Hello, my Spanish language lovers! Today we’re going to introduce to 5 famous Argentine about love. Now that you know how to say “I love you” in Spanish, maybe you could spice things up with a little poetry. And in Argentina, I dare to say, we have some of the best poets in the whole world. So I made a special selection, hope you love it! You will notice some of the poems don’t use neutral gender. However, check this video that explains you better:
1 Argentine poet: Alejandra Pizarnik about love
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She’s the queen of darkness and the first one to go on this top 5 Argentine famous poets about love. Alejandra was born in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires in 1936. Also, Alejandra was a brilliant translator, lived abroad in Paris a couple of years and befriended Julio Cortázar, another amazing Argentine writer. Unfortunately, she committed suicided at 36 years old, but Pizarnik left us amazing poems about love, like this one:
Revelaciones (1956)
En la noche a tu lado
las palabras son claves, son llaves.
El deseo de morir es rey.
Que tu cuerpo sea siempre
un amado espacio de revelaciones.
Revelations (1956)
In the night by your side
the words are keys, they are keys.
The will to die is the king.
Let your body be always
a loved space of revelations.
2 Argentine poet: Alfonsina Storni about love
Storni was a storm of intensity, and maybe we could say that she was one of the first female renowned poets in Argentina. And in her time (20’s / 30’s) that was a lot, actually. Like Pizarnik, she was struggling with serious issues of mental health and didn’t have the care she needed, in my opinion. After a lifetime of devoting to literature (and demanding space for more women in it, hey!), Alfonsina went to Mar del Plata (a beautiful beach city in Buenos Aires) and drowned herself in the sea. I know, I know, I’m telling sad stories, but talking about love can be sad, and also, powerful, like this poem by Storni:
II
OBRA DE AMOR (fragmento)
Rosas y lirios ves en el espino;
juegas a ser: te cabe en una mano,
esmeralda pequeña, el océano;
hablas sin lengua, enredas el destino.
II
WORK OF LOVE (fragment)
Roses and lilies you see in hawthorn;
you play to be: it fits in your hand,
tiny emerald, the ocean;
speaking with no tongue, you twist fate.
3) Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine poet about love
We cannot have a conversation about Argentine literature without mentioning the king: Jorge Luis Borges. He was a brilliant mind who loved books and wrote and translated everything within his reach. Here in this poem, picked for this top 5 Argentine famous poets about love, he feels this way:
El amenazado (fragmento)
Es el amor. Tendré que ocultarme o huir.
Crecen los muros de su cárcel, como en un sueño atroz.
La hermosa máscara ha cambiado, pero como siempre es la única.
¿De qué me servirán mis talismanes: el ejercicio de las letras,
la vaga erudición, el aprendizaje de las palabras que usó el áspero Norte para cantar sus mares y sus espadas,
la serena amistad, las galerías de la biblioteca, las cosas comunes,
los hábitos, el joven amor de mi madre, la sombra militar de mis muertos, la noche intemporal, el sabor del sueño?
Estar contigo o no estar contigo es la medida de mi tiempo.
The threatened (fragment)
It is love. I will have to hide or run.
The walls of its cell grow, like in a terrible dream.
The beautiful mask has changed, but like always it is the only one.
What use will my talismans have: exercising letters,
the lazy erudition, the learning of words that rough North used to sing its
oceans and swords,
the serene friendship, the library’s galleries, the mundane things,
habits, the young love of my mother, the army shadow of my deaths, the night
with no time, the flavor of dreams?
Being with you or without you is the measure of my time.
4 Argentine poet: Silvina Ocampo, a poet in love
Silvina Ocampo was born in 1903 in Buenos Aires. She was very close to Borges and her older sister was Victoria Ocampo, a distinguished cultural producer and writer. Silvina’s work flirt between an innocent perspective about life and the truths that no one wants to hear, but it’s there. Just wanted to share with you an excerpt from her poem “Soneto del amor desesperado” (1949):
Mátame, espléndido y sombrío amor,
si ves perderse en mi alma la esperanza;
si el grito de dolor en mí se cansa
como muere en mis manos esta flor.
Kill me, splendid and somber love,
if you see dissolving hope in my soul;
if the scream of pain in me gets tired
like this flower dying in my hands.
Juan Gelman, Argentine poet
To finish this top 5 Argentine famous poets about love, I’m going to let you, amigues, with Juan Gelman. He’s my favourite poet in the world. I would tell you a lot of things about him, but this excerpt is clearer than my words:
Comentario I
(Santa teresa)
querido amor que partís como un pájaro
acostado sobre los horizontes
¿estará bien darnos todos al todo/sin
ser parte de nada/ni siquiera del vuelo que
te lleva?
Comment I
(Saint Theresa)
dear love that leaves like a bird
lying down over the horizons
will it be fine to give ourselves to everything/with not
being part of anything/not even of the flight that
carries you?
I know amigues, this might be a lot. But love is sweet, passionate and overwhelming, at the same time. Like this song or like our wonderful free lessons at Wanderlust Spanish! Check them out!
