Author Description

Before attaining his poetic maturity - and this would be through poems written mostly in Spanish - Huidobro wrote these two collections in French and published them in Paris in 1925, the same year that a volume of his manifestos appeared (see below). The two books have never been republished in France and have likewise not been published in Spanish translation other than in collected editions of the author's works. While they are in some respects a developmental dead-end for Huidobro, they do demonstrate his attempts to engage, in one volume, with the influence of Dada, and, in the other, with the influence of Surrealism. His later work transcends these overt influences and moves onto new pastures, but these experiments were necessary in order to get him there. The complete texts of both first editions are included here along with all the (later) Spanish versions of the poems, made by the author himself, that have so far come to light. All texts are presented in bilingual facing versions.