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| Delmira Agustini |
Delmira Agustini (Montevideo, 1886-1914) is one of the most representative poets of 20th century Latin American poetry. Admired for her talent and the sensuality of her verses, the premature and tragic death that made her a legend did not prevent three collections of poems from being published that caught the attention of her contemporaries and that baffled the Uruguayan society of her time. Praised by Rubén Darío - who wrote the "Pórtico" of his book Los cálices vacas - and by other intellectuals of the time, the modernist rhetoric in it is giving way to a new vision of erotic language, that of feminine desire, which collided with the traditional codes of her environment and that created a school among female voices that take up her legacy.
- Daughter of Santiago Agustini and María Murtfeldt, Delmira - "La Nena" for her parents - was born in Montevideo (Uruguay) on October 24, 1886. She was educated at home, as the ladies of the upper middle class used to do then, and received French, piano, painting and drawing classes. However, the almost religious dedication of her parents so that Delmira would not lack anything in the construction of her culture, had to do with the extraordinary sensitivity and intelligence that she demonstrated from a very young age. At the age of five he knew how to read and write correctly, at the age of ten he composed verses and played difficult scores on the piano. These qualities were highly valued by her parents who, according to some, overprotected the future poet. Throughout his childhood, contact with other children was scarce, which is why he grew up in an introverted and quiet environment. She spent long hours, sometimes days, absorbed in the pleasure of reading, writing, and playing the piano.
Even as a teenager, she had very
little contact with other girls her age. According to some testimonies, he
preferred to dedicate his time to intellectual and artistic activities, and was
not interested in social gatherings, which he considered frivolous. Later she
would establish contact with some of the most outstanding intellectual figures
of the time, figures almost all older than her: Juan Zorrilla de San Martín,
Carlos Vaz Ferreira, Julio Herrera y Reissig, Manuel Ugarte, Samuel Blixen
(editor of the cultural weekly Rojo and White), among others. His free time was
usually spent with his parents taking long walks in the park, or with his great
childhood friend, André de Badet.
Starting in 1902, at the age of
sixteen, he began to publish his first poems in the magazine La Alborada. The
following year, this same magazine invited her to collaborate in a section that
she baptized with the name "The Ethereal Legion" and that she signed
with the pseudonym Joujou. In this section, Delmira takes care of making
portraits of women of the Montevideo bourgeoisie who stand out culturally
and/or socially. These are excessively ornamental silhouettes of the purest
modernist taste. Among these profiles, one dedicated to the poet María Eugenia
Vaz Ferreira stands out.
- In 1907 he published his first collection of poems, The White Book (Frágil), which was very well received by critics. Delmira Agustini's literary success will go hand in hand with the fame of her beauty. It is important to note that the Montevideo environment in which Delmira lived and published her poetry was marked by strong contrasts. On the one hand he was puritan and conservative, especially when it came to sexuality and the difference between the sexes. But he was also libertarian and progressive; For example, during the governments of Battle and Ordoñez (1903-1907, 1911-1915) important reforms were carried out, such as the decree of the first divorce law on the continent (1907) and the creation of the Women's University (1912). ). It was, therefore, an ambiguous atmosphere, something that influenced the way in which critics received his writing. Although her talent was praised, her explicitly erotic themes did not fit within the feminine stereotypes of the time, which emphasized the profile of what a woman "had" to be, especially a young, single, virgin. Surprised and bewildered, most critics tried to neutralize her voice, focusing attention on her person - a physically beautiful girl - and insisting on her ethereal aura.
In this way, among his contemporaries, the Delmira myth was born, one that included both the "virginal girl" and the "Pythia of Eros"; a myth that tried to explain "the miracle" of his writing as a product of instinct, overlooking his intellectuality. From there we understand what Carlos Vaz Ferreira writes to him in a letter: «You should not be able, not precisely to write, but to "understand" your book. How have you come to know or to feel what you have put into certain of your poems?
In 1910 he published his second book,
Songs of the Morning. By then her prestige as a poet was considerable and she
was even praised by Rubén Darío, whom she met in 1912 during his visit to
Montevideo; The meeting provokes an exchange of letters. Likewise, at his house
he receives visits from several writers and intellectuals attracted by his
talent, among them, Manuel Ugarte. Once Delmira's poetic talent has emerged,
her family fully supports her vocation; The father cleans up the poems taken
from his daughter's notebooks and loose sheets, and her brother Antonio will do
the same. The mother overprotects her and tries to keep her away from social
contact, even when she is already a famous poet that everyone requires: when
they visit her, the mother is always present in the room, something that is not
surprising considering the conventions of the time.
Despite the unfavorable reviews of
critics and biographers regarding her relationship with her parents - derived
from comments collected from the letters of her ex-husband, a dubious witness -
the scholar Magdalena García Pinto assures that Delmira in reality always saw
in them a "solidarity loyalty," and maintains that he has not
identified signs of disharmony when reviewing family correspondence.
In February 1913 she published her
third book of poems, The Empty Calices, a collection of poems that was more
openly erotic than the previous ones, something that caused a social scandal
that then led to incessant gossip around the young poet and her daring. The
poems were especially scandalous not only because their author was a young
unmarried woman - read virgin - but also, and above all, because at that time
it was considered inappropriate for a woman to be a subject of desire, that is,
she could only be a desired object. Hence the exceptional nature of her verses:
Delmira appropriates cultural elements of the time but to outline a new and
complex female subject, a subject that itself has a personal eroticism
different from that imposed by the male literary tradition. In short, she
subverts images and concepts of the modernist tradition to speak about her
experiences as a woman. On the other hand, in Los cálices empties, Delmira
announces, in a note "To the reader", that she is preparing a new
collection of poems that will be titled Los astros del abismo and which she
considers will be "the dome" of her work.
These poems, the darkest and most
baroque, were published posthumously in the 1924 edition of his Complete Works
under the general title of "The Rosary of Eros."
To this day it is not known for
sure when Delmira met her future husband, Enrique Job Reyes, who did not belong
to the intellectual field already mentioned. What is known is that around 1908
he was already visiting her. At first, the romance was kept secret since
apparently the mother was opposed to this love relationship, indicating that,
contrary to what her biographers point out, her mother did not control her
will. In one of her letters from this period, Delmira writes to Reyes the
following: Remain formal as until now in your letters, never, not even by
chance, allude to this correspondence. Sometimes when I think about whether it
will be discovered. I can't add more. Danger! In Delmira's letters to Reyes,
childish jargon and some terribly capricious phrases stand out, very different
from the passionate tone and more literary style of the letters that she would
send to Manuel Ugarte four years later. However, the letters to Reyes reflect
the first stage of that clandestine romance, where there is no shortage of
jealousy. After five years of courtship, the couple finally married on August
14, 1913.
A year older than Delmira, Reyes was,
according to testimonies, a handsome young man, with an athletic figure and
confident disposition, but with a somewhat aggressive emotional nature and,
above all, someone accustomed to dominating. He came from a wealthy family in
the province of La Florida and, when he met Delmira, he was involved in the
business of buying and selling horses. However, what should be highlighted is
that Reyes never gave importance to Delmira's poetic talent, rather he
considered it a "weakness" of her maiden; He used to say that, once
married, he would see to it that he gave up writing. But Delmira had been
publishing poetry since she was sixteen: it was, without a doubt, her great
passion. However, despite the obvious, Reyes failed to realize that he would
alienate Delmira from his side if he demanded that she abandon writing.
