César Vallejo's Poetry Confronts Evil and Suffering

A new bilingual edition of César Vallejo's "Poèmes humains" and "Espagne, écarte de moi ce calice" has been published by Seuil in the "Librairie du 21e siècle" collection, translated and annotated by François Maspero. The article by Pascal Boulanger contrasts Vallejo's materialist, engaged poetry with the Mallarméan tradition of poetic withdrawal. Vallejo (1892-1938) was a Peruvian poet whose work integrates the crushing materiality of the world, shaped by his imprisonment in Trujillo, exile in Paris from 1923, hospitalizations, travels to Berlin, Budapest, and the USSR, his communism, and participation in the Spanish Civil War. "Poèmes humains," written from 1923 to 1937, explores politics, exile, evil, and the monstrosity of lived experience. "Espagne, écarte de moi ce calice," composed of fifteen chants in three months, is a tragic opera addressing war-torn Spain with biblical references. Vallejo died on April 15, 1938, in a clinic on Boulevard Arago in Paris, and was buried at Montrouge cemetery, with Louis Aragon delivering the eulogy.