Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Today I Like Life Much Less" by César Vallejo presents a poignant and intricate exploration of the speaker's complex relationship with life and death, joy and sorrow. As the title suggests, the poem navigates the contradictory emotions one feels towards existence, offering a nuanced look into the human condition. The speaker is at once repelled by life's challenges yet is irresistibly drawn to its beauty and potential. This duality serves as the backbone of the poem, crafting an emotionally charged landscape that invites the reader to confront their own vulnerabilities and aspirations.

The first line sets the mood: "Today I like life much less." Despite this, the speaker claims to always enjoy living, thus presenting an emotional paradox. The contradictory attitudes toward life immediately signal a sense of internal conflict. It's as if the speaker is caught in a state of liminality, teetering on the edge of despair and hope.

The phrase "I almost touched the part of my everything and restrained myself / With a pull at my tongue behind every word" captures the inner turmoil of the speaker, who feels the weight of every spoken word. Here, language is a two-edged sword-it enables expression but also constrains, perhaps unable to capture the profundity of the speaker's emotions. The speaker feels as if he is on the brink of a crucial revelation but holds back, perhaps fearing that words may dilute the experience.

The subsequent lines, "So much life and never! / So many years and always my weeks!" reveal the speaker's awareness of the fleeting nature of time, as if each moment is a missed opportunity or a never-ending cycle. Vallejo incorporates the imagery of ancestors, who are "buried with their stone / And their sad last breath that still isn't over," as a means of confronting mortality and the inescapable passage of time.

Despite the inner struggles and life's inherent hardships, the speaker confesses, "I enjoy life enormously / But immediately / With my beloved death and my coffee." Here, death is not an enemy but a beloved companion-a reminder of life's impermanence, which oddly seems to magnify its beauty. This existential tension, so eloquently captured by the speaker, is epitomized in the lines "So much life and the tune never fails me! / So many years and always, always, always!" It's as if life's discordances create a melody that is haunting yet captivating.

The speaker acknowledges the difficulty of reconciling life's contradictions but does not shy away from them. Instead, he offers a panoramic view of his "organism up and down," accepting life in all its complexity. The final lines- "And always, much always, always, always!"-serve as a rallying cry, an affirmation of the enduring human spirit despite the struggles and contradictions that define our existence.

"Today I Like Life Much Less" is a masterful poem that takes us on an emotional journey through the labyrinthine complexities of human emotions. César Vallejo delicately balances despair with hope, sorrow with joy, in an intricate interplay that compels us to confront our own complexities, reminding us that life, with all its contradictions, is still worth living.

POEM TEXT:

Today I like life much less,
But I always enjoy living: I used to say so.
I almost touched the part of my everything and restrained myself
With a pull at my tongue behind every word.

Today I feel my chin as I hold it in
And in these momentary trousers I say to myself:
So much life and never!
So many years and always my weeks!
My ancestors buried with their stone
And their sad last breath that still isn't over;
Brothers upright in body, my brothers,
And, finally, my stationary being and in a waistcoat.

I enjoy life enormously
But immediately
With my beloved death and my coffee
And seeing the leafy chestnuts of Paris
And saying:
That is an eye, this is a forehead... and repeating
So much life and the tune never fails me!
So many years and always, always, always!

I said waistcoat, I said
Everything, part, anxiety, I said almost to keep from weeping.
For it is true that I suffered in the hospital over there
And it is good and bad to have looked
My organism up and down.

I always used to enjoy living, even though it were of the belly
Because as I have been saying and I repeat it,
So much life and never! And so many years,
And always, much always, always, always!

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