Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano; March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. He is considered by many as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets of all time...
NationalityMexican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth31 March 1914
CityMexico City, Mexico
CountryMexico
among beings condemned contain discover form metaphors paradoxes unite unless wit
Wit invents; inspiration reveals. The inventions of wit are conceits - metaphors and paradoxes - that discover the secret correspondences that unite beings and things among and with themselves; inspiration is condemned to dissipate its revelations - unless a form can be found to contain them.
affects aspects character consists finds hypocrisy irrational reality
When hypocrisy is a character trait, it also affects one's thinking, because it consists in the negation of all the aspects of reality that one finds disagreeable, irrational or repugnant.
electoral era history july perhaps process represents
The electoral process of July 6 perhaps represents a new era in the history of Mexico.
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The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death. (He) jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love.
alert awaits choose close consists instinct poetic work
In each verse, a decision awaits us, and we can't choose to close our eyes and let instinct work on its own. Poetic instinct consists of an alert tension.
according art creative gesture imitates living nature poet
For the Chinese, the Greeks, the Mayans, or the Egyptians, nature was a living totality, a creative being. For this reason, art, according to Aristotle, is imitation; the poet imitates the creative gesture of nature.
footsteps great noises producer time unique
I think we all have our own personality, unique and distinctive, and at the same time, I think that our own unique and distinctive personality blends with the wind, with the footsteps in the street, with the noises around the corner, and with the silence of memory, which is the great producer of ghosts.
dread fixed reaching reverse time
We go along, without a fixed itinerary, yet at the same time with an end (what end?) in mind, and with the aim of reaching the end. A search for the end, a dread of the end: the obverse and the reverse of the same act.
poems
All poems say the same thing, and each poem is unique. Each part reproduces the others, and each part is different.
poetry
Any reflection about poetry should begin, or end, with this question: who and how many read poetry books?
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Futurists wanted to suggest movement by means of a dynamic painting; Duchamp applies the notion of delay - or, rather, or analysis - to movement.
chances experience poetry risks verse
Poetry is the experience of liberty. The poet risks himself, chances all on the poem's all with each verse he writes.
bourgeois content manifest poetry society violation whatever
Poetry, whatever the manifest content of the poem, is always a violation of the rationalism and morality of bourgeois society.
poetry
Surrealism is not a poetry but a poetics, and even more, and more decisively, a world vision.