Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Arturo Borja : Four/Four: The Decapitated Generation : translated by Tristan Partridge

 

Four/Four: The Decapitated Generation

 

This series, posting monthly across four months, presents four poems by each of four Ecuadorian modernist poets known collectively as the ‘Decapitated Generation’ (la generación decapitada). That name, applied posthumously by essayists, references the fact that all four poets died young, by suicide. Together, their works reflect the social influence of a time of great change in Ecuador at the turn of the last century, as well as the literary influence of both Rubén Darío and the ‘cursed’ French poets (Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine). Translations are by the California-based writer Tristan Partridge.

The four central members of the Decapitated Generation are:
Medardo Ángel Silva (1898-1919); Humberto Fierro (1890-1929); Arturo Borja (1892-1912); Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño (1889- 1927). Their work is scarcely available in English. Born on the coast and not a member of the country’s elite, only Ángel Silva grappled directly with the racial, sexual, and class demands of a society keen to exclude him. Despite their differing backgrounds, however, all four poets share an acute focus on despair and absurdity, each offering their own perspectives on beauty, loss, creativity, and death.



Two journeys

Month of Joy. Brought in on a breeze
of melody and sensation;
the wild finery of butterflies,
the purity of fire, the grandeur of the sea;
and those tears
that flow without sorrow,
Youth!

Month of Sadness. A skull
with mystery in its gaze;
the monotony of deserts,
the swift decay of smoke, sorry to arrive;
and that smile
that feels no joy,
Old age!

 

 

Dos viajes

Mes de alegría. Brisas de aromas
y melodías tuvo al llegar;
galas variadas las mariposas,
pureza el fuego, grandeza el mar;
y esas lágrimas
que no son tristes,
¡la mocedad!

Mes de tristeza. La calavera
tuvo el misterio en su mirar;
monotonía los arenales,
fin presto el humo, pena el llegar;
y esa sonrisa
que no es alegre,
¡la ancianidad!

 

 

C. Chaminade

A trembling spiderweb thread
under the pale kiss of the moon.
An autumn rose, an iris, a
rose silently losing its petals.

The passionate and painful
complaint of Pierrot begging.
The grim
death march that Fortune
sings with cursory neglect.

The soft serenades of women singing. Tender,
soothing serenades beneath
a canopy of Arabian lace.
(...)

 

 

C. Chaminade

Una tela de araña temblorosa
bajo el pálido beso de la luna.
Una rosa otoñal, un lirio, una
rosa que se deshoja silenciosa.

La queja apasionada y dolorosa
de Pierrot que suplica. La importuna
serenata fatal que la Fortuna
va cantando fugaz y veleidosa.

Ronda armoniosa de mujeres. Ronda
acariciante y apacible bajo
el arábigo encaje de la fronda.
(...)

 

 

A Vessel For Tears

The sorrow… The melancholy…
The evening, sinister and dismal…
The rain, untold and relentless...
The sorrow… The melancholy…
A life so gray, so sordid.

Life, life, life!
The black hidden misery
gnawing at us without mercy
and youth, wretched and lost,
even youth has lost its heart.

Why do I have, Lord, this sorrow
being as young as I am?
I have already fulfilled what your law commands:
Even what I do not have, I give…

 

 

Vas Lacrimae

La pena… La melancolía…
La tarde siniestra y sombría…
La lluvia implacable y sin fin…
La pena… La melancolía…
La vida tan gris y tan ruin.

¡La vida, la vida, la vida!
La negra miseria escondida
royéndonos sin compasión
y la pobre juventud perdida
que ha perdido hasta su corazón.

¿Por qué tengo, Señor, esta pena
siendo tan joven como soy?
Ya cumplí lo que tu ley ordena:
hasta lo que no tengo, lo doy…

 

 

For me your memory   

For me your memory today is like a shadow
of the ghost we blessed with adoration…
I was good to you.
Your disdain does not surprise me,
you owe me nothing, I blame you for nothing.

I was good to you like a flower. One day
you ripped me up by the roots from a garden of dreams;
gifting the world the scent of pure sadness,
leaving the world unharmed you left me…

I blame you for nothing, except perhaps my sorrow,
this ceaseless sorrow that takes my life,
that casts me as a dying man praying
to the Virgin, begging her for a cure.

 

 

Para mí tu recuerdo      

Para mí tu recuerdo es hoy como una sombra
del fantasma que dimos el nombre de adorada…
Yo fui bueno contigo. Tu desdén no me asombra,
pues no me debes nada, ni te reprocho nada.

Yo fui bueno contigo como una flor. Un día
del jardín en que solo soñaba me arrancaste;
te di todo el perfume de mi melancolía,
y como quien no hiciera ningún mal me dejaste…

No te reprocho nada, o a lo más mi tristeza,
esta tristeza enorme que me quita la vida,
que me asemeja a un pobre moribundo que reza
a la Virgen pidiendo que le cure la herida.

 

 

 

Arturo Borja (1892 - 1912; Quito, Ecuador). Despite being limited in volume, Borja’s literary work has established him as a key figure in Ecuadorian Modernist poetry. At age fifteen, seeking treatment for an eye injury, Borja traveled with his uncle to Paris, where he immersed himself in the city’s literary culture. In 1910, he published a Spanish translation of “Les Chants de Maldoror” (The Songs of Maldoror) by the Comte de Lautréamont in the literary magazine Letras. Borja is best known for his collection of 28 poems, “La flauta de ónix” (The onyx flute), which was published posthumously in 1920. Borja died aged 20 of a morphine overdose in 1912.

image source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arturo_Borja_P%C3%A9rez,_fotograf%C3%ADa.jpg

Tristan Partridge is a writer and artist originally from West Yorkshire, now living in Santa Barbara, California. With a background in social and visual anthropology, and drawing on extensive fieldwork in Ecuador, Tristan’s writing and documentary work address how people engage in diverse struggles to maintain connectedness. Working across disciplines, Tristan has published poetry (Ritual Gratitude), photography (Mingas+Solidarity), text scores (A Year of Deep Listening), and books of critical theory (Burning Diagrams in Anthropology). Tristan also writes for English- and Spanish-language media on issues of Indigenous rights and environmental justice.

 

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