by César Vallejo
translated by Robert Bly
Brother, today I sit on the brick bench outside the house,
where you make a bottomless emptiness.
I remember we used to play at this hour of the day, and mama
would calm us: "There now, boys..."
Now I go hide
as before, from all these evening
prayers, and I hope that you will not find me.
In the parlor, the entrance hall, the corridors.
Later, you hide, and I do not find you.
I remember we made each other cry,
brother, in that game.
Miguel, you hid yourself
one night in August, nearly at daybreak,
but instead of laughing when you hid, you were sad.
And your other heart of those dead afternoons
is tired of looking and not finding you. And now
shadows fall on the soul.
Listen, brother, don't be too late
coming out. All right? Mama might worry.
This poem is written by César Vallejo was a major poet, known for the authenticity and originality of his work. His poems usually expressed universal themes related to the human condition, and when we look into this poem, ‘To my Brother Miguel in Memoriam’, we found out that it is about friendship. The title of the poem suggests death of the brother, Miguel, due to the word “Memoriam” which meant in memory of. This brought about the assumption that the brother was dead and the persona was writing the poem like a letter to his late brother.
The persona seems to be living on the memory of his brother. The poem has a nostalgic and reminiscent tone, although we think that the speaker is upset at his brother due to the line "you make a bottomless emptiness". Judging from the speaker's perspective take, it seemed as though the persona is faulting his brother as the "you make" sounded as though the brother created and is the main cause of the void.
The persona also refused to accept the fact that his brother, Miguel was no longer alive. It is evident from the line, "don't be too late coming out" suggests that persona is struggling to accept the fact that his brother is dead. Also, the line "tired of looking and not finding you" also tells us that the persona is definitely in-denial of death, although he is frustrated that his brother is no longer alive and there to be found. In addition, "Now I go hide from all these evening prayers" suggests that perhaps after Miguel's death, his family used to pray for his welfare in the after life, however, the speaker still refuses to accept Miguel’s death, and hides from all these prayers.
After all these analysis, we find that the persona had a deep and close relationship with his brother and could not come to terms with the loss of Miguel. This can be applied to the friendships formed by people. The deeper the bond of friendship, the closer one is to the friend and thus, creating a space in the persona’s heart for that particular friend. However, when that friend has passed on, they perish along with that space in the persona’s heart, leaving an empty hole there which is usually filled with sadness and grief, and occasionally the inability to accept that the friend is no longer around nor alive. To put in a nutshell, we conclude that the poet was trying to tell us that friendship is a fragile thing that can be damaged easily and hence, it must be treasured preciously.
In Stanza 1, it tells us that the brothers were very close to each other. This is evident from "we made each other cry" which could be childish crying because they couldn't find each other momentarily or giddy cries of excitement. It could also be because of the loss of the brother. They would always play together. This is also evident from "Now I go hide from all these evening prayers" which suggests that the family would always pray for him ever since his death, the poet then hides from these again not accepting his death. Hence, this shows that their relationship must have been very close such that the poet was not able to get over it.
In Stanza 2, I can infer that the poet really misses his brother. This is evident from "tired of looking and not finding you" which is definitely in-denial of death, and he is frustrated that his brother is no longer alive and there to be found. It tells us that he really wants to see his brother again. Therefore, I can tell that the brother must have meant a lot to the poet. In Stanza 3, I can infer that he is not able to accept his brother’s death. This is evident from "don't be too late coming out" which suggests that Vallejo is struggling to accept that Miguel is dead. He seemed to be living on the memory of his brother. Hence, this shows that the poet still believes that his brother is still alive.
My Group feels that this is a very sad poem as it is about the poet missing his brother, we felt a little sad after reading this poem and we feel that we should treasure our siblings even more now as we never know how our relationship would become next time.
A picture of César Vallejo
Credits: http://www.quieroperu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/c%C3%A9sar-vallejo.jpg
An Artist’s impression of the poem
Yes, the struggle to accept the brother's death is evident and this is also a very honest look at how some find it hard to reconcile with the parting of a loved one.
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