Delmira Agustini

Delmira Agustini Poems

Delmira Agustini Biography

Delmira Agustini born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1886. At a young age she began to compose and publish poems in literary journals such as "La Alborada," where she wrote a society column under the modernista pen name "Joujou." Soon she attracted the attention of Latin America's preeminent intellectuals who, however, remarked her beauty and youth over her poetry. This mechanism of textualization, that is, the conversion of the female writer into a literary object, haunted Agustini throughout her career and continued even after her tragic death. Early Career In 1907, Delmira Agustini published her first book of poems, El libro blanco (Frágil), which was very well received by the writers and critics of the time. Three years later, Agustini published Cantos de la mañana, which concluded with a selection of reviews on her first book. In these reviews critics continued to refer to Agustini using metaphors related to virginity and inspiration, an image that Agustini herself assumed and cultivated in accordance with the modernista rhetoric and the restricted roles imposed on the women of the age. The myth of Delmira Agustini's duplicity was born in this atmosphere. On one hand, "la Nena" (the Baby), as she was called in the private sphere, responded to the restrictive societal constructs of the era that denied sexuality to their upper-class women. On the other hand, the writer began to formulate verses that intensified a powerful, sexual imagery. It was at this point that the authors' and critics' delicate epithets changed drastically. After publishing her second and third books, critics started addressing her in terms similar to those later used by Emir Rodríguez Monegal: "pithiness in heat," "sexually obsessed", and "fevered Leda." Needless to say, this approach was never used when critics addressed male writers. Another distorting direction that literary criticism took in response to Agustini was to erase or mask the sexual content of her writings Marriage and Murder In 1913, Delmira Agustini married Enrique Job Reyes, a man detached from the literary arena. The event was attended by some of the best renowned intellectuals of the time such as Carlos Vaz Ferreira, Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, and Manuel Ugarte. With Ugarte, Agustini had maintained an intense epistolary romance. After only a few weeks of marriage, Delmira asked for divorce. Earlier that year, Agustini had published her third poetic work, Los cálices vacíos, where she announces a new book to be publish under the title "Los astros del abismo." She never accomplished what she considered her most mature work because in July of 1914, Enrique Job Reyes killed her in one of their clandestine encounters. Ten years later Delmira Agustini's Complete Works were printed, which included a selection of her unpublished material under the name of "El rosario de Eros." Legacy Modern research on Agustini has given special attention to Agustini's biography, frequently exploring the idiosyncrasy of the author's family, which certainly facilitated her publishing. Critics have often speculated on the dominant and protective personality of Agustini's mother while the poet's puritan father transcribed her erotic verses (Machado de Benvenuto, Silva). Alejandro Cáceres (VVAA) suggests that Delmira's parents had a clear project to devote themselves to their prodigious child. Silvia Molloy comments on the deliberate infantilism that Agustini used as a protective mask. Molloy also compares Agustini's revision of the myth of Leda and the swan with the voyeuristic and misogynist version of Rubén Darío and the modernistas. Other feminist approaches include the study by Gwen Kirkpatrick, who points out the experimental and subversive character of Delmira style. Tina Escaja analyzes Agustini's poems basing her approach on the author's subversion of patriarchal myths and the inscription of female imagery. In 1993, the most complete and rigorous compilation to date of Agustini's poetry appeared, edited and introduced by Magdalena García Pinto. This volume confirms the eminence of the poet and contributes to her recent inclusion into the literary canon in which Delmira Agustini stands out as one of the most extraordinary voices of Latin American modern literature.)

The Best Poem Of Delmira Agustini

Intima (Intimate)

Spanish

Yo te diré los sueños de mi vida
En lo más hondo de la noche azul...
Mi alma desnuda temblará en tus manos,
Sobre tus hombros pesará mi cruz.

Las cumbres de la vida son tan solas,
Tan solas y tan frías! Y encerré
Mis ansias en mí misma, y toda entera
Como una torre de marfil me alcé.

Hoy abriré a tu alma el gran misterio;
Tu alma es capaz de penetrar en mí.
En el silencio hay vértigos de abismo:
Yo vacilaba, me sostengo en ti.

Muero de ensueños; beberé en tus fuentes
Puras y frescas la verdad, yo sé
Que está en el fondo magno de tu pecho
El manantial que vencerá mi sed.

Y sé que en nuestras vidas se produjo
El milagro inefable del reflejo...
En el silencio de la noche mi alma
Llega a la tuya como a un gran espejo.

Imagina el amor que habré soñado
En la tumba glacial de mi silencio!
Más grande que la vida, más que el sueño,
Bajo el azur sin fin se sintió preso.

Imagina mi amor, amor que quiere
Vida imposible, vida sobrehumana,
Tú que sabes si pesan, si consumen
Alma y sueños de Olimpo en carne humana.

Y cuando frente al alma que sentia
Poco el azur para bañar sus alas,
Como un gran horizonte aurisolado
O una playa de luz se abrió tu alma:

Imagina! Estrecha vivo, radiante
El Imposible! La ilusión vivida!
Bendije a Dios, al sol, la flor, el aire,
La vida toda porque tú eras vida!

Si con angustia yo compré esta dicha,
Bendito el llanto que manchó mis ojos!
¡Todas las llagas del pasado ríen
Al sol naciente por sus labios rojos!

¡Ah! tú sabrás mi amor, mas vamos lejos
A través de la noche florecida;
Acá lo humano asusta, acá se oye,
Se ve, se siente sin cesar la vida.

Vamos más lejos en la noche, vamos
Donde ni un eco repercuta en mí,
Como una flor nocturna allá en la sombra
Y abriré dulcemente para ti.


English

I will tell you the dreams of my life
On this deepest of blue nights.
In your hands my soul will tremble,
On your shoulders my cross will rest.

The summits of life are lonely,
So lonely and so cold! I locked
My yearnings inside, and all reside
In the ivory tower I raised.

Today I will reveal a great mystery;
Your soul has the power to penetrate me.
In silence are vertigos of the abyss:
I hesitate, I am sustained in you.

I die of dreams; I will drink truth,
Pure and cool, from your springs.
I know in the well of your breast
Is a fountain that vanquishes my thirst.

And I know that in our lives, this
Is the inexpressible miracle of reflection…
In the silence, my soul arrives at yours
As to a magnificent mirror.

Imagine the love I dreamed
In the glacial tomb of silence!
Larger than life, larger than dream,
A love imprisoned beneath an azure without end.

Imagine my love, love which desires
Impossible life, superhuman life,
You who know how it burdens and consumes,
Dreams of Olympus bound by human flesh.

And when met with a soul which found
A bit of azure to bathe its wings,
Like a great, golden sun, or a shore
Made of light, your soul opened:

Imagine! To embrace the Impossible!
Radiant! The lived illusion!
Blessed be God, the sun, the flower, the air,
And all of life, because you are life!

If I bought this happiness with my anguish,
Bless the weeping that stains my eyes!
All the ulcers of the past laugh
At the sun rising from red lips!

Ah you will know, My Love,
We will travel far across the flowery night;
There what is human frightens, there you can hear it,
See it, feel it, life without end.

We go further into night, we go
Where in me not an echo reverberates,
Like a nocturnal flower in the shade,
I will open sweetly for you.

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