Nostalgia for Death & Hieroglyphs of Desire

by Xavier Villaurrutia

As 1990 Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz makes clear in his book-length study, Hieroglyphs of Desire (translated by Esther Allen), Villaurrutia is a major poet of desire whose beloved is the death we live each day. His poems define life between the nocturnal and diurnal and have taken on added poignancy as uncanny prophecies of individual lives in the age of the AIDS epidemic.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556590539
• ISBN13: 9781556590535
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Todo! Circula en Cada Rama del Arbol de Mis Venas

I was introduced to this book by a friend in high school. He had stolen the only copy out of my schools library.. since then it is has been an impossible task to find the book. I don't know yet if this is the right one! Villaurrutia is an amazingly dark poet who writes exactly what the mind is thinking! Great translation, but nothing close to what the spanish is really saying! -Jamie

Is this it?

An excellent collection of poems for the Modern Goth or anyone who isn't afraid of admitting that they've ever felt absolutely alone. Too bad it's so hard to find and the only published poems in translation from this poet. Dark in an age where it wasn't popular to be dark, accidentally rich in romance and rhythm, it brings literature back to a period when political statements took a back seat to the root of poetry -- writing about what you're feeling. Again, I wish there were more of Villaurrutia's work available.