Santiago de Chile
January 22, 1950
Cortege and Epinicion
David Rosenmann-Taub
Published by Cruz del Sur
by Hernán Díaz Arrieta
(Alone)
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 Under
the prestigious auspices of Cruz del Sur (Southern Cross),
a house which does not harbor just anything, an entirely new
star is giving off its first, mixed, strange, twinkling but
already unmistakable beams. |
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What is, who is David Rosenmann-Taub?
He will answer us
I was God and I was walking without knowing it.
You were oh you, my orchard, God and I loved you.
[Poem
XIX]
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God
is
of concern to David Rosenmann-Taub, he is irreverently familiar
with Him, as the titles announce...God is moving
to another house. In a fancy car..., God
always has a cold: is he running a fever..." And
these poems contain audacious fantasies such as can only
be
found in those of the Romancero or the mystics. |
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God
is moving to another house. In a fancy car
and with great care he packs all the stars
of the East. Into a sack he tosses the Head Angel:
the china of his apparel rings in a festival.
[Poem
XXII]
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With
this sort of dissonant, prosaic note, beautiful images of
a childlike simplicity alternate with features whose symbolism
evokes a less somber Claudel. |
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The clumsy seraphs trip over a curl
of Lucifer's. The choruses lie with the crockery.
And thus between throne and thunder the palace is dismantled.
[Poem
XXII] |
This
could appear in a children's story. Further on, the tone changes,
the meaning emerges amidst gibes and a revealing shudder passes
through. David Rosenmann-Taub is not at peace before God,
in spite of his youthful poise. |
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Gravity and time are put in a drawer
along with the destiny of the soul and the eyeglasses
of God. The tumultuous ship sets forth
on the waves of chaos toward the new house.
Before pulling out of the gnawed kingdom,
God goes up to the roof terrace to see if by an oversight
he has left something behind: his eyes settle
on the roofless parlors: although he looks at and through
the vacant corridors, he forgets death
and life which flog each other in an endless corner.
And God leaves without seeing them, but he feels a shiver.
[Poem
XXII] |
It
is
not a very perceptive reader who is surprised, after this
temerity, to find the author [at another point in the book]
in "continual ecstasy": |
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I follow
and pursue the divine flame.
I always drown in divine water.
Blind I am blinded by divine summit...
[Poem
XV] |
Or is
even surprised to hear the author whisper, repentant, a prayer
(vaguely comparable to the very famous sonnet of Sánchez
Mazas): |
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Thus
stretched as you have asked,
on my knees, the dazzling visions,
and with grieving hands,
slighter than a split bird,
in my
ample promised repose
from when I fed the soaked
slave joists, until your swords
sliced my arid heartbeat,
in
my final bed here you have me.
I do not know if you will come and I fear
that you may not come to my poor temples
to
take this your vineyard's fire
that I have sustained on earth:
right away, I want your summons right away.
[Poem
XVI]
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This
religious cry is among the true novelties that David Rosenmann-Taub
brings to the new poetry of Chile. The young people of the
Nerudian period were going on another path and these visions
did not assail them. Could it be that a pioneer has appeared,
someone capable of shaking the routine pattern not just of
the last twenty or thirty years but also of yesterday and
of the day before?
It would
be the best news of the year.
Another
surprising, unexpected feature among the lyrical raptures:
the humorous note. We do not know whether the poet wanted
to conjure it up, whether or not the intention was to produce
laughter – something which inhibits many people from
laughing, because they don't dare go against explicit or implicit
intentions of a work. The important fact for us is that rarely
has a "violent and unexpected contrast" had a greater
comic effect than the final adjective of the final line of
this stanza: |
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In
diapers of moss, my darling,
I will wrap you. Go sleepy bye, my sweet child.
I will wrap you well, son,
with emeralds and alabaster halos,
and I will cover your little hands, my darling,
with lovely worms.
Go sleepy bye, my child, rotting child.
[Poem
IX] |
Naturally
there exists an explanation, and anyone who notices the subtitle "Funerals" and
continues to read the rest
of the piece will find it. The poet is sarcastically referring
to a dead child. Others will be moved by it: this means that
these are stanzas
with a double effect. All the more richness.
But in
fact the new author does not need more; his Cortejo y Epinicio
stands out precisely because of the variety of tones,
the profusion of meters, of rhythms and rhymes (he doesn't
scorn either) – and the ease with which he handles his
delicate instruments. You feel that you are in the middle
of a jungle, in the good company of invisible voices –
modern, classical, archaic and revolutionary – always
in lush foliage and deep terrain.
Thus
is originality created.
One
example
of the originality that distinguishes Rosenmann-Taub: the
unrelenting intensity, the vehement vigor, and the ability
to elevate and poeticize even the most prosaic themes, as
in "Echaurren, sleepy street..." [Poem LIX].
Another example, which we will mention in conclusion, is
certainly
not the least: the strictly secondary place he gives to the
domineering libido, to demanding and obsessive eroticism.
The opening line of a love poem (which has some connection
with Más ["More"] by
Magallanes Moure) explains why: In "In
the Sensual
Lava" (which flows burning) the line "Your
body is not enough: I desire your desire" [Poem
LXV]
expresses in a different form the same idea, the appetite
for "something more."
May
the
author pursue this "something more," and find it:
he will also have succeeded in fulfilling the yearning of
many readers.
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