Poetry
Descubrimiento del alba
Not translated into English
Xavier Abril · 1937
Synopsis
A brief collection in which the poet, who came from surrealist writing, returns to the classical forms of verse and stanza, in the line of Gonzalo de Berceo, Jorge Manrique and John of the Cross. The dawn named in the title serves as a motif for a reflection on the very meaning of poetry, and the pieces turn towards the Spanish tradition and the Golden Age rather than towards the daring of the twenties.
Context
The collection appeared in 1937 from the éditions Front, shortly after the author's return to Peru. In the man who introduced surrealism into the country, it marks a move to classical forms, which critics link to a concern to say what poetry is. The author then fell silent for half a century, until a new collection published in Montevideo in 1987; he recorded a reading of his poems for the Library of Congress, in Washington, on 25 November 1958, and his complete works were gathered in Lima in 2006.
Who it is for
A short collection in Spanish, mostly in verse, in a language clearer than that of his Surrealist books.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the important collections of the century, and as one of the books in Spanish that James Joyce kept in his library; its author remains little known in Peru.
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