Impressions: 'Save Twilight' by Julio Cortázar
Translated from the Spanish by Stephen Kessler
This is a second edition of an older publication. The first edition came out a number of years ago, also via City Lights. The older edition, inexplicably, was a highly truncated version of Cortázar’s 1984 original, the last of his publications in his lifetime. It is a collection of his poems, written throughout the course of his life, along with some accompanying prose pieces.
I’m glad that this edition finally emerged, allowing the reader the experience of how Cortázar intended the book to be. The poems within are highly influenced by the symbolist poets — lyrical, sometimes surreal. There are hints, in many of them, of the work to come, namely Rayuela (Hopscotch). Otherwise these poems are very different from the kind of writing he’s known for, the more ‘fantastical’ style he employed in his numerous short stories.
There are many wonderful poems in this collection and having a chance to read the previously unpublished (in English) poems was a real treat. We travel along with the author through the cafés of Paris, the streets of Buenos Aires, the airports of his numerous travels, the sidewalks of Nairobi, the steamship from Europe to South America. The poems are intimate, playful, experimental, sometimes formal, with a whole range of emotions which give the reader a glimpse into the author’s day to day life.
It had always been a mystery why the original edition was such a truncated version, but after reading the new introduction, it was clear that City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti had ‘very clear ideas about the nature, size, and scope’ of that edition. I’m happy to see that the full version has finally emerged. It is much better, more playful, including some prose pieces which describe Cortázar’s process of putting the book together.
For fans of Cortázar, this is a must. For those who have read only the first edition, do yourself a favor and pick this one up as well. It’s vastly improved now that it’s restored to its original version.
'Save Twilight’ is available here