The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology

Editors Cecilia Vicu�a and Ernesto Livon-Grosman present a fresh and expansive selection of Latin American poetry, from the indigenous responses to the European conquest, through early feminist poetry of the 19th century, the early 20th century "Modernismo" and "Vanguardia" movements, later revolutionary and liberation poetry of the 1960s, right up to the experimental, visual and oral poetries being written and performed today. Here readers will find several types of poetry typically overlooked in major anthologies, such as works written or chanted in their native languages, the vibrant mestizo (mixed) creations derived from the rich matrix of spoken language in Latin America, and even the mysterious verses written in made-up languages. In addition to the giants of Latin American poetry, such as C�sar Vallejo, Vicente Huidobro, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Haroldo and Augusto de Campos, and Gabriela Mistral, the editors have included a selection of vital but lesser known poets such as Pablo de Rohka, Blanca Varela, and Cecilia Meireles, as well as previously untranslated works by Sim� n Rodr�guez, Bartolom� Hidalgo, Oliverio Girondo, Rosa Araneda, and many others. In all, the anthology presents more than 120 poets, many in new translations--by Jerome Rothenberg, W.S. Merwin, and Forrest Gander, and others--specially commissioned for this anthology, and each accompanied by a biographical note. The book features both English and original language versions of the poems, a full bibliography, and an introduction by the editors.

Sure to stand as the definitive anthology for decades to come, The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry remaps the territory, offering new ways of looking at a poetry as diverse and complex as Latin America itself.

Preface

An Introduction to mestizo Poetics by Cecilia Vicu�a

An Historical Introduction to Latin American Poetry by Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Anonymous Maya Codex (excerpt)

Anonymous And All Was Destroyed (excerpt)

Anonymous Codex Cantares Mexicanos (excerpt)

Anonymous The Florentine Codex (excerpt)

Anonymous Inca Quipu

Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Beautiful Maiden

Anonymous Popol Vuh (excerpt)

Alonso de Ercilla y Zu�iga The Araucaniad (excerpt)

Mateo Rosas de Oquendo The Mestizo's Ballade

Felipe Guam�n Poma de Ayala Cachiuia

Festival of the Inca

Principal Accountant and Treasurer

Greg�rio de Matos Define Your Cityave Cloth

An Anatomy of the Ailments Suffered by the Body of the Republic, In All Its Members, and Complete Definition of What Has Ever Been the City of Bahia

To The City of Bahia Laying His Eyes First Upon His City He Sees That Its Merchants Are The Primary Cause of Its Ruin, Because It Longs After Useless and Deceitful Goods

To The Palefaces of Bahia Upon Finding An Arm Taken from the Statue of the Christ Child of Our Lady of the Wonders, Which Was Profaned by Unbelievers at the See of Bahia

Sor Juana In�s de la Cruz First Dream (excerpt)

This coloured counterfeit that thou beholdest

Tarry, shadow of my scornful treasure

Diuternal infirmity of hope

Villancico VIII (excerpt)

Anonymous The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (excerpt)

Anonymous The Book of Chilam Balam of Mani (excerpt)

Anonymous Grant Don Juan V Life

Eight-Line Acrostic

Sim�n Rodr�guez Social Virtues and Illuminations

Anonymous Atahualpa Death Prayer

Bartolom� Hidalgo New Patriotic Dialogue

Francisco Acu�a de Figueroa To the Most Holy Virgin Mary

Multiform Salve (excerpt)

Alphabetical-Numerical Prophecy

Hilario Ascasubi The Slippery One

Antonio Gon�alves Dias Song of Exile

Manuel Antonio �lvares de Azevedo Intimate Ideas (excerpt)

Sous�ndrade Wall Street Inferno

Jos� Hern�ndez Mart�n Fierro (excerpt)

Antonio de Castro Alves The Slave Ship (Tragedy on the Sea) (excerpt)

Rosa Araneda Cueca of the Lady Conductors

Jos� Mart� Waking Dream

Love in the City

Jo�o da Cruz e Sousa lesbian

Afra

Jos� Asunci�n Silva Ars

Olavo Bilac Portuguese Language

Rub�n Dar�o Love Your Rhythm

The Wandering Song

EHEU!

Nocturne

Philosophy

The Optimist's Salutation

Jos� Juan Tablada Three Haikus: Willow, Cherimoya Tree, Bug

Ideogram Latern (excerpt)

Havana Impressions

Jos� Mar�a Eguren The Lady I

The Towers

Favila

Joaqu�n Torres Garc�a Am�rica Invertida

City With No Name (excerpt)

Julio Herrera y Reissig Lunatic Tertulia

Augusto dos Anjos A Philosopher's Agony

Modern Buddhism

Pedro Kilkerry It's the Silence

Mare Vitae

Delmira Agustini To Eros

The Ineffable

The Intruder

Manuel Bandeira Anthology

Green-Black

My Last Poem

Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva Emotion and Advantage of Proven Depth

All Morning the Wind Has Spoken

Alejandro Xul Solar "This Hades Is Fluid" (excerpt)

Gabriela Mistral Drops of Gall

Airflower

A Word

The Other Woman

Oswald de Andrade Brazilwood (excerpt)

Cannibal Manifesto (excerpt)

Oliverio Girondo The Mix

My Lumy

Totem Night

You Have to Look For It

Votive Offering

C�sar Vallejo The Black Heralds

Trilce (excerpt)

Black Stone on a White Stone

Telluric and Magnetic

I stayed on to warm up the ink in which I drown

There are days, there comes to me an exuberant, political hunger

Alfonsina Storni World of Seven Wells

An Ear

Vicente Huidobro Minuit

Piano

Canto I (excerpt)

Non Serviam

Mario de Andrade Inspiration

Nocturne

A Very Interesting Preface (excerpt)

Pablo de Rokha Song of the Old Male (excerpt)

Mar�a Sabina Life (excerpt)

Juan L. Ortiz Village On The River

Why?

Gamaliel Churata Khirkhilas (excerpt)

Ra�l Bopp Cobra Norato (excerpt)

Luis Pal�s Matos Prelude in Boricua

Black Dance

Jorge Luis Borges The Golem

The Mythical Founding of Buenos Aires

Borges and I

Limits

Rosamel Del Valle Canticle IX

Magic Love

Cecilia Meireles Pyrargyrite Metal, 9

Song

Speech

Second Rose Motif

Jos� Gorostiza Death without End (excerpt)

Elegy

Pauses I

Carlos Drummond de Andrade This Is That

Passion for Measure

In the Middle of the Way

F

Nicol�s Guill�n Sensemay�

Son Number 6

My Last Name I, a family elegy

Xavier Villaurrutia L. A. Nocturne: The Angels

Nocturne: Fear

C�sar Moro To Wait

Trafalgar Square

Pablo Neruda Melancholy Inside Families

Walking Around

Right, comrade, it's the hour of the garden

Aurelio Arturo Climate

Lullaby

Omar C�ceres Mansion of Foam

Deserted Blue

The I's Illumination

Visitor Extremes

Mart�n Ad�n Aloysius Acker is coming into the world

Without Time Signature, Hurrying Ad Lib/Played Freely, etc.

Jos� Lezama Lima Thoughts On Havana (excerpt)

Fifes, Epiphany, Goats

Death of Time

Enrique Molina The Way It Must Be

Hue

Aquatic Rite

Pablo Antonio Cuadra God Creates the Andes

The Myth of the Jaguar

Octavio Paz Sunstone (excerpt)

Here

Exclamation

Altar

Joaqu�n Pasos Warsong of the Things (excerpt)

Nicanor Parra No President's Statue Escapes

1973

U.S.A.

The Individual's Soliloquy

Dumb, Sad, and Thoughtful

Goddamn the Empty Sky

Gonzalo Rojas You Shouldn't Copy Pound

Qedeshim Qedesh�th

C�sar D�vila Andrade Bulletin and Elegy of Indian Enslavement (excerpt)

Jo�o Cabral do Melo Neto Education by Stone

Tale of an Architect

The Unconfessing Artist

A Knife All Blade

Olga Orozco Variations on Time

The Obstacle

Idea Vilari�o Metamorphosis

Poor World

A Guest

I did not love you

Jaime Saenz Anniversary of a Vision (excerpt)

Juan S�nchez Pel�ez From the Fleeting and Permanent (excerpt)

Dark Bond

Jorge Eduardo Eielson Mar�a's First Death

Paracas Pyramid Performance, 1974

Quipu, l965

Carlos Mart�nez Rivas Two Murals: U. S. A. (excerpt)

Gyula Kosice Portable Madi Dictionary (excerpt)

MADI

Ernesto Cardenal Death of Thomas Merton (excerpt)

Rosario Castellanos Livid Light

Silence Around An Ancient Stone

Malinche

Apol�nio Alves dos Santos Ant�nio Conselheiro and the Canudos Rebellion

Blanca Varela I bury my hand in the sand

Exercises

Final Scene

Family Secret

Curr�culum Vitae

D�cio Pignatari hear the earth

drink coca cola

Carlos Germ�n Belli Tortilla

Sestina of Mea Culpa

I trust now in nothing

Francisco Madariaga Black Col� Jara

The Trivial Jungle

Leonidas Lamborghini The Displaced Applicant (excerpt)

Eva Per�n at the Stake (excerpt)

amereida amereida (excerpt)

Edgardo-Antonio Vigo object-poems

Enrique Lihn The Father's Monologue with His Infant Son

Those Who Are Going To Die Can't Wait

Haroldo de Campos The Ear's Pavillion

Born and Dies

Gal�xias (excerpt)

Juan Gelman CDLVI

CDLXXXI

XDV

Augusto de Campos eggtangle

Eye for an Eye

To Put On A Mask

Jaime Jaramillo Escobar The Leather Telegram

Lorenzo Ramos The Foreigners Lie About What They Want

Antonio Mart�nez The Words of Pa'i Antonio

Aurelio Frez Mother, here we are

Alfredo Silva Estrada Grape Harvests

The Dwellers (excerpt)

Gerardo Deniz Meditate

The authoritarian school and how a respectable literary genre was born

Threat

Romulus Augustulus

Sexologic

Isabel Fraire A Moment Captured by a Japanese Painter of the 18th Century Seen in a Moment of the 20th Century in a London Gallery

Untitled

Housing Complex

Sergio Mondrag�n Exodus of the Gods (excerpt)

Susana Th�non Poem With Simultaneous Translation Spanish-Spanish

Nuptial Song

Roque Dalton No, I Wasn't Always This Ugly

The Country - Sir Thomas

Toadstools VIII

Alejandra Pizarnik Nocturnal Singer

From the Other Side

From a Copy of "Les Chants de Maldoror"

Fiesta

Useless Frontiers

Oscar Hahn Restriction of Nocturnal Movements

Conjurer's Tract

Vision of Hiroshima

Eugenio Montejo The World's Practice

A Bird's Earthness

Good-bye to the 20th Century

Osvaldo Lamborghini The Most Amusing Song of the Devil (a prose work half in verse, no joke) (excerpt)

Jos� Kozer A Meeting at Cho-Fu-Sa

Kafka Reborn

Rodolfo Hinostroza Contra Natura (excerpt)

Antonio Cisneros The Dead Conquerors

Poem on Jonah and the Disalienated

Appendix to the Poem on Jonah and the Disalienated

Juan Luis Mart�nez Remarks Concerning the Exuberant Activity of "Phonetic Confabulation"or "The Language of Birds" in Works by Jean-Pierre Brisset, Raymond Roussel, Marcel Duchamp, and Others

Breathing House, Almost the (Author's) Little House

Ear

The New Novel: The Poet as Superman

The Structure of Political Thought

Gloria Gervitz Migrations (excerpt)

Soledad Fari�a Everything Calm, Immobile

Which To Paint Which First

Not Time Yet

Where The Yellow

Paulo Leminski Catatau (excerpt)

Metamorphosis (excerpt)

Mar�a Mercedes Carranza Homeland

Heels Over Head with Life

I'm Afraid

Canto 17: Cumbal

Canto 18: Soacha

Canto 3: Dabeiba

Arturo Carrera It Wasn't in Sicily, It Wasn't Here (excerpt)

Cecilia Vicu�a Physical Portrait

con-con

Quipu de Londres

Instan (excerpt)

Wilson Bueno Mar Paraguayo (excerpt)

N�stor Perlongher Tuy�

Mme. Schoklender

Daisy Zamora Radio Sandino (excerpt)

Ra�l Zurita Inri (excerpt)

Desert Writing

Sky Writing

Coral Bracho Water of Jellyfish

Its dark force curving

Give me, earth, your night

Elvira Hern�ndez The Flag of Chile (excerpt)

Reina Mar�a Rodr�guez Twilight's Idol

Emeterrio Cerro Miss Murkiness (excerpt)

Jorge Santiago Perednik Shock of the Lenders (excerpt)

Humbert Ak'abal Stones

Advice

Effort

Navel

Fireflies

Walker

Learning

Buzzard

Elikura Chihuailaf I Still Want To Dream In This Valley

For I Am The Power Of The Nameless

Myriam Moscona Black Ivory (excerpt)

Josely Vianna Baptista A Sound of Ancient, Faded Flows

Traces

The Grail

Xunka' Utz'utz' Ni' Prayer So My Man Won't Have to Cross The Line

Loxa Jim�nes Lopes Pexi Kola Magic

Mar�a Ern�ndes Kokov The Talking Box Speaks

Tonik Nibak Dance of the Perfumed Woman

Cristina Rivera-Garza Third World (excerpt)

Juan Gregorio Regino Cantares

List of Translators

Source Notes