact that one day in Paris, Vallejo was very depressed and, while wearing a black overcoat, sat down on a white stone. The stone evoked a white sepulcher and his own appearance a black stone. Antenor Orrego recounts another more compelling version of the source of this poem, which is summarized by Stephen M. Hart on p. 692 below.
and I don't budge The Spanish verb correr (to run) acquires a different meaning when used reflexively, mainly "to move" (forward to the left or the right). The implication here appears to be that he will remain in Paris, in spite of his intuition that death awaits him there.
forced on The Spanish a la mala could also be translated here as "unwillingly" (the phrase occurs in line 51 of "Battles" in Spain, Take This Cup from Me, and there I have translated it as "unwillingly"). In this sonnet, Vallejo uses the phrase idiomatically and idiosyncratically, and its specific meaning remains mysterious.
`And don't say another word to me ..." (page 385)
The following title, "The Greatness of Common Works" ("Grandeza de los trabojos vul- gares"), has been crossed out.
"It was Sunday in the clear ears of my jackass ..." (page 387)
Voltaire pulls his cape to and looks at the square In 1974 I discovered a postcard in Paris with exactly this scene on it. Voltaire is on a high pedestal, with his hands crossed before him, looking off to the right across the square.
"Today I like life much less ..." (page 389)
but, of course Before being partially crossed out, this line was corrected by hand to read:
but entering five abreast, of course,
and always, much always, always always! This line originally read:
and always, much always, always in line under bastinados.
and then was changed to the following line before it was corrected to the final version:
and always, much always, always lying down outside my body.
Glebe (page 391)
TrrLE Originally the Spanish word gleba meant "clod" (in modern Spanish, tenon) or "soil" (in modern Spanish, suelo or tierra), but today the word persists only in the old expression siervos de la gleba (serfs, or slaves, of the soil) and is always associated with the idea of the worst kind of serfdom or human slavery.
within fog range In Spanish the phrase a tiro de neblina is unusual and appears to derive from such common expressions as a tiro de escopeta (within shotgun range), or a tiro de canon (within cannon range).
"reginas of the valley" According to Larrea, these "reginas" are a kind of snake. Regina is the Latin word for "queen."
Luis Taboada The name of a famous Spanish humorist (1848-1906). It is not entirely certain whether Vallejo had him in mind when he used the name.
"But before all this..." (page 393)
phalanhes The Spanishfalanjas appears to be a neologism based onfalanges (phalanges).
Whistling at your death The first four lines of the fourth stanza were originally five and read:
hat rakishly tilted In Spanish pedrada means "a blow with a stone," but in this case sombrero a la pedrada is a Peruvian idiom and refers to a hat either adorned with a ribbon or tilted at a rakish slant. In his book Vallejo y su tierra, Francisco Izquierdo Rios wrote about Vallejo's home town, Santiago de Chuco: "The horse-breakers with fine ponchos and `sombreros a la pedrada' made the horses caracole."
target In Spanish blanco can mean "white," target," and "blank," and Vallejo may very well have had all three meanings in mind when he used the word here. In the 1967 Seghers edition of Vallejo's poetry translated by Georgette de Vallejo, and supervised by Americo Ferrari, the French word chosen here is cible (target).
Epistle to the Passersby (page 395)
my night of an elephant in repose After this line, Vallejo had originally written the following three lines:
just in case my brute calls out in
great fables and the sky becomes a sky of humanized earth, a sky at full speed, mounted slowly on a sword.
cullions In Spanish companones is an archaic word meaning "testicles." I attempt to match it in English with an obsolete word for testicles.
navehall Vallejo misspells ombligo (navel) as hombligo (playing off hombre-man). There is a temptation to mistranslate the English as "humbilicus cord," but I have resisted this, since the speaker would have lost his umbilicus cord long ago.
Meanwhile, convulsively, harshly The last stanza originally read:
Tuberous Spring (page 397)
vulture beakax Here picotdn de buitre appears to involve an unusual augmentative of pico (beak, pick) and in Vallejo's mind may have been connected with azadon (mattock). However, it is actually a Peruvian expression meaning "to strike hard," and in this context suggests that the vulture is using its beak as an ax while eating.
degllusion Vallejo has again misspelled deglucion as deglusion, this time with the "s" underlined and a question mark penciled in the left margin of the facsimile.
"Finally, without that good continuous aroma..." (page 401)
tombsadness The neologism tristumbre appears to contain triste (sad) and possibly the latter part of pesadumbre (sorrow). It also contains the tumb of tumba (tomb). I have attempted to approximate this neologism with one of my own.
The Hungry Man's Rack (page 403)
calcarid The Spanish calcarida appears to be a neologism based on calcareo (calcareous) and arida (arid).
"Considering coldly..." (page 405)
that I hate him with affection This entire line originally read:
and he knows how to mend himself with tears and songs ...
"Idle on a stone ..." (page 407)
a paperscrap This entire line originally ended with:
his betrayed dice ...
who today sweats from outside in his secretion of rejected blood After this line, the following two were crossed out:
This is the one who bled through his side, who today drowns in his rejected blood!
and the bread getting into the wrong saliva This entire line originally read:
and the nourishing bread that they don't need
how lightning nails This and the following line originally read as one line:
how it nails its headless nail into your clavicles!
stallion louse As an adjective padre (father) is a common augmentative for almost everything, e.g., una vida padre (a great life), un automdvil padre (a great car). Here we have tried to translate the act of the lowest parasite being ironically elevated to a role of seminal importance.
"Life, this life . . . " (page 411)
their thirteen bones ... the old screw These two lines, before corrections, read:
their sacred bones slant ner the sewers, over an old screw, proclivitous, misfortunate.
ner Vallejo misspelled cabe (near) as cave, and we attempt to match the slight sound change with ner in English.
the poorotten The Spanish pdbridas is a neologism derived from pobres (poor ones) and perhaps podrida (rotten).
if they fell then bluely This phrase originally read:
if their magnets then fell.
emitted dense smoke This line and the three following it originally read:
emitted dense smoke of thoughtful madmen, attacked by physics, and from a half-deaf pain. Doves hopping up from the depths, doves fragrant to the insult of that day.
`And if after so many words..." (page 415)
for them to blow it all The phrase que se to coman todo literally means "for them to eat all of it," but we feel that Vallejo used it in its common idiomatic meaning of "to blow something," e.g., to blow a fortune.
"Sweetness through heartsown sweetness..." (page 417)
heartsown The Spanish corazona is an arbitrary feminine, probably of the masculine noun corazdn (heart), although it could also be the third-person singular of a made-up verb based on corazdn, such as corazonar. On the basis of the second possibility, the line could be rendered: "Sweetness through sweetness heartens!" However, since hearten is an accepted English word, such a rendering does not translate the uniqueness of corazona. So I have translated it as a noun, hoping to expose "heart's own," "heart sown," and "heart zone" in my rendering.
teatnacity The Spanish tezdn appears to be a neologism, linking tesdn (tenacity) with pezdn (nipple, teat). See line io of "The Narrow Theater Box" in The Black Heralds.
foreverish The Spanish perduroso appears to be a neologism based on perdurar (to last long), with a suffix such as one finds in presuroso (hasty), for which the verb would be apresurar (to hasten).
quand on a la vie ... deja tellement! The two lines of French read "When one has life and youth/that's already so much!"
you well kiss me Here haz is an intentional misspelling of has (second-person singular, present tense, of haber-to have-used as an auxiliary verb). If Vallejo had written has de besarme, we would have translated it as "you will kiss me." Haz by itself could also mean "bundle" or "face."
Old Asses Thinking (page 421)
TrrLE There is some evidence that this poem was inspired by the death of Vallejo's close friend from his first days in Paris, Alfonso Silva (1903 -1937), a Peruvian composer and writer who returned to Peru and died in Lima on May 7,1937. Vallejo wrote another poem, "Alfonso: you keep looking at me, I see," which was a clear and direct response to Silva's death.
boldo A genus of Chilean evergreen shrubs, with a sweet, edible fruit; the dried-out leaves are a hypnotic and a diuretic.
now never After this line the one following is crossed out:
I will call him at the margin of his incased river's name!
(After completing work on The Complete Posthumous Poetry, in 1977, I took this erased line, retranslating part of it as "The Name Encanyoned River," as the title for a poem celebrating the dimension of my relationship with Vallejo; this title subsequently was used as the title for The Name Encanyoned River: Selected Poems ig6o-1985, published by Black Sparrow Press in 1978.)
what a never of the nevers his never In Spanish, the wordjamases (the plural of an adverb meaning "never") is grammatically impossible-but it does exist in popular speech.
Telluric and Magnetic (page 423)
TITLE The original title, "Agricultural Meditation" ("Meditacion agricola") was crossed out. The poem was originally much more modest in scope, with the typescript ending with line 27. The rest of the poem was written out by hand.
Sincere and utterly Peruvian mechanics The first four lines were originally three and read:
reddened hill In the book on Vallejo by Izquierdo Rios noted above, one reads: "In Santiago de Chuco there exists a Reddened Hill."
Oh human fields The poem originally ended with a shortened version of this stanza and read:
(From this point on the poem is handwritten.)
pepper tree A molle is a genus of tropical American trees of the sumac family, known as the pepper tree. It was the sacred tree of the Incas, and the fruit is used to make an alcoholic beverage similar to chicha.
Barret See note on Trilce VIII.
cavy The cuy is a short-tailed, rough-haired South American rodent (guinea pigs are from the same species). A cuya (cavess, in our approximation) would be a female cuy.
bird pepper A rocoto is a pepper, known as "bird pepper." The red fruit are small, oblong, and very pungent. The Spanish word probably derives from the Quechuan rucuta. In the same line, temples refers to valleys with temples in the Peruvian sierra.
Screw the condors! Mefriegan los cdndores! could also be rendered as "Those condors make me sick!" It is true that the verb fregar is softer in Peru than in Mexico, where it is a strong vulgar word; however, we feel that the fact that Vallejo used the word in the 1930s, when it was much more objectionable than it is today, justifies our translation. See also the note on the last line of this poem: the same Mexican friend who apparently stimulated Vallejo to use me las pelan, may also have inspired his use of
friegan.
Auchenia The Spanish auquenidos is derived from auchenia, the Latin for certain South American animals of the Camelidae family, such as llamas, vicunas, alpacas, and guanacosall of which have big, sad eyes.
quena See note on "Autochthonous Tercet, I" in The Black Heralds.
they can jerk me off! In answer to our query about me las pelanl Larrea wrote to Barcia: "In our Hispanomerican group in Montparnasse in 1926, we often sang a kind of ballad, thanks to a good Mexican friend, which had a refrain which went: `Pelame la pinga' (peel my foreskin down). I would say that this is the origin of that line of Vallejo's. That he puts it in the plural surprises me-perhaps he does that out of modesty! It would translate something like `me la menean' (they jack me off)."
"The miners came out of the mine..." (page 427)
The first three stanzas of the poem originally read:
(In the tenth line of the above stanzas, "head to head" was crossed out and "from saliva to saliva" penciled in, which was then rejected too.)
aerent The Spanish airente appears to be a neologism based on aire (air), to which an -ente suffix has been attached, a common suffix but not one normally attached to the word aire. In the same line, amarillura derives from amarillo (yellow) but is not of normal or frequent usage. Near the end of the same line, tristidos, based on triste (sad), appears to be a neologism; -idos is normally not attached to that word. Last, tristes could either be a plural noun of the adjective triste or the word for a sad song (which would have no translation). We interpret it as the former.
eyes of physical weeping After this line the following one was crossed out:
miners of the timbre of the voice of man;
"From disturbance to disturbance ..." (page 431)
when you suffer in short from kangaroo The line is odd without a comma, but since there is none in the Spanish-cuando sufras en suma de kanguro-we leave it out in the translation too.
man with shoe heel Taco is a South American word for tacdn (shoe heel). From this line on the poem is handwritten, suggesting, as in the case of"Telluric and Magnetic," a later addition. "Today I would like to be happy willingly..." (page 435)