Oliverio Girondo is an argentine poet, born in Buenos Aires to a wealthy family, who lived from 1891- 1967. He traveled extensively between Argentina and Europe during his lifetime. His contemporaries included Jorge Luis Borges. Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca were among his friends.
Abroad in France, in 1922, he published 20 Poems to Be Read in a Trolley Car, his first volume of verse, influenced by the Parisian scene and Guillaume Apollinaire.
Girondo also wrote plays, known for being avant-garde, and later in his life painted in the surrealist style, though his visual work was never well-known.
He was an active contributor to Martín Fierro, an important Argentinean journal of arts and culture. The journal’s manifesto, appearing in 1924, was Girondo’s work.
The front page of Martin Fierro, issue n.4, with Oliverio Girondo's manifesto. (May 15, 1924)
Martín Fierro believes in the importance of the intellectual contribution of America, cut from any previous umbilical cord.”
The manifesto claimed that the American cultural movement would no longer serve mornings “as a toothpaste, a towel to France and a soap to England.”
In 1946 he married the poet Nora Lange. After his death from injuries sustained after he was hit by a car, the surrealist poet Enrique Molina collected his last works. Little translated into English, he remains popular in Argentina and for readers of Spanish.
I would love to see a few of his poems, if you can place them in an upcoming blog, that would be wonderful. There certainly is alot of literary artists in Latin America that are unknown and need to be introduced to the rest of the world. Your blog is doing a great job at it! Keep it up!
Thanks for talking on Oliverio Girondo. I knew him thanks to the film “El lado oscuro del corazón”. By this time I was looking for poets. And I found Bendetti, Lorca, Hierro, Valente, Paz, Gelman, Dylan Thomas, Whitman, Ginsberg, Huidobro,… but the very best for me was Oliverio Girondo.
By the way, my blog is titled “Basta que alguien me piense para ser un recuerdo”,… one of his sentences.
And if I have to talk about writers who writes novels… then the best for me are Cortazar, Borges and Camus but close to them is Roberto Bolaño.
Who wouldn’t like to be a savage detective?
http://aitorartaiz.wordpress.com/
Yes I learned recently that the film (oscuro lado…) is based on Girondo’s poetry, I noticed Benedatti in the film before but not Girondo. Really interesting!
I love Borges and Camus too, but Bolano is my favorite right now. The Savage Detectives is awsome! I want to do some blog posts on the novel, but it’s size makes it difficult to tackle. Any ides?
Have you read Bolano’s poetry at all, in Los Perros Romanticos?
By the way please comment on my translations of Girondo if you have any criticism. Why is he your favorite after all?
Thanks so much for your comment!
By the way, where are you located?
Hi again,
I have only read novels by Bolaño. Tha last one his huge book “2666″. It is really good but, in my opnion, The Savage Detectives is far better.
I am afraid that my English is not good enough to comment your translations but I am going to read it.
(By the way, reading the personal letters by Cortazar I found that his books were translated into English by another writer. It is strange because Cortazar made translations (for example, Edgar Allan Poe into English).
Why do I like Girondo’s poetry?
“No sé, me importa un pito que las mujeres tengan
los senos como magnolias o como pasas de higo; un
cutis de durazno o de papel de lija. Le doy una
importancia igual a cero, al hecho de que amanezcan
con un aliento afrodisíaco o con un aliento insecticida.
Soy perfectamente capaz de soportarles una nariz que
sacaría el primer premio en una exposición de zanahorias;
¡pero eso sí! -y en esto soy irreductible- no les
perdono, bajo ningún pretexto, que no sepan volar. Si
no saben volar ¡pierden el tiempo las que pretendan
seducirme!
Oliverio Girondo
The first time I read it I was young, however I perfectly understood these words.
Bye
Hi
I’d like to know if there is any “official” english version of the poem “Arena” (sand) of Oliverio Girondo.
If you have a piece of information please let me know
thanks a lot!
Virginia