Lantana, or the indissoluble exhalation

by Bruno Darío, Kit Schluter (Translator)

By the time of his death at twenty-nine, bruno darío had already left a surprising and indelible mark on Mexican poetry with Lantana; or, the indissoluble exhalation, a trilogy comprising the three full-length books he published in his lifetime. By turns sardonic and lyrical, scathing and amorous, the hallucinatory sequence centers on the relationship of a young man (the Inconsolable) and an older woman who unexpectedly takes her own life (Lantana/Anfitriona). Across the three books, darío seamlessly code-switches between registers and genres: soliloquies from people, places, and things; the Inconsolable’s notes, poems, and letters; the discourses of Lantana’s buried corpse as gravity pulls her deeper into the soil. Lantana is a kaleidoscopic assemblage of texts that experiments with centuries of poetic tradition and firmly establishes darío as one of Mexico’s most daring poets.

This bilingual edition, featuring a biographical translator’s introduction by Kit Schluter, marks the first appearance of darío’s complete trilogy in a single volume.

"Dizzy with Cocteauvian elegance, Lautréamontean resourcefulness, and Keatsian wild surmise, bruno darío’s Lantana trilogy reminds us what Poetry requires of her devotees: that we be inconsolable, afflicted by beauty, that we make a bed in it, a bower and a bier." —Joyelle McSweeney

"bruno darío was the most original poet of his generation. One of those exceptional voices that emerge from time to time and write not for the present, but for a future that they intuit with eerie precision." —Daniel Saldaña París

"Mexico has a duty to keep this work alive: bruno darío is a truly extraordinary poet." —Francisco Hernández

"Please join me in this ravenous revelry, this refuge, reverie, rebellion—this veritable chaosmos built with the words of a poet who was taken from us too soon, and yet who still burns with life in these inextinguishable pages." —Gabriela Jauregui

Genres: Poetry

352 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2025

Reviews

[Desirée · Rating 5 out of 5]

sublime experiencia haberlo leído en La Estrella de Oro sorbiendo burro <3

[Adolfo Bermudez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quizá de las voces más únicas que he leído hasta la fecha. Ahí arriba con Abigael Bohorquez, José Vicente Anaya, Samuel Noyola…

[Cam · Rating 5 out of 5]

bruno dario left behind a body of profoundly original work when he died at 29. Unlike any contemporary poetry I’ve read, his is a unique voice and vision that is Mexican in experience, global in appeal and cosmic in depth. Brought together for the first time in any language, this bilingual trilogy speaks from beyond the veil in the most mysterious ways.

While the voice is timeless, the existence of this excellent translation by his friend and contemporary Kit Schluter seems (desperately, refreshingly) a hundred years out of time—at home among the orphaned manuscripts of Rimbaud, Baudelaire’s translations of Poe and the works of other luminaries who left behind work that found new life through the alchemy of others. With an introduction to make you believe in the endurance of poetry in the 21st century, this isn’t one for the book-of-the-month club but for the ages.

Reading slowly as I drive a long wandering journey across Canada and couldn’t ask for better company.

[M Adi · Rating 4 out of 5]

terima kasih lantana - bruno dario ditambah bolakbalik mongrel kampung - mikael johani ditambah abusing replay button untuk album miquella - crawla dan getting killed - geese yang menstimulate immerse the senses numbing the things around sampe lahir satu puisi terpilih balai bahasa dan duit 1,4mio #wanjayyyyy