Roberto Juarroz
Roberto Juarroz was an influential Argentine poet and literary figure, born in Coronel Dorrego in 1925. He spent a significant portion of his career at the National University of Buenos Aires, where he served as both a student and a professor for over thirty years. Juarroz was recognized with multiple awards, including France's Jean Malrieu Prize and the Poetry International Biennial Prize from Belgium in 1992. He is best known for his unique style known as "vertical poetry," characterized by concise language and a numbering system for his collections, which include titles like *Poesía vertical* and *Segunda poesía vertical*. His free verse poems also follow a numbered format rather than traditional titles, allowing for unconventional reading experiences. His work has been translated into numerous languages, with notable translations completed by W. S. Merwin and Mary Crow. Some critics have drawn parallels between Juarroz's poetry and the creacionismo movement of Vicente Huidobro. Juarroz passed away in Buenos Aires in 1995, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate in the literary world.
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Roberto Juarroz
Poet
- Born: April 8, 1905
- Birthplace: Coronel Dorrego, Argentina
- Died: March 31, 1995
- Place of death: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Biography
Roberto Juarroz was born in Coronel Dorrego, a province of Argentina, in 1925. Throughout his career, Juarroz was associated with the National University of Buenos Aires, first as a student and then as a professor for more than thirty years. During this time he won numerous prizes and distinctions, including France’s Jean Malrieu Prize for best book of translated poetry and the Poetry International Biennial Prize from Belgium in 1992. In addition to poetry, he wrote essays, translations, and literary criticism.
Juarroz wrote in a concise and austere style he labeled vertical poetry, and, with the exception of Seis poemas sueltos (1960), all of his poetry collections are consecutively numbered “Vertical Poetry” titles. For example, his first collection was Poesía vertical (1958), followed by Segunda poesía vertical (1963), Tercera poesía vertical (1965), and so on, up to Duodécima poesía vertical (1991). Similarly, his free verse poems are numbered rather than titled. Some of these collections have been translated into English by poet W. S. Merwin, who argues that the vertical poetry of Juarroz represents a “shrugging-off” of the “restrictions of post-Aristotelian Western logic” by being susceptible to “vertical reading.” Juarroz poems, Merwin added, can be read from the first word to the last, or from the last word to the first. Some critics point to a kinship between Juarroz’s work and the creacionismo, (creationism) of Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro.
The poems of Juarroz have been translated into more than a dozen languages, including an anthology translated by poet Mary Crow, Vertical Poetry: Recent Poems (1992). However, Juarroz called this collection an “incomplete anthology.” Juarroz died in Buenos Aires in 1995.