The Daily Glance
Raúl Zurita's Purgatory is one of the best books written in the latter half of the twentieth century. I don't usually make that type of claim, but this book is fabulous, and I'm very happy that Anna Deeny through her translation made it available in English. Beyond the poetry, this translation includes a preface by Zurita in which he explains some aspects of the book:
Raúl Zurita's Purgatory is one of the best books written in the latter half of the twentieth century. I don't usually make that type of claim, but this book is fabulous, and I'm very happy that Anna Deeny through her translation made it available in English. Beyond the poetry, this translation includes a preface by Zurita in which he explains some aspects of the book:
I lived seventeen years under Pinochet's dictatorship, and imagining these poems occupying landscapes was my intimate form of resistance, of not giving up, of not dying in the midst of abuse and confinement. When face with the horror, we had to respond with art that was stronger and more vast that the pain and damage inflicted upon us. . . . None of the poetic forms I knew, nothing, could help me express this.Like Parra and Neruda before him, Zurita is using poetry to defend the individual, and like them, he searches for a form in this book and picks up the epic spirit of Dante transformed through Chile's hell of Pinochet to express himself, to express the violence perpetuated upon Chileans. He plays with form quite a bit to express himself, and the results are staggering.
I smashed my sickening faceIt is hard to get the feel for this work from a few lines because it has an overwhelming force as a whole. Here is a poet responding to horrific events (which, ironically, started with the coup on 9/11/1973) to keep us individual and human.
in the mirror
I love you--I said--I love you
I love you more than anything in the world.
--
Destrocé mi cara tremenda
frente al espejo
tea mo—mi dije—te amo
Te amo a más que nada en el mundo
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