In the Land of Silence
by Jesus Urzagasti
translated by Kay Pritchett
translated by Kay Pritchett
University of Arkansas Press, 1994
Paper: 978-1-55728-373-3 | eISBN: 978-1-61075-205-3
Library of Congress Classification PQ7820.U7E513 1994
Dewey Decimal Classification 863
Paper: 978-1-55728-373-3 | eISBN: 978-1-61075-205-3
Library of Congress Classification PQ7820.U7E513 1994
Dewey Decimal Classification 863
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
This masterful translation of a recent Bolivian novel, En el pais del silencio, transports us to a mysterious, silent, and unfamiliar land where astonishing truths are placed within our grasp.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jesús Urzagasti was born in 1941 in the Gran Chaco Province of Bolivia. He has published the following books: Tirinea and En el país del silencio (novels), Yerubia (poetry), Cuaderno de Lilino (poetic prose), and De la ventana al parque (novelette), some of which have been translated into Portuguese, English, and German. He is currently the editor of Presencia Literaria.
REVIEWS
“There are those who say that the ‘boom’ in the Latin American novel is over and that we are left with imitators. This is not so. What we have, rather, are continuers and Jesús Urzagasti of Bolivia is in their front rank. In the Land of Silence makes me feel that this is what Julio Cortázar might be up to were he still with us. His notion of the paredros, the double, is here in triplicate, albeit in an environment that Urzagasti is privy to. Latin America is a multifaceted culture and here we have it reflected in one character as he is shown in three heteronyms, much in the manner of Fernando Pessoa. This is one of the best novels to have come out of Latin America in many a moon, and Kay Pritchett’s impeccable translation carries its glow in all its brilliance over into English.”
—Gregory Rabassa
—Gregory Rabassa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Notebook Number 1
The Dead Man/The somnambulant Urundel speaks.
Jursafú/From the astral house of a Callawaya, I see the world full of hills and hollows.
The Other/In spite of my loneliness, I can remedy myself in dreams.
Jursafú/The only important news, the news of our own death, we’ll never read in the newspaper.
The Other/Life said to me: I love you. Then I asked it for a mule and its foal.
Jursafú/I’m a dull, colorless translation of the beginning. But I presume, at any rate, to read that translation as if I were predicting my own outcome. The fruit is prefigured in the seed.
The Other/It would be beautiful if one didn’t forget. But remembering is like cooking, and if you risk it, you may get blacker than an old pot.
Jursafú/Our fellow creature is like a mirror of our invulnerable country.
Notebook Number 2
The Other as the Dead Man Sees Him/All of these things lose importance and eventually become insignificant to those who obey a tradition, hold a patrimony, and, out of homage to the law, do not change it or ever question if such homage is due.
Jursafú as the Other Sees Him/Because he went away, he began to remember like a person who is awake but talked as if he were walking in his sleep. Because we must go away to become conscious of the language we speak, the language that redeems us.
The Dead Man as Jursafú Sees Him/ In the Andean city, ocean of rock and transparency, the place where the dead and sages inhabit a world finished off in full splendor.
Notebook Number 3
Jursafú as the Dead Man Sees Him/One travels with what one is, unburdened of pointless weight. God grant that the trip enrich but not pervert you.
The Other as Jursafú Sees Him/Working is resting on oneself rather than upon the backs of others.
The Dead Man as the Other Sees Him/“We are the only examples of the impossible, and that is why love delights in torturing us,” said a careworn man. Then Love said to the Devil, “Don’t go easy on me because I’m not going to go easy on you.”
Notebook Number 4
Jursafú and the Dead Man as the Other Sees Them/God speaks to human beings by way of silence. Humans speak to God through the broad foreboding of death. A vast, cordial dialogue is appropriate to human beings. Also anger, which is common to beings that mo
Notebook Number 5
The Dead Man/The circle is mortal for the profane. But I march in, eyes closed and facing life.
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