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Violín y otras cuestiones
- GenresPoetry
57 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1956
5 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Juan Gelman
141 books92 followersJuan Gelman is one of the most read and influential poets in the Spanish language. He has published more than twenty books of poetry since 1956 and has been translated into fourteen languages. A political activist and critical journalist since his youth, Gelman has not only been a literary paradigm but also a moral one, within and outside of Argentina. Among his most recent awards are the National Poetry Prize (Argentina, 1997), the Juan Rulfo Prize in Latin American and Caribbean Literature (Mexico, 2000), the Pablo Neruda Prize (Chile, 2005), the Queen Sofia Prize in Ibero-American Poetry (Spain, 2005), and the Cervantes Prize (the most important award given to a Hispanic writer, Spain, 2007).
Long biographical note
Juan Gelman is the most significant, contemporary Argentine intellectual figure and one of the most read and influential poets in the Spanish language. Son of a family of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, he grew up like any other porteño, among soccer and tango, in the populous neighborhood of Villa Crespo. At 11, he published his first poem in the magazine Rojo y negro, and in the 1950s formed part of the group of rebel writers, El Pan Duro. He was discovered by Raúl González Túñón, among the most relevant voices of the southern country’s poetic avant-garde, who saw in the young man’s verses “a rich and vivacious lyricism and a principally social content […] that does not elude the richness of fantasy.”
Gelman has published, from his initial Violín y otras cuestiones (1956) to his most recent Mundar (2008), more than twenty books of poetry. These works, as Mario Benedetti asserted early on, constitute “the most coherent, and also the most daring, participatory repertoire (in spite of its inevitable wells of solitude), and ultimately the one most suited to its environment, that Argentine poetry has today”, and Hispanic poetry in general, as the profusion of re-editions of his books and numerous anthologies proves. Gelman’s poetry has achieved international recognition, with translations into fourteen languages, including English. Among his awards are the National Poetry Prize (Argentina, 1997), the Juan Rulfo Prize in Latin American and Caribbean Literature (Mexico, 2000), the Pablo Neruda Prize (Chile, 2005), the Queen Sofia Prize in Ibero-American Poetry (Spain, 2005), and the Cervantes Prize (Spain, 2007), the most important award in Hispanic Letters. No one should be surprised to see him the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature one day.
It would be relevant to note that Juan Gelman has not only been a literary paradigm but also a moral one, within and outside of Argentina. A political activist and critical journalist since his youth, he was forced into an exile of thirteen years because of the military dictatorship that ravaged his country from 1976 to 1983, and the weak governments that followed. In 1976 the ultra-right kidnapped his children, Nora Eva, 19, and Marcelo Ariel, 20, along with his son’s wife, María Claudia Iruretagoyena, 19, who was 7 months pregnant. Nora Eva would later return, unlike his son and daughter-in-law, who were killed; their child born in a concentration camp. The vehement search for the truth about the fate of these family members, which culminated in finding his granddaughter in Uruguay in 2000, has made the poet a symbol of the struggle for respect for human rights.
Like other poets from his time and space, Juan Gelman creates his work starting from a critique of the so-called post-avante-garde poetry, which surges in the Hispanic world in the 1940s and breaks with the powerful avante-garde. He is a poet who denies the labors of the Mexican Octavio Paz, the Cuban José Lezama Lima, the Argentine Alberto Girri, among others, to reaffirm it in his own way. It is a poetry that goes against the current, transgresses the established social and cultural order, challenges the individualism intrinsic to modernity and the neo-colonial condition. A poetry that renounc
Long biographical note
Juan Gelman is the most significant, contemporary Argentine intellectual figure and one of the most read and influential poets in the Spanish language. Son of a family of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, he grew up like any other porteño, among soccer and tango, in the populous neighborhood of Villa Crespo. At 11, he published his first poem in the magazine Rojo y negro, and in the 1950s formed part of the group of rebel writers, El Pan Duro. He was discovered by Raúl González Túñón, among the most relevant voices of the southern country’s poetic avant-garde, who saw in the young man’s verses “a rich and vivacious lyricism and a principally social content […] that does not elude the richness of fantasy.”
Gelman has published, from his initial Violín y otras cuestiones (1956) to his most recent Mundar (2008), more than twenty books of poetry. These works, as Mario Benedetti asserted early on, constitute “the most coherent, and also the most daring, participatory repertoire (in spite of its inevitable wells of solitude), and ultimately the one most suited to its environment, that Argentine poetry has today”, and Hispanic poetry in general, as the profusion of re-editions of his books and numerous anthologies proves. Gelman’s poetry has achieved international recognition, with translations into fourteen languages, including English. Among his awards are the National Poetry Prize (Argentina, 1997), the Juan Rulfo Prize in Latin American and Caribbean Literature (Mexico, 2000), the Pablo Neruda Prize (Chile, 2005), the Queen Sofia Prize in Ibero-American Poetry (Spain, 2005), and the Cervantes Prize (Spain, 2007), the most important award in Hispanic Letters. No one should be surprised to see him the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature one day.
It would be relevant to note that Juan Gelman has not only been a literary paradigm but also a moral one, within and outside of Argentina. A political activist and critical journalist since his youth, he was forced into an exile of thirteen years because of the military dictatorship that ravaged his country from 1976 to 1983, and the weak governments that followed. In 1976 the ultra-right kidnapped his children, Nora Eva, 19, and Marcelo Ariel, 20, along with his son’s wife, María Claudia Iruretagoyena, 19, who was 7 months pregnant. Nora Eva would later return, unlike his son and daughter-in-law, who were killed; their child born in a concentration camp. The vehement search for the truth about the fate of these family members, which culminated in finding his granddaughter in Uruguay in 2000, has made the poet a symbol of the struggle for respect for human rights.
Like other poets from his time and space, Juan Gelman creates his work starting from a critique of the so-called post-avante-garde poetry, which surges in the Hispanic world in the 1940s and breaks with the powerful avante-garde. He is a poet who denies the labors of the Mexican Octavio Paz, the Cuban José Lezama Lima, the Argentine Alberto Girri, among others, to reaffirm it in his own way. It is a poetry that goes against the current, transgresses the established social and cultural order, challenges the individualism intrinsic to modernity and the neo-colonial condition. A poetry that renounc
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 11, 2019
La poesía no es un pájaro.
Y es.
No es un plumón, el aire, mi camisa,
No, nada de eso. Y todo eso.
Si.
(...)
La poesía es una manera de vivir.
Y es.
No es un plumón, el aire, mi camisa,
No, nada de eso. Y todo eso.
Si.
(...)
La poesía es una manera de vivir.
January 4, 2025
Primer tomo de la poesía reunida y empezamos muy bien
November 14, 2023
El primer libro de Gelman. Ya se notan aquí la dulzura de su estilo y la transparencia de espíritu. Un poeta al que nunca le sobran las palabras.
July 28, 2025
Aquest poemari de Gelman em captiva d'una manera molt especial. Primer perquè em recorda al viatge a Buenos Aires (quan el vaig comprar), i segon pel seu estil tan entranyable, senzill i amb una expressivitat que fa que t'arribin els poemes al cor.
Molt recomanat!
Molt recomanat!
November 9, 2021
"Afirmo fieramente: tengo estómago. / Pero no, pero no. Mejor dejarlo. / Ayer nació un gorrión en mi camisa / y hoy me cité de nuevo con un árbol".
January 26, 2024
Lo he releído varias veces
January 19, 2021
Sea ha convertido en mi poemario favorito.
February 26, 2023
3 estrellas y media.
..." ¿Quizás te calles o te vayas o
te dediques al sueño, a la morfina,
quizás te vayas, sí o tomes vino
sobre el estaño, cálido de codos,
posiblemente existas de ese modo,
pálido, flaco, tropezándote
a cada rato con tu pantalón
y tu camisa, rota de ilusiones
y tu ilusión ¿Tan rota de camisas?
¿Quizás te escapes con la madrugada
tibia aún en tus ojos, para ir
a la muerte, a la muerte, a la muerte
bajo otros cielos, sobre ajenos patios,
entre otras voces, caras, infelices,
para que digan se murió, eso es todo,
siempre eso es todo, se murió, que encuentren
un peine roto en tu bolsillo, cartas
y eso es todo, ¿Eso es todo?
¡Qué cuestión!"
..." ¿Quizás te calles o te vayas o
te dediques al sueño, a la morfina,
quizás te vayas, sí o tomes vino
sobre el estaño, cálido de codos,
posiblemente existas de ese modo,
pálido, flaco, tropezándote
a cada rato con tu pantalón
y tu camisa, rota de ilusiones
y tu ilusión ¿Tan rota de camisas?
¿Quizás te escapes con la madrugada
tibia aún en tus ojos, para ir
a la muerte, a la muerte, a la muerte
bajo otros cielos, sobre ajenos patios,
entre otras voces, caras, infelices,
para que digan se murió, eso es todo,
siempre eso es todo, se murió, que encuentren
un peine roto en tu bolsillo, cartas
y eso es todo, ¿Eso es todo?
¡Qué cuestión!"
July 29, 2023
"Una flor viajaba en mi sangre.
Mi corazón era un violín.
Quise o no quise. Pero a veces
me quisieron. También a mí
me alegraban: la primavera,
las manos juntas, lo feliz.
¡Digo que el hombre debe serlo!"
La prosa aparentemente sencilla de Juan Gelmán es atrapante. He leído este pequeño poemario hace mucho tiempo y, aún así, siempre me descubro a mí mismo revisitando sus páginas. Son un abrazo al corazón. Tiene el énfasis puesto en capturar sus emociones, sin pretensión ni un propósito más allá que el de expresar lo que ha sentido. Para mí, ha tenido éxito. Es puro, sencillo, genuino. Cada vez que lo releo, vuelvo a subrayar y anotar algo nuevo.
Mi corazón era un violín.
Quise o no quise. Pero a veces
me quisieron. También a mí
me alegraban: la primavera,
las manos juntas, lo feliz.
¡Digo que el hombre debe serlo!"
La prosa aparentemente sencilla de Juan Gelmán es atrapante. He leído este pequeño poemario hace mucho tiempo y, aún así, siempre me descubro a mí mismo revisitando sus páginas. Son un abrazo al corazón. Tiene el énfasis puesto en capturar sus emociones, sin pretensión ni un propósito más allá que el de expresar lo que ha sentido. Para mí, ha tenido éxito. Es puro, sencillo, genuino. Cada vez que lo releo, vuelvo a subrayar y anotar algo nuevo.
June 22, 2018
Leí el libro para elegir tres poemas para leer en un evento.
December 24, 2018
Una bella edición y un libro muy recomendable de los poemas brillantes de Gelman.
January 14, 2021
Es tan grande lo que Gelman describía en sus poemas que giró el mundo con ellas.
February 8, 2024
mi poema favorito fue "viendo a la gente nadar"
July 12, 2024
Un crack el compañero Gelman, vayan a leerlo.
July 13, 2024
Realmente precioso
October 6, 2024
la maravillosa del verso libre es que permite que viva toda buenos aires dentro. gelman sabe como hablar la ciudad
January 2, 2026
Imprescindible para la vida. Son de esos poemas que cuando los lees te estallan la imaginación, llenos de ternura, profundidad existencial y decisión política
January 30, 2025
“la poesía es esto
y luego, escríbelo”
y luego, escríbelo”
October 27, 2016
El libro me dio curiosidad por la edición de tapa dura, así que sí, lo leí sin saber nada más que el título y el autor, que no conozco. Me llevé una linda sorpresa, disfruté muchísimo de su poesía y hasta logró emocionarme. Sin dudas, buscaré más sobre este escritor.
November 19, 2013
No había leido nada de este autor y me gustaron bastante las poeias de estos primeros versos publicados.
April 26, 2016
El primer Gelman, está muy bien.
February 7, 2024
Gran poemario para un poeta jovensísimo. Aquí todavía podemos ver a un Gelman muy romántico y perceptivo de la cotidianidad y la abstracción, dos particularidades que se podrán ver en toda su obra.
December 31, 2024
Un grande Juan Gelman.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews