The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition

"César Vallejo is the greatest Catholic poet since Dante--and by Catholic I mean universal."--Thomas Merton, author of The Seven Storey Mountain

"An astonishing accomplishment. Eshleman's translation is writhing with energy."--Forrest Gander, author of Eye Against Eye

"Vallejo has emerged for us as the greatest of the great South American poets--a crucial figure in the making of the total body of twentieth-century world poetry. In Clayton Eshleman's spectacular translation, now complete, this most tangled and most rewarding of poets comes at us full blast and no holds barred. A tribute to the power of the imagination as it manifests through language in a world where meaning has always to be fought for and, as here, retrieved against the odds."--Jerome Rothenberg, co-editor of Poems for the Millennium

"Every great poet should be so lucky as to have a translator as gifted and heroic as Clayton Eshleman, who seems to have gotten inside Vallejo's poems and translated them from the inside out. The result is spectacular, or as one poem says, 'green and happy and dangerous.'"--Ron Padgett, translator of Complete Poems by Blaise Cendrars

"César Vallejo was one of the essential poets of the twentieth century, a heartbreaking and groundbreaking writer, and this gathering of the many years of imaginative work by Clayton Eshleman is one of Vallejo's essential locations in the English tongue."--Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States

"This is a crucially important translation of one of the poetic geniuses of the twentieth century." --William Rowe, author of Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and the Inner Life

"Only the dauntless perseverance and the love with which the translator has dedicated so many years of his life to this task can explain why the English version conveys, in all its boldness and vigor, the unmistakable voice of César Vallejo."--Mario Vargas Llosa

"Cesar Vallejo is the greatest Catholic poet since Dante--and by Catholic I mean universal."--Thomas Merton, author of "The Seven Storey Mountain"

"An astonishing accomplishment. Eshleman's translation is writhing with energy."--Forrest Gander, author of "Eye Against Eye"

"Vallejo has emerged for us as the greatest of the great South American poets-a crucial figure in the making of the total body of twentieth-century world poetry. In Clayton Eshleman's spectacular translation, now complete, this most tangled and most rewarding of poets comes at us full blast and no holds barred. A tribute to the power of the imagination as it manifests through language in a world where meaning has always to be fought for and, as here, retrieved against the odds."--Jerome Rothenberg, co-editor of "Poems for the Millennium"

"Every great poet should be so lucky as to have a translator as gifted and heroic as Clayton Eshleman, who seems to have gotten inside Vallejo's poems and translated them from the inside out. The result is spectacular, or as one poem says, 'green and happy and dangerous.'"--Ron Padgett, translator of "Complete Poems" by Blaise Cendrars

"Cesar Vallejo was one of the essential poets of the twentieth century, a heartbreaking and groundbreaking writer, and this gathering of the many years of imaginative work by Clayton Eshleman is one of Vallejo's essential locations in the English tongue."--Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States

"Cesar Vallejo made the Spanish language less stilted, more elastic, inventive and sonorous--in short, he made it more American. Translating his poems into English might well have been one of the punishments in Dante'spurgatory. Clayton Eshleman, instead, has turned the endeavor into a philosophy of life. He's been haunted--and hunted--by Vallejo for decades. His renditions aren't ever finished. They change as he does, and so does the reader. Polish or perish!"--Ilan Stavans, author of "Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language"

"This is a crucially important translation of one of the poetic geniuses of the twentieth century." --William Rowe, author of "Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and the Inner Life"

"Only the dauntless perseverance and the love with which the translator has dedicated so many years of his life to this task can explain why the English version conveys, in all its boldness and vigor, the unmistakable voice of Cesar Vallejo."--Mario Vargas Llosa

"An astonishing accomplishment. Eshleman's translation is writhing with energy."--Forrest Gander "This is a crucially important translation of one of the poetic geniuses of the twentieth century." --William Rowe, author of "Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and the Inner Life" "Only the dauntless perseverance and the love with which the translator has dedicated so many years of his life to this task can explain why the English version conveys, in all its boldness and vigor, the unmistakable voice of Cesar Vallejo."--from the Foreword by Mario Vargas Llosa

Poet and essayist Clayton Eshleman is a recipient of the National Book Award and the Landon Translation Prize. He is the cotranslator of César Vallejo: The Complete Posthumous Poetry and Aimé Césaire: The Collected Poetry, both from UC Press. Among Mario Vargas Llosa's prestigious literary awards are the National Critics' Prize, the Peruvian National Prize, and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize. He is the author of more than twenty books. Efrain Kristal is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. Stephen M. Hart is Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at University College, London.

Contents

Foreword / Mario Vargas Llosa

Acknowledgments

Introduction / Efraín Kristal

Los heraldos negros --The Black Heralds

Plafones ágiles — Agile Soffits

Buzos — Divers

De la tierra — Of the Earth

Nostalgias imperiales — Imperial Nostalgias

Truenos — Thunderclaps

Canciones de hogar — Songs of Home

Trilce

Poemas humanos — Human Poems

I

II

España, aparta de mí este cáliz — Spain, Take This Cup from Me

Afterword: A Translation Memoir

Appendix: A Chronology of Vallejo's Life and Works / Stephen M. Hart

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Spanish Titles and First Lines

Index of English Titles and First Lines