A few weeks ago, in a post dedicated to the Spanish poet Miguel Hernández (see), I promised to talk about Octavio Paz, which I try to do in this post. I proposed it now for a conventional reason: on April 19, 1998, his death occurred, eight years after being honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature. It is not my intention to make a review of his biography; for that there are several sources, for example.
As I have said before, Paz is an obligatory reference in my intellectual activity. Ever since a friend brought me The bow and the lyre in my youthful days, his thought and poetry opened up a vision of literature, art, writing, life, which is substantial to me, and since my remoteness I have always been very grateful to him.
Writing a post about Octavio Paz is truly a commitment, given the many excellent texts that have been written about the poet, essayist, critic, columnist, etc. that he was; furthermore, from what line of his intellectual production to do so, and, decidedly, the field, about which book or specific element.
Leaving aside many other temptations, I decided to dedicate this post to one of his books, perhaps not so well known, which has impacted me the most (and continues to do so, now that I return to it): The Grammar Monkey. The critics have pointed out that it is a book that combines and transfers literary genres, a consideration that is completely true: it is between the story (the trip to Galta, India), the essay as a reflection on philosophical and literary aspects, and poetry in the manner of the prose poem. It is a book that is intense in its writing, difficult to process for those who place themselves in closed parameters, of a fascinating beauty, depth and complexity. To this I would like to pay tribute in this post.
The Monkey Grammarian, whose title already generates some perplexity, was published in French in 1972 and in Spanish in 1974; it brings together dense reflections on central themes that are closely linked. To some of these thematic aspects, which can give rise to very broad considerations, I will dedicate my attention, based, of course, on quotes from the book.
Under the influence of the thought of the ancient cultures of India, Japan and China, which undoubtedly occupies a capital role in his conception, Octavio Paz walks and retraces the path, going through that tapestry of his rational and emotional flow that is written and rewritten like a palimpsest, like the drawing of Hanumān, the wise monkey god, figure that vertebrates the book.
As it is a journey, firstly, physical (to Galta, "a ruined village in the vicinity of Jaipur", as the author himself indicates) and, simultaneously, an interior journey (from the Cambridge garden), the first thing that stands out are the reflections - recursive within the book, of course - about time and, consequently, movement, that is, space. Let's see some of them.
Fixity is always momentary. It is a balance, at a precarious and perfect time, that lasts for an instant: the vibration of the light, the appearance of a cloud or a minimal alteration of the temperature is enough for the pact of quietness to be broken and the series of metamorphoses to be triggered. Each metamorphosis, in turn, is another moment of fixity to which a new alteration and another unusual balance occurs. Yes, no one is alone and each change here causes another change there (...) Should I say that the form of change is fixity or, more precisely, that change is an incessant search for fixity? (...) The wisdom is neither in the fixity nor in the change, but in the dialectic between them. Constant coming and going: wisdom is in the instantaneous. It is the transit.
Paz is situated at a point where one perceives the interrelations between what is usually believed to be separate phenomena: the immobile and the changing. And, close to the ancient wisdom (Taoist, Latin), or, by the influence of the scientific discoveries of the first decades of the 20th century (theory of relativity), it declares the instant as a point of concentration, and the passing - transit - as the perspective, as the poet Cavafis would say in his poem "Ithaca". He will emphasise this later on at various points in the course of the book:
Every time is different; every place is different and all are the same, are the same: Everything is now.
There is no end and there is no beginning: everything is centre. Neither before nor after, neither forward nor backward, neither outside nor inside: everything is in everything.
In addition to oriental philosophies, contemporary physics (quantum theory, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, etc.) and the poetry of T. S. Eliot, who in the Four Quartets, through the poetic voice, expresses: "In my beginning is my end", resonate in the profound conception communicated by Paz.
Another key aspect, intertwined and merged with the above, is that of language and its relationship with reality:
(what is language made of? And above all, is it made of or is it perpetually being made of?) Unweaving the verbal fabric: reality will appear. (Two metaphors.) Will reality be the reverse of the fabric, the reverse of the metaphor -that which is on the other side of language? (Language has no reverse side or face.) Perhaps reality is also a metaphor (of what and/or of whom?)
Paz, with a very wide and solid intellectual formation, shows here his approaches, his "in/mediations", as one of his books is called, to the philosophy of language, from the ancient Greeks, through Herder or Nietzsche (who conjecture a metaphorical origin of language), to Heidegger ("Language is the dwelling place of being") or Austin (How to do things with words is the title of his most famous book). In these digressions he approaches such questions, which he will also do in a more explicitly poetic way:
Things rest in themselves, they are grounded in their reality and are unjustifiable. Thus they are offered to the eyes, to touch, to the ear, to the smell -not to the thought. Not to think: to see, to make language transparent. (...) We cannot see without danger of going mad: things reveal to us, without revealing anything and by their simple being there in front of us, the emptiness of names, the lack of moderation of the world, its essential mute.
This whole section, the 18th, is not to be missed. But I can only transcribe a very small part of it. This thought of Paz, obviously nourished by the philosophical and poetic wisdom of humanity (one can see the influence of Hindu or Zen philosophy), is of great interest. Our Venezuelan poet, Rafael Cadenas, will say in 1983, "Things shine".
Not being able to dedicate more space to the many elements of the book of Paz, we will close with a part of his reflections on poetry:
Poetry seeks, contemplates, melts and cancels itself out in the crystallizations of language. (...) The vision of poetry is that of the convergence of all worlds. (...) Convergence is stillness because in its apex the different movements, when melted, are annulled; at the same time, from that summit of immobility, we perceive the universe as an assembly of worlds in rotation.
At the peak of his book, almost at the apex of his thought, Paz converges on his critical passion: poetry, and he does so by reinforcing the complex and joyful vision he has transmitted to us in The Monkey Grammarian (and I would say in all his literary work): the convergence, fusion of times, spaces and perspectives that essentially shapes poetry in the broad sense, and existence.
Bibliographical references:
Paz, Octavio (1974). The Monkey Grammarian. Spain: Edit. Seix Barral.
If you are interested, you can access a bibliographic list of Octavio Paz at link, as well as download the book The Monkey Grammarian at the following address *
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I had the opportunity to do a literary workshop in which this beautiful, brilliant and interesting book was studied. I remember it was an enriching experience. With regard to that last reflection you make on Octavio Paz and poetry, I think about the time we have lived through: perhaps that eternal mobility has not allowed us true contemplation and this silent and immobile crack is the perfect opportunity to listen to the uncertain. Thank you very much for your work, @josemalavem.
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Good thing you know the Paz book, @nancybriti! Perhaps poetry, seen from the deep conception that Peace proposes, and not as a simple pastime, is the way par excellence as life questions us. Thank you for your comment. Greetings.
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