Solar Poems

by Homero Aridjis, George McWhirter (Translator)

Overview

A book of cosmological surrealism in the tradition of Octavio Paz, Solar Poems is the first English translation of a single volume of poems by Mexico’s famed poet-diplomat Homero Aridjis, exploring political consciousness as well as visionary psychological themes. President emeritus of International PEN, the prolific poet is Mexico’s ambassador to UNESCO. Poemas solares (Solar Poems) was published in 2005.

Translator George McWhirter won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Catalan Poems, the F.R. Scott Prize for Selected Poems of José Emilio Pacheco, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for his novel Cage. He is Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate.

"Homero Aridjis is a profoundly ecological poet who has put his fame and time where his principles are, fighting to save the monarch butterflies that winter by the billions in the mountains of his native Michoacán, the sea turtle that lays her eggs on Caribbean beaches, and the gray whale that calves in the lagoons of Baja California. Aridjis writes to the point, with an open eye and a sense of humor . . ." --John Oliver Simon, Poetry Flash

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780872865044
Publisher:	City Lights Books
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.96(w) x 11.28(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Aridjis has published thirty-eight books. English translations include the novels Persephone, 1492 and The Lord of the Last Days, the poetry collections Blue Spaces and Exaltation of Light, and a bilingual selected poems Eyes to See Otherwise. Poemas Solares (Solar Poems) was published in 2005. President Emeritus of International PEN, he is Mexico's Ambassador to UNESCO. George McWhirter was born in Belfast. His Catalan Poems won Commonwealth Poetry Prize, Selected Poems of José Emilio Pacheco, the F.R. Scott Prize, and his novel Cage, the Ethel Wilson Prize. Recent poetry includes The Incorrection and The Anachronicles. Blackbird Theatre produced his version of Euripides's Hecuba in Vancouver, 2007. He is Vancouver's first Poet Laureate.

Read an Excerpt

Los poemas solares
Poema al sol
Oh, girasol vidente,
Oh, semilla amarilla,
tu nombre cabe en una sílaba, dijo el poeta
Oh, padre de las mitologías,
el sueño de la luz produce formas,
dijo el pintor
Si el ojo no fuera solar,
¿cómo podría ver la luz?
dijo el poeta
Si la luz no fuera maestra del color,
¿cómo podría pintar sus ojos?
dijo el pintor
En la gran pirámide de Giza el Sol se levanta cada día,
en el Oriente de tus ojos la noche se pone cada mañana,
dijo el poeta
El Sol no se pone en el horizonte,
el Sol no conoce la noche,
el que oscurece es el ojo, dijo el pintor
No necesito ir a ver las glorias del Sol
en los campos de la tarde, porque el Sol
de las mitologías es el ojo, dijo el poeta
El poema del Sol es infinito:
sólo podemos pintarlo con palabras,
dijo el pintor
Cuando el Sol habla,
todas las criaturas callan,
dijo el poeta
El sol es un Ser,
el Sol es luz presente,
dijo el pintor
La sonrisa infinita de la luz
es un verso que es un poema
que es un universo,
el ojo pensante es un ojo riente,
al ojo que nos piensa lo pintamos
con sus propios rayos, dijo el poeta
El Sol no tiene historia,
el Sol vive en la eternidad del momento,
dijo el pintor
El Sol cara rayada es un jaguar
que recorre el cielo nocturno devorando sombras,
devorando instantes, dijo el poeta
Sol pasado, Sol deificado,
Sol de la mente, Sol demente,
dijo el pintor
La historia de la luz
es una arqueología de los ojos,
dijo el poeta
La luz inteligente viene del Sol
con la temperatura exacta para pintar tus manos,
dijo el pintor
Una figura que proyecta sombra, una silueta
insustancial que te sigue por la calle, eso soy yo,
dijo el poeta
Qué es una sombra:
un esplendor en la espalda
y una mancha en el suelo, dijo el pintor
El Sol es la forma de su amor,
el hombre lleva en los ojos la forma de ese amor,
al final de su vida, el hombre será el espectro de ese amor
Al final del día, entre las sombras largas de la tarde,
el hombre extrañará su pasado esplendor,
dijo el pintor
Dios no existe, dijo un tercero,
Dios vive en tu cabeza,
si no piensas en Él, morirá fuera de tu mente
Si Dios no existe, ¿quién existe?
¿Tu sombra?, ¿tu espectro?, ¿tu olvido?,
replicó el pintor
Dios no existe,
existe un enorme vacío,
dijo el tercero
Si existe un enorme vacío,
existe ya algo,
dijo el poeta
Ésas son
puras palabras,
dijo el tercero
Si Dios no existiera,
tus palabras no existirían,
dijo el poeta
Antes del alba, mis ojos
ya se habían figurado las criaturas que estás viendo
en este momento bajo el Sol, dijo el pintor
Todo comenzó con una imagen,
todo comenzó con la palabra luz,
dijo el poeta
Cuando los perros ladran a la Luna
en realidad están ladrando al Sol,
dijo el pintor
En nuestra mente cabe el universo en expansión,
en nuestra mente en expansión caben todos los astros:
nuestra mente es un verso hacia el universo, dijo el poeta
Me di cuenta de mi propia vejez
cuando vi el primer pelo blanco en la cabeza de mi hija,
dijo el pintor
Deber de hombre,
no estar triste bajo la luz,
dijo el poeta
La enciclopedia del Sol es mi libro de cabecera.
La enciclopedia del Sol es un ojo que brilla
a través de las tapas cerradas, dijo el pintor
En los rincones de mi biblioteca,
oculto entre miles de palabras,
el poema del Sol está brillando, dijo el poeta
Es curioso que nunca antes
haya dibujado figuras más deslumbrantes
con los rayos de luz tenue, dijo el pintor
¿No es curioso que el poema del Sol
llegue de noche y con los ojos cerrados?,
dijo el poeta
El carácter volátil de las criaturas humanas,
la condición entregada de las cosas del mundo,
se las debemos al Sol, dijo el pintor
De tanto verlo, mis ojos se han vuelto solares,
de tanto nombrarlo mis palabras fulguran,
dijo el poeta
De tanto pintar sus ojos me he quedado ciego,
sus imágenes queman mis dedos,
dijo el pintor
La pintura del Sol
la acabarán los otros,
dijo el poeta
El poema del Sol
comenzó hace mucho tiempo,
dijo el pintor
Oh, sílaba amarilla,
oh, girasol vidente,
dijo el poeta

Medianoche domingo-lunes
23-24 de febrero de 2003

Poem to the sun
Oh, sunflower seer,
oh, yellow seed,
your name fits in a single syllable, said the poet
Oh, father of mythologies,
the dream of light produces shapes,
said the painter
If the eye were not solar,
how would it be able to see the light,
said the poet
If the light were not a master of color,
how would it be able to paint her eyes,
said the painter
The Sun rises on the Great Pyramid of Giza every day,
night sets in the Orient of your eyes every morning,
said the poet
The Sun doesn't set on the horizon,
the Sun knows no night,
what darkens is the eye, said the painter
I don't need to go into afternoon fields
to see the glories of the Sun for the Sun
of mythologies is the eye, said the poet
The Sun's poem is infinite,
we can only paint it in words,
said the painter
Whenever the Sun speaks,
every creature goes quiet,
said the poet
The Sun is a Being,
the Sun is light present,
said the painter
Light's infinite smile
is a verse that is a poem
that is a universe,
the thinking eye is a laughing eye,
the eye that thinks us we paint
with its own rays, said the poet
The Sun has no history,
the Sun lives in the eternity of the moment,
said the painter
The stripe-faced Sun is a jaguar
running through the night sky devouring shadows,
devouring instants, said the poet
The Sun erstwhile. A deified Sun.
The Sun in the mind. A demented Sun,
said the painter
Light's history
is an archaeology of eyes,
said the poet
Intelligent light comes from the Sun
at the right temperature to paint your hands,
said the painter
The figure projecting shadow, the insubstantial
silhouette following you down the street, that's me,
said the poet
What is a shadow,
a splendor on one's back
and a blot on the ground, said the painter
The Sun is the shape of its love,
man bears in his eyes the shape of that love,
at life's end man will be the specter of that love
At the end of the day, amid the long evening shadows,
man will miss his past splendor,
said the painter
God doesn't exist, said a third party,
God lives inside your head.
If you don't think of Him, He dies, out of mind
If God doesn't exist, who does?
Your shadow? your ghost? your un-memory?
replied the painter
God doesn't exist,
a gigantic vacuum exists,
said the third party
If a gigantic vacuum exists,
something does exist then,
said the poet
Those are
nothing but words,
said the third party
If God didn't exist,
neither would your words,
said the poet
Before dawn, my eyes
had already devised the creatures you see
at this moment under the Sun, said the painter
Everything began with an image,
everything began with the word light,
said the poet
When dogs bark at the Moon,
they're actually barking at the Sun,
said the painter
The expanding universe fits into our minds,
into our expanding minds fit all the stars,
our mind is a verse towards the universe, said the poet
I was struck by my own old age
the moment I saw the first gray hair on my daughter's head,
said the painter
Man's task:
to not be sad under the light,
said the poet
The encyclopedia of the Sun is my bedside book.
The Sun's encyclopedia is an eye blazing
through the closed covers, said the painter
In the corners of my library,
hidden amid thousands of words,
shines the poem of the Sun, said the poet
It's odd I should never before
have drawn such dazzling figures
with rays of faint light, said the painter
Isn't it odd that the poem of the Sun
arrives with the eyes closed and at night?
said the poet
The volatile nature of human beings,
the giving nature of things in this world
we owe to the Sun, said the painter
From seeing it so much my eyes have grown solar,
from so much naming of it my words glow,
said the poet
From painting its eyes so much I have been rendered blind,
its images sear my fingers,
said the painter
The Sun's portrait,
others will put the finish to,
said the poet
The poem of the Sun
began a long time ago,
said the poet
Oh, sunflower seer,
oh, yellow syllable,
said the poet

Midnight, Sunday-Monday,
February 23-24, 2003.

Table of Contents

THE SOLAR POEMS
Poem to the sun	17
Variations on a solar theme	31
Solar images	39
Solar moments	43
The jaguar	49
The hunt for the red jaguar	55
Old Sun, I salute you	63
THE DREAMED POEMS
Meeting with my father in the orchard	71
Meeting my mother in the old kitchen	73
The ghost of a dog	75
Rufus' soliloquy	79
Like a dog	83
The Balmori cinema	85
Mina Harker's Diary	89
The desire to be oneself	93
Self-portrait of a young man out walking in his past	95
Train	99
The sacred couple	101
Through the green door	103
The double	105
Recommendations for life as a ghost	107
The mysterious Bermuda Triangle	109
The reality of the sun	111
The ghost of the one you love	113
Dogs running on the beach	115
Landscapes of nothing	117
Let us unimagine Lethe	119
In a valley I saw the dead shades	121
Black grass	123
The Fates	125
THE POEMS OF LIGHT
Powers light has	129
Dreaming	131
Light pulsing on the rails	133
Is it not that light?	135
Four ladders	137
The poem of light	139
THE ANGEL OF EVERYDAY MYSTERIES
Antibucolic	143
The angel inspiration	145
Earthquake	147
Blackout 2	149
The jungle aflame	151
Palm tree	153
The stone eye	155
Prickly pears	157
Rock cactus	159
Look, Maria	161
Light's knife	163
The god	165
Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán	167
Lake Ohrid	169
The hunter of the perfect kill	171
Love imperfect things	177
Baudelaire	179
At nightfall Draculas by the hundred	181
There are no efficacious shadows	183
You are astonished by shadows	185
The shape of lightning bolts	187
Downpour	189
Poems for an insomniac	191
Brief Life	203
Window	217
Look, Maria, the autumn leaves	219
Mosquito of the heavy rains	221
I, Cyclops	223
A temple not in the temple	225
Creed in poetry	227
Place	229
THE HUNGERING SPIDER OF DEEP LOVE
The hungering spider of deep love	233
Spiders or no spiders	239
Genesis	243
An autumn love poem	247
Driver death	249
The white cat of early morning	253
The cat talks	257
Ballad of friends now gone	261
Índice
LOS POEMAS SOLARES
Poema al sol	16
Variaciones sobre un tema solar	30
Imágenes solares	38
Momentos solares	42
El jaguar	48
La cacería del jaguar rojo	54
Yo te saludo, viejo Sol	62
LOS POEMAS SOÑADOS
Encuentro con mi padre en la huerta	70
Encuentro con mi madre en la cocina vieja	72
Perro espectral	74
Soliloquio de Rufus	78
Como un perro	82
Cine Balmori	84
Diario de Mina Harker	88
El deseo de ser uno mismo	92
Autorretrato de joven caminando en el pasado	94
Tren	98
La pareja sagrada	100
Por la puerta verde	102
El doble	104
Recomendaciones para la vida fantasmal	106
El misterioso triángulo de las Bermudas	108
La realidad del sol	110
El espectro de tu amada	112
Los perros corriendo por la playa	114
Paisajes de nada	116
Desimaginemos el Leteo	118
En un valle vi las sombras de los muertos	120
Pasto negro	122
Las Parcas	124
LOS POEMAS DE LA LUZ
Poderes de la luz	128
Soñando	130
Latidos de luz sobre los rieles	132
¿No es esa luz	134
Cuatro escaleras	136
Poema de la luz	138
EL ÁNGEL DE LOS MISTERIOS COTIDIANOS
Antibucólica	142
El ángel de la inspiración	144
Terremoto	146
Blackout 2	148
Selva ardiendo	150
Palmera	152
El ojo de piedra	154
Nopales	156
Cacto de las rocas	158
Mira, Maria	160
Navaja de luz	162
El dios	164
Pirámide del Sol, Teotihuacán	166
Lago Ohrid	168
El cazador de la muerte perfecta	170
Amar las cosas inanimadas	176
Baudelaire	178
Al caer la noche cientos de Dráculas	180
No hay sombras eficaces	182
De sombras te asombras	184
La forma de los rayos	186
Diluvio	188
Poemas para un insomnio	190
La vida breve	202
Ventana	216
Mira, María, las hojas del otoño	218
Mosquito de los aguaceros	220
Yo, el cíclope	222
Un templo que no está en el templo	224
Credo en poesía	226
El Lugar	228
LA ARAÑA HAMBRIENTA DEL AMOR PROFUNDO
La araña hambrienta del amor profundo	232
Arañas o no arañas	238
Génesis	242
Un poema otoñal de amor	246
La muerte chofer	248
La gata blanca de las madrugadas	252
La gata habla	256
Balada de los amigos idos	260

What People are Saying About This

Fern O'Berg

"Throughout, Aridjis seamlessly blends psychological spaciness with ethereal political subversion. "--(Fenn O'Berg, Indie Street Radio)

Quincy Troupe

"The poetry of the distinguished Mexican poet and environmentalist, Homero Aridjis, in his new collection, Poemas Solares/Solar Poems, constantly serves up an exhilarating feast of wonderfully evocative images and metaphors that are also daring, cutting edge, full of surprises, often irreverent, historical, but sensual - even erotic - as in this passage from 'The sacred couple': 'For some time now, I have been into dreaming about volcanoes./ In particular, the Valley of Mexico's sacred couple./ He, with the white head and scratched eye; she, with the snowy crater and breasts erect.' Aridjis's poetry is full of love and a profound wonder for all of the universe and its inhabitants - humans, animals, the earth, the seas, the sky and the sun and moon. Poemas Solares/Solar Poems is a beautiful and necessary collection of poems by a wise poet at the peak of his powers."--(Quincy Troupe, author of The Architecture of Language, Miles and Me and co-author with Miles Davis of Miles: The Autobiography)

Editorial Reviews

"Homero Aridjis's poems open a door into the light."—Seamus Heaney

"A visionary poet of lyrical bliss, crystalline concentrations and infinite spaces."—Kenneth Rexroth

"In the poetry of Homero Ardjis there is the gaze, the pulse of the poet . . . the discontinuous time of practical and rational life and the continuity of desire and death; there is the poet's personal truth."—Octavio Paz

"Homero Aridjis is a grand traveler through the continent of poetry."—Henri Michaux

"A great flame passes through the words, the poetry of Homero Aridjis, who sets reality alight in images that at once illuminate and consume it, making life a sister of dream. Homero is a great poet; our century has great need of him."—Yves Bonnefoy

"The poetry of the distinguished Mexican poet and environmentalist, Homero Aridjis, in his new collection, Poemas Solares/Solar Poems, constantly serves up an exhilarating feast of wonderfully evocative images and metaphors that are also daring, cutting edge, full of surprises, often irreverent, historical, but sensual—even erotic—as in this passage from 'The sacred couple': 'For some time now, I have been into dreaming about volcanoes./ In particular, the Valley of Mexico's sacred couple./ He, with the white head and scratched eye; she, with the snowy crater and breasts erect.' Aridjis's poetry is full of love and a profound wonder for all of the universe and its inhabitants—humans, animals, the earth, the seas, the sky and the sun and moon. Poemas Solares/Solar Poems is a beautiful and necessary collection of poems by a wise poet at the peak of his powers."—Quincy Troupe, author of The Architecture of Language, Miles and Me and co-author with Miles Davis of Miles: The Autobiography

"The poet goes wandering between worlds—big rubble, palm trees, temples, monoliths, lost Zulu kings. . . . This is the voice of an older poet; someone who has fought for things: 'The labor of dreaming solo was / to harrow the walls and furrow the sea. I cut the traces and I broke free. . . .'"—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Time

"Solar Poems, the first bilingual edition of a complete single volume of poems by Aridjis (originally published in 2005), continues and extends Aridjis's view of the poet as visionary and of poetry as a kind of seeing, shedding new light on ancient poetic traditions as well as aspects of contemporary life. . . . Luminous in the clarity of its language and its poetic vision, Solar Poems will dazzle the reader."—Odile Cisnero, Literature and Arts of the Americas

"Solar Poems is a profoundly spiritual and uplifting exploration of the self and the universe around us. Aridjis's poetry examines that ever elusive search for a sense of self—both from the intensely intimate reflection on loved ones past and present, and the search for the all encompassing Tao of one's purpose and place in the greater whole."—Apis Teicher, Pacific Rim Review of Books

"Throughout, Aridjis seamlessly blends psychological spaciness with ethereal political subversion."—Fenn O'Berg, Indie Street Radio

"McWhirter captures the spirit of the original Spanish. The poetic language, images, rhythm, humor, emotions, and the rich Mexican cultural segments combine to create a unique lyrical collection in English and Spanish. It is an enjoyable and inspiring book of poetry that addresses Aridjis's deep respect for nature and his hope for its preservation for future generations."—Alva V. Cellini, MultiCultural Review

From the Publisher

Solar Poems is a profoundly spiritual and uplifting exploration of the self and the universe around us. Aridjis' poetry examines that ever elusive search for a sense of self — both from the intensely intimate reflection on loved ones past and present, and the search for the all encompassing Tao of one's purpose and place in the greater whole.
— Pacific Rim Review of Books

Apis Teicher

Luminous in the clarity of its language and its poetic vision, Solar Poems will dazzle the reader.
— Literature and Arts of the Americas

Odile Cisneros

The poet goes wandering between worlds — big rubble, palm trees, temples, monoliths, lost Zulu kings. . . . This is the voice of an older poet; someone who has fought for things: 'The labor of dreaming solo was / to harrow the walls and furrow the sea. I cut the traces and I broke free. . . .
— Los Angeles Times

Susan Salter Reynolds