[New-Poetry] Porchia's Voices online

[Anny Ballardini]

Thank you. I forwarded to my blog.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: jforjames at aol.com 
  To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu 
  Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 11:05 PM
  Subject: [New-Poetry] Porchia's Voices online



  Porchia's Voices
  http://www.antonioporchia.com.ar/siteENG/voices/voices1.htm

  The first published “Voices” (“Voces”) appeared in a small left-wing newspaper called “La Fragua” (“The Forge”). The first collection of “Voices” appeared in Buenos Aires in 1943 in an edition that Porchia paid for by himself and that carried the stamp of Impulse Association. It had a print run of 1000 copies, almost any of which was sold. His first and only published book increased every new edition with some new “Voices”.
  The work of Porchia is totally composed of brief aphorisms, moral or philosophical maxims, many of which are of a high poetic hierarchy. In 1947 the French reviewer Roger Callois published some Voices in the French magazine “La Licorne”. In 1949 he translated and published the book “Voix” G L M Editions-Paris in its full version. Callois was surprised by the depth of “Voices”. This edition obtained a warm welcome and was an immediate success; famous people as André Breton and Henry Miller considered Porchia as one of the greatest poets of the present time. Roger Callois felt motivated to meet Porchia, and describing his first impression, he said: “I was with a man about 50 years old, of a respectful aspect, simple and shy. He didn’t seem scholastic or was dressed in a polished way. He gave the impression of being before a humble man of the working class”. 

  Callois suspected that Porchia was influenced by Buddist writings or maybe by Kafka; but when asked about this, Porchia answered that never in his life had he heard anything of them. He only said that his “Voices” flowed spontaneously and that they represented different moments and experiences of his life, he simply wrote them down.

  The “Voices” translated by Callois in 1949 were nominated in France for the award of the French Book Club, but finally this honor didn’t become definite since the depth and complexity of the “Voices” didn’t make them popular. After this international acknowledgement , the local media started to take him into consideration. His “Voices” began to be published in national magazines such as “Sur” (South) and newspapers such as La Nación, Clarín, La Prensa, etc.

  Porchia also had a brief participation in the closing of a municipal radio program at midnight, in which he read his “Voices”. There appeared a record called “Antonio Porchia by himself”. His only well known book was also translated and published in several languages. In the United States, it was translated and published by the young poet William S. Merwin in 1969. Mr. Merwin selected approximately 250 “Voices” from almost 600 published in several editions in Spanish. His book was also published in French, German and Italian

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