Today i'm going to write about a chilean writer that i admire, is one of the best chilean writers i think but isn't that famous like Mistral or Neruda or Parra. Maybe the problem is that in our country the people doesn't read too much, perhaps because the high prices of the books (but all got that smartphones that cost like an eye) or because a problem in our culture, i mean, it's like no one likes to read, maybe because they see in that an obligation or something, really i don't know. But, enough with the reflections, i'm going to move straight to tell you all about Manuel Rojas. He's chilean, but he was born in Buenos Aires in 1896. The relation with Argentina in his childhood was solid, because his family went from BAs to Santiago, then went back to Mendoza, and at the end he settle down in Chile. One of the things that i admire is that he cross the Andes mountain chain at foot, also travel into some trains that in that decades join both of the countries. He left school about his 11 years old, but never stop his education, he was a self-educated man and learned about so many things, he work painting, writing, electricist, work in the trains, etc, He did a lot of things. All of that is writed on his famous novel that it's called: Hijo de ladrón. He had a really close relation with the anarchy, i think that was because he was so free, or thats is maybe what he feel, moving around two countries and by foot, doing a lot of differents jobs, reading a lot of books. I admire him, he was like a true artist, a humble one. I recomend you to read his work, he wrote a lot of things, not only novels. He wrote poetry, magazines, manifests, tales, storys, etc. I remember one of his tales, called "Canto y Baile", that is located in a brothel. There, two gangs totally opposites. the Palomillas and the Ladrones, had an encounter, a violent one... The style of writing is in "chilean", i can say haha, they all are from the underworld so they speak like the "coa" of that time. Here is a quote:
"Tan diablo y tan maldito que eres y por dos chuzacitos que te pegué ya te estás muriendo…"
He has some other tales that are really good. I thint that if i meet him i would talk with him like hours, because his mind and his toughts really like me, and it would be awesome to share some words with my favourite chilean writer. I would ask him how was his journey crossing the Andes, and some other things. But he died in 1973, so that isn't going to happend ): He died in March, 7 months before the start of the dictatoriship, i think that if he doesn't died naturally, they would kill him because his political posture, i don't think that he had scape...
Here is a poem:
Gusano
Lo mismo que un gusano que hilara su capullo,
hila en la rueda tuya tu sentir interior;
he pensado que el hombre debe crear lo suyo,
como la mariposa sus alas de color.
Teje serenamente, sin soberbia ni orgullo,
tus ansias y tu vida, tu verso y tu dolor.
Será mejor la seda que hizo el trabajo tuyo,
porque en ella pusiste tu paciencia y tu amor.
Yo, como tú, en mi rueca hilo la vida mía,
y cada nueva hebra me trae la alegría
de saber que entretejo mi amor y mi sentir.
Después, cuando mi muerte se pare ante mi senda,
con mis sedas más blancas levantaré una tienda y,
a su sombra, desnudo, me tenderé a dormir.
Manuel Rojas: Tonada del transeúnte. Santiago de Chile: Ed. Nascimento, 1927.
hila en la rueda tuya tu sentir interior;
he pensado que el hombre debe crear lo suyo,
como la mariposa sus alas de color.
Teje serenamente, sin soberbia ni orgullo,
tus ansias y tu vida, tu verso y tu dolor.
Será mejor la seda que hizo el trabajo tuyo,
porque en ella pusiste tu paciencia y tu amor.
Yo, como tú, en mi rueca hilo la vida mía,
y cada nueva hebra me trae la alegría
de saber que entretejo mi amor y mi sentir.
Después, cuando mi muerte se pare ante mi senda,
con mis sedas más blancas levantaré una tienda y,
a su sombra, desnudo, me tenderé a dormir.
Manuel Rojas: Tonada del transeúnte. Santiago de Chile: Ed. Nascimento, 1927.
That's all, i hope you all stay cool. (about the heat wave)
