Zurita Purgatorio Intro

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"Deserts", from "Purgatorio" Author(s): Raúl Zurita and Jeremy Jacobson Source: Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 11, No. 23 (Fall - Winter, 1983), pp. 85-97Published by: Latin American Literary ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20119356Accessed: 22-04-2015 18:44 UTC

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?DESERTS?, FROM PURGATORIO BY

RAUL ZURITA

TRANSLATION AND INTRODUCTION BY JEREMY JACOBSON

Ra?l Zurita was born in Santiago, Chile in 1951. He studied engineer ing for five years, sold typewriters for a time and, since then, has just

managed to survive: teaching a video film course here and there, the odd

grant. Since 1970 he has been working on a unified, structured work, two

parts of which have been published: Purgatorio, Editorial Universitaria,

Santiago, 1979 and Antepara?so, Ediciones Mario Fonseca, Santiago, 1982. He has also been published in the magazines Cal, Posdata and Trilce and in

cluded in the anthologies Ganymedes 6, Santiago, 1980 and Nueva An

tolog?a de Poes?a Castellana, [New Anthology of Spanish and Spanish American Poetry], Editorial Universitaria, 1981.

The one constant in Zurita's life is his writing, which says a lot, because he considers his art a vital process of which he is part. He likes to quote St. Paul on how the madness of the crucified god refutes all human wisdom, and in Purgatorio there is the phrase ?la locura de mi trabajo? (the madness of my work). Zurita's work is a human Passion. It takes on the suffering of

man in the poem and in his life. Once, near madness, Zurita burnt his cheek with acid, an act which has attracted a certain scandalous notoriety, but in

Purgatorio the poetic voice, which is poet, female prostitute, saint and

superstar, says: ?Mis amigos dicen que /estoy muy mala/porque me quem? las mejillas? (My friends say/I'm off my head/because I burnt my cheek).

The poem also includes the poet's I.D. picture and a psychiatric report. His madness is the madness of his work.

His work is not just written on the page either. In 1979 he co-founded Colectivo de Acciones de Arte (Art Action Collective). This group has car

ried out various projects, the best known of which is ?Para no morir de hambre en el arte? (So as not to die of hunger in art). The action takes place in the streets of the city; art intervenes and acts upon our daily experience. In Antepara?so the page takes the action back into the world, for the poem is organized around fifteen phrases written in Spanish over the sky of New

York in May 1982. And the words will go out again when Zurita writes in different languages, including Quechua, on the skies of Tokyo, Berlin and other cities.

Purgatorio?Antepara?so: why not Infierno and Para?so? Perhaps because they would be too much death and life for us. And yet our worst dread and fondest hope underlie all his work. They are part of its am

bivalence, the ambivalence of a poet who declares himself an atheist but who structures his art around religious metaphors and religious essence.

Ra?l Zurita would be a blasphemous saint if he were not so human, if he

85



86 Latin American Literary Review

were not just one worker more, as he calls himself, trying to give his am

bivalence direction, together with others.

Entonces, aplastando la mejilla quemada contra los ?speros granos de este suelo pedregoso

?como un buen sudamericano?

alc? por un minuto m?s mi cara hacia el cielo llorando

porque yo cre? en la felicidad, hab?a vuelto a ver de nuevo las irredarg?ibles estrellas.

Then, flattening my burnt cheek

against the rough grit of this stony ground ?like a good South American?

I raised my face for one minute more towards the sky crying because I believed in happiness, I had seen once again the irrefutable stars.



Purgatorio, Translated by Jeremy Jacobson 87

COMO UN SUE?O

Claro: este es el Desierto de Atacama buena cosa no

val?a ni tres chauchas llegar all? y no has visto el

Desierto de Atacama ?oye: lo viste all? cierto? bueno

si no lo has visto anda de una vez y no me jodas

LAPSUS Y ENGA?OS SE LLAMAN MI PROPIA MENTE EL DESIERTO DE CHILE

LIKE A DREAM

Of course, this is the Atacama

Desert a nice thing indeed it

didn't cost you twopence to get there and you haven't seen the

Atacama Desert ? hey, you did

see it there, didn't you? well if you haven't seen it go on

once and for all and get off my back

MY OWN MIND IS CALLED LAPSUS AND DECEIT THE CHILEAN DESERT

COMO UN SUE?O

Mira qu? cosa: el Desierto de Atacama son puras manchas

sab?as? claro pero no te

costaba nada mirarte un poco tambi?n a t? mismo y decir:

Anda yo tambi?n soy una buena

mancha Cristo ?oye lindo no

has visto tus pecados? bien

pero entonces d?jalo mejor encumbrarse por esos cielos

manchado como en tus sue?os




COMO ESPEJISMOS Y AURAS EL INRI ES MI MENTE EL DESIERTO DE CHILE

LIKE A DREAM

Look at it, the Atacama Desert is nothing but stains did you know? sure you did but it didn't cost you anything to look at yourself a little too and say: So what I'm also a good Christ

stain ? hey, gorgeous haven't you

gone through your sins? all

right in that case just let it soar through those skies

stained like in your dreams

LIKE MIRAGES AND AURAS THE INRI IS MY MIND THE CHILEAN DESERT

COMO UN SUE?O

Vamos: no quisiste saber nada de ese Desierto maldito ?te dio

miedo yo s? que te dio miedo cuando supiste que se hab?a internado por esas cochinas

pampas ?claro no quisiste

saber nada pero se te volaron los colores de la cara y bueno

dime: te cre?as que era poca cosa enfilarse por all? para volver despu?s de su propio nunca dado vuelta extendido como una llanura frente a nosotros

YO USTED Y LA NUNCA SOY LA VERDE PAMPA EL DESIERTO DE CHILE

LIKE A DREAM

Let's face it, you didn't want to know




anything about that damned Desert? you were scared I know you were scared when you found out that it had made its way into those filthy pampas

? sure you didn't want to

know anything but you went white and

well tell me, did you really think it was nothing to head straight there

and then to come back from your own

never turned inside out stretching like a prairie in front of us

YOU ME AND THE NEVER I AM THE GREEN PAMPA THE CHILEAN DESERT

EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA

THE ATACAMA DESERT

QUIEN PODR?A LA ENORME DIGNIDAD DEL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA COMO UN PAJARO

SE ELEVA SOBRE LOS CIELOS APENAS EMPUJADO POR EL VIENTO

WHO COULD THE VAST DIGNITY OF THE ATACAMA DESERT LIKE A BIRD

IT RISES ABOVE THE SKIES BARELY NUDGED BY THE WIND

I

A LAS INMACULADAS LLANURAS

i. Dejemos pasar el infinito del Desierto de Atacama

ii. Dejemos pasar la esterilidad de estos desiertos

Para que desde las piernas abiertas de mi madre se

levante una Plegaria que se cruce con el infinito del

Desierto de Atacama y mi madre no sea entonces sino un punto de encuentro en el camino




iii. Yo mismo ser? entonces una Plegaria encontrada en el camino

iv. Yo mismo ser? las piernas abiertas de mi madre

Para que cuando vean alzarse ante sus ojos los desolados

paisajes del Desierto de Atacama mi madre se concentre en gotas de agua y sea la primera lluvia en el desierto

v. Entonces veremos aparecer el Infinito del Desierto

vi. Dado vuelta desde s? mismo hasta dar con las piernas de mi madre

vii. Entonces sobre el vac?o del mundo se abrir?

completamente el verdor infinito del Desierto de Atacama

I

TO THE IMMACULATE PRAIRIES

i. Let's allow in the infinity of the Atacama Desert

ii. Let's allow in the sterility of these deserts

So that from my mother's parted legs a Supplication may rise and cross with the infinity of the Atacama

Desert and my mother become no more than a meeting

point on the road

iii. And I will then be a Supplication met with on the road

iv. And I too will be my mother's parted legs

So that when you see rise up before your eyes the

desolate landscape of the Atacama Desert my mother

will become drops of water and be the first rain in the desert

v. Then shall we see appear the Infinity of the Desert

vi. Turned inside out upon itself until coming together with my mother's parted legs




vii. Then over the world's emptiness there will open up the infinite greenness of the Atacama Desert

EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA II

Helo all? Helo all?

suspendido en el aire El Desierto de Atacama

i. Suspendido sobre el cielo de Chile diluy?ndose entre auras

ii. Convirtiendo esta vida y la otra en el mismo Desierto de Atacama ?urico perdi?ndose en el aire

iii. Hasta que finalmente no haya cielo sino Desierto de Atacama y todos veamos entonces nuestras propias pampas fosforescentes carajas encumbr?ndose en el horizonte

THE ATACAMA DESERT II

There it is There it is

hanging in the air The Atacama Desert

i. Hanging over the Chilean sky fading in the breeze

ii. Turning this life and the beyond into the selfsame Atacama Desert ethereal melting away in the air

iii. Until finally there is no sky but only Atacama Desert and then we may all see our own

pampas phosphorescent damn them soaring on the horizon

EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA III

i. Los desiertos de atacama son azules




ii. Los desiertos de atacama no son azules ya ya dime

lo que quieras

iii. Los desiertos de atacama no son azules porque por all? no vol? el esp?ritu de J. Cristo que era un perdido

iv. Y si los desiertos de atacama fueran azules todav?a

podr?an ser el Oasis Chileno para que desde todos

los rincones de Chile contentos viesen flamear por el aire las azules pampas del Desierto de Atacama

THE ATACAMA DESERT III

i. The atacama deserts are blue

ii. The atacama deserts are not blue all right you can

tell me whatever you want

iii. The atacama deserts are not blue because the spirit of

J. Christ that lost soul didn't fly thereabouts

iv. And if the atacama deserts were still blue they could be the Chilean Oasis so that from all the corners of

Chile the people might joyfully see flaring through the air the blue pampas of the Atacama Desert

EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA IV

i. El Desierto de Atacama son puros pastizales

ii. Miren a esas ovejas correr sobre los pastizales del

desierto

iii. Miren a sus mismos sue?os balar all? sobre esas

pampas infinitas

iv. Y si no se escucha a las ovejas balar en el Desierto

de Atacama nosotros somos entonces los pastizales de Chile para que en todo el espacio en todo el mundo en toda la patria se escuche ahora el balar de nuestras

propias almas sobre esos desolados desiertos miserables




THE ATACAMA DESERT IV

i. The Atacama Desert is all pastures

ii. Look at those sheep skipping over the desert pastures

iii. Look at your own dreams bleating there over those endless pampas

iv. And if the sheep cannot be heard bleating in

the Atacama Desert then we are the pastures of Chile so that in all space in all the world in all the land our own souls can be heard

bleating over those miserable desolate deserts

EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA V

Di t? del silbar de Atacama el viento borra como nieve el color de esa llanura

i. El Desierto de Atacama sobrevol? infinidades de

desiertos para estar all?

ii. Como el viento si?ntanlo silbando pasar entre el

follaje de los ?rboles

iii. M?renlo transparentarse all? lejos y s?lo acompa?ado por el viento

iv. Pero cuidado: porque si al final el Desierto de Atacama no estuviese donde debiera estar el mundo entero comenzar?a a silbar entre el follaje de los ?rboles y nosotros nos ver?amos entonces en el

mism?simo nunca transparentes silbantes en el

viento trag?ndonos el color de esta pampa

THE ATACAMA DESERT V

You tell of the whistling of Atacama the wind blots out like snow

the colour of that prairie




i. The Atacama Desert flew over innumerable deserts to be there

ii. Feel it like the wind pass whistling through the

foliage of the trees

iii. Look at it shine through far off over there and

joined by the wind only

iv. But watch out, because if in the end the Atacama Desert were not where it should be the whole world would begin to whistle through the foliage of the trees and we would then see ourselves in the very same never transparent whistling swallowing up in the wind the colour of this pampa

EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA VI

No sue?en las ?ridas llanuras Nadie ha podido ver nunca

Esas pampas quim?ricas

i. Los paisajes son convergentes y divergentes en el Desierto de Atacama

ii. Sobre los paisajes convergentes y divergentes Chile es convergente y divergente en el Desierto de Atacama

iii. Por eso lo que est? all? nunca estuvo all? y si ese

siguiese donde est? ver?a darse vuelta su propia vida hasta ser las quim?ricas llanuras des?rticas iluminadas esfum?ndose como ellos

iv. Y cuando vengan a desplegarse los paisajes convergentes y divergentes del Desierto de Atacama Chile entero habr? sido el m?s all? de la vida porque a cambio de Atacama ya se est?n extendiendo como un sue?o los desiertos de nuestra propia quimera all? en estos llanos del demonio

THE ATACAMA DESERT VI

Do not dream the arid prairies



Purgatorio, Translated by Jacobson 95

No one could ever see

Those unreal pampas

i. The landscapes are converging and diverging in the

Atacama Desert

ii. Above the converging and diverging landscapes Chile

is converging and diverging in the Atacama Desert

iii. That is why what is there was never there and if he

stayed in the same place he would see his own life turn inside out until becoming the illusory prairies deserted lit up vanishing like them

iv. And when the converging and diverging landscapes of

the Atacama Desert come to unfold all Chile will

have been the hereafter for in exchange for Atacama our own feverish deserts are already stretching out

like a dream there over those hellish plains

VII PARA ATACAMA DEL DESIERTO

i. Miremos entonces el Desierto de Atacama

ii. Miremos nuestra soledad en el desierto

Para que desolado frente a estas fachas el paisaje devenga una cruz extendida sobre Chile y la soledad de mi facha vea entonces el redimirse de las otras fachas: Mi propia Redenci?n en el Desierto

iii. Qui?n dir?a entonces del redimirse de mi facha

iv. Qui?n hablar?a de la soledad del desierto

Para que mi facha comience a tocar tu facha y tu facha

a esa otra facha y as? hasta que todo Chile no sea sino

una sola facha con los brazos abiertos: una larga facha

coronada de espinas

v. Entonces la Cruz no ser? sino el abrirse de brazos

de mi facha




vi. Nosotros seremos entonces la Corona de Espinas del Desierto

vii. Entonces clavados facha con facha como un Cruz

extendida sobre Chile habremos visto para siempre el Solitario Expirar del Desierto de Atacama

VII FOR ATACAMA OF THE DESERT

i. Let us look then at the Atacama Desert

ii. Let us look at our loneliness in the desert

So that desolate before these shadows the landscape becomes a cross stretched out over Chile and the loneliness of my shadow then sees the redeeming of the other shadows: My own

Redemption in the Desert

iii. Who would then credit the redeeming of my shadow

iv. Who would speak of the desert's loneliness

So that my shadow begins to touch your shadow and your shadow that other shadow and so on until all Chile is just one shadow with open arms: one long shadow crowned with thorns

v. Then the Cross will be merely my shadow opening its arms

vi. We will then be the Desert's Crown of Thorns

vii. Then nailed shadow to shadow like a Cross

stretched out over Chile we will have seen for ever

the Solitary Expiring of the Atacama Desert

EPILOGO

COMO UN SUE?O EL SILBIDO DEL VIENTO TODAV?A RECORRE EL ?RIDO ESPACIO DE

ESAS LLANURAS




EPILOGUE

LIKE A DREAM THE WHISTLING OF THE WIND STILL ECHOES THROUGH THE ARID REALM OF

THOSE PRAIRIES



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Zurita Purgatorio Intro