Delmira Agustini (October 24, 1886 – July 6, 1914) was a Uruguayan poet of the early 20th century.[1]

Delmira Agustini
Born(1886-10-24)October 24, 1886
Montevideo, Uruguay
DiedJuly 6, 1914(1914-07-06) (aged 27)
Montevideo, Uruguay
Occupation
  • Poet
  • writer
PeriodModernist
Literary movementPost Modernist
SpouseEnrique Job Reyes

Biography

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Born in Montevideo, Uruguay,[2] she began writing when she was ten and had her first book of poems published when she was still a teenager.[3]

She wrote for the magazine La Alborada (The Dawn). She formed part of the Generation of 1900, along with Julio Herrera y Reissig, Leopoldo Lugones and Horacio Quiroga.

Rubén Darío, a Nicaraguan poet, was an important influence for her. She looked up to him as a teacher. Darío compared Agustini to Teresa of Ávila, stating that Agustini was the only woman writer since the saint to express herself as a woman.

She specialized in the topic of female sexuality during a time when the literary world was dominated by men. Agustini's writing style is best classified in the first phase of modernism, with themes based on fantasy and exotic subjects.

Eros, god of love, symbolizes eroticism and is the inspiration to Agustini's poems about carnal pleasures. Eros is the protagonist in many of Agustini's literary works. She even dedicated her third book to him titled Los Cálices Vacíos (Empty Chalices) in 1913, which was acclaimed as her entrance into a new literary movement, "La Vanguardia" (The Vanguard).

Personal life and death

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She married Enrique Job Reyes on August 14, 1913. Their divorce was finalized on June 5, 1914. A month after that, Reyes fatally shot Agustini twice in the head and afterwards committed suicide. She died in her house in Montevideo, Uruguay.[4] She is buried in the Central Cemetery of Montevideo.

Bibliography

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  • 1907: El libro blanco[5]
  • 1910: Cantos de la mañana[5]
  • 1913: Los cálices vacíos, pórtico de Rubén Darío[5]
  • 1924: Obras completas ("Complete Works"): Volume 1, El rosario de Eros; Volume 2: Los astros del abismo, posthumously published (died 1914), Montevideo, Uruguay: Máximo García[5]
  • 1944: Poesías, prologue by Luisa Luisi (Montevideo, Claudio García & Co.[5])
  • 1971: Poesías completas, prólogue and notes by Manuel Alvar, Barcelona: Editorial Labor[5]

Works translated into other languages

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Valerie Martínez has translated many of Agustini's poems into English.[6] Some of Agustini's poems are translated into Nepali by Suman Pokhrel, and collected in an anthology titled Manpareka Kehi Kavita.[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ "Delmira Agustini | Uruguayan writer". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  2. ^ "Reconesse Database - Delmira Agustini". beta.reconesse.org. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  3. ^ "Delmira Agustini Poems > My poetic side". mypoeticside.com. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  4. ^ "Delmira Agustini - Delmira Agustini Biography - Poem Hunter". www.poemhunter.com. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Web page titled "Delmira Agustini" Archived September 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at the Universitat Jaume's "Modernismo en España e Hispanoamérica" website. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  6. ^ "Drunken Boat | Delmira Agustini". Archived from the original on September 23, 2019. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  7. ^ Akhmatova, Anna; Świrszczyńska, Anna; Ginsberg, Allen; Agustini, Delmira; Farrokhzad, Forough; Mistral, Gabriela; Jacques, Jacques; Mahmoud, Mahmoud; Al-Malaika, Nazik; Hikmet, Nazim; Qabbani, Nizar; Paz, Octavio; Neruda, Pablo; Plath, Sylvia; Amichai, Yehuda (2018). Manpareka Kehi Kavita मनपरेका केही कविता [Some Poems of My Choice] (in Nepali). Translated by Pokhrel, Suman (First ed.). Kathmandu: Shikha Books. p. 174.
  8. ^ Tripathi, Geeta (2018), अनुवादमा 'मनपरेका केही कविता' [Manpareka Kehi Kavita in Translation], Kalashree, pp. 358–359.
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See also …
  Media at Wikimedia Commons
  Works at Wikisource
Works at Cervantes Virtual