Alfonsina
and the Sea
Por Omar Pérez Santiago
(Traducción del español: Claudia
Pérez)
On October, Saturday 22nd,
1938, a 46 year-old woman wanders in
Buenos Aires towards the train
station; she buys a one-way ticket to
Mar del Plata. She moved to a modest
boarding house, having the
blurry fate of committing suicide.
It is said – the incident is
obscure- that she is sick, tired and
longs for death to set her free.
Perhaps her time goes by in an old
bench thinking about her life.
Maybe She spends time writing her
poem "I’m going to sleep
too"
I'm going to sleep, my nurse, tuck
me in.
Put a flashlight on the headboard;
a constellation, the one that you
like
they are all good; dim it a little.
She goes to the post office and
sends the poem to "La
Nación" newspaper. She stays
awake the whole Monday night because
of her moral confusion. Probably
screams of rebelliousness and words
of submission were heard. She talks
to herself. She writes a letter to
the only son she had, Alejandro, 26
years old.
She goes out and heads to the sea
at 1:00 am. Her biographers assured
she jumped into the sea from a
breakwater. The myth, however,
more poetic and with more
spirituality, was that she slowly
walked into the water.
Hours later, two young workers who
were strolling down La Perla beach
found her body. She was Alfonsina
Storni, one of the most important
poets of the century.
Alfonsina Storni was immortalised
in the song "Alfonsina y el
mar" (Alfonsina and The Sea) by
Luna and Ramírez.
Through the soft sand that the sea
laps against
Your little footprint will not ever
come back
A path full of pain and suffering
Reaches the deep water
A path only of silent grief
Reaches the surf.
Alfonsina Storni was a Gemini of
1892. Fire Dragon. She once said:
"I was called Alfonsina, which
means willing to anything". She
was born in a canton of Switzerland.
Her family settled in San Juan, later
on, in 1901, they moved to Rosario.
When Alfonsina was 10 years old the
"Café Suizo" is her family
business, where the girl works as a
dishwasher and waits the tables. Her
father, depressed and alcoholic dies
in 1906. Alfonsina, who does not stop
writing poems, works as a cook and as
a labourer in a workshop of caps. She
dedicated some time to the theatre
too. She finally graduated as a
teacher.
At age 19, She already writes,
recites and publishes in magazines.
And then came love. It is said that
in a literary soiree in Santa Fe,
Alfonsina had an affair and from the
affair she had a son, Alejandro, in
1912. From the birth another verse
appeared: I am like a she-wolf, I
walk alone, and I laugh...the son and
then I, and then...what ever!
In spite of the years Alejandro´s
father name remains unknown, he was a
journalist, older, and married.
Alfonsina, a single mother and a
feminist, moves to Buenos Aires. In
1920, she wins the First Municipal
Prize of Poetry and the Second
National Prize of Literature for
"Languidness". In 1925,
"Ochre" is published, In
1926 "Poems of Love", 1934
"Seven Wells World" and in
1938 " Mask and Shamrock",
which is the last book.
Alfonsina Storni, brave speaker
for women’s rights and a driving
force of the Writers Society of
Argentina, she had many friends. She
asked Leopoldo Lugones if he could
read some of her verses in 1915: She
wrote; " This I am asking you
for a reason, it is because my book
is due to be published soon. I know
that I am going to be labelled as an
immoral".
In 1919 Amado Nervo arrives to
Argentina as an ambassador for his
country and goes to the same meetings
Alfonsina does. She dedicates him a
copy of "The Uneasiness of the
Rosebush ". In the dedication
she called him "Divine
Poet".
To Juana de Ibarbourou, whom she
met in Montevideo in 1920, she seemed
happy, perky, sometimes acute, and
sarcastic.
She met Horacio Quiroga, a
storywriter, in 1922. She liked
Quiroga. Obviously. He was a mixture
of insolent and a tragic beast, a
real magnet for women. His
biographers say that he was a
womaniser. Smear? Read this letter of
Quiroga: "There is a girl in
Buenos Aires, an admirable 16 year
old creature, to whom I recall well
since I once dinned at her place,
spending the long hour looking for
with my foot what, oh, Lord! I had
agreed to find, with someone
else’s acquiescence. I even put
my hand under the table to arrange my
napkin, and put it right in her knee
for a moment, just for a
moment".
They were seen together. The
photographs show them happy. Her
friend Nora Lange says that she
witnessed an erotic game for
children: Quiroga holds in the air a
chain clock they both had to kiss in
the opposite faces; in the right
moment Quiroga raised the clock.
Naughty boy.
One day the Chilean Gabriela
Mistral called her on the phone. She
wanted to meet her. When Gabriela saw
her she was surprised: "The head
is extraordinary, not for cheated
features but for her silver hair,
which frames a 25 year-old
visage". The Vicuna poetess
insists "I haven not seen a hair
more beautiful than that, it is
strange like moonlight at noon would
be. It was golden, and some sweetness
remained in the white clusters. The
blue eyes, the retroussé nose, very
funny and the rose skin, give her a
child thing which challenges the
astute conversation and mature
woman".
She met Federico García Lorca in
the famous café Tortoni, when he
went to Buenos Aires to direct his
play "Wedding of Blood",
between 1933 and 1934. She dedicated
him a poem, "Portrait of García
Lorca": In comes a Greek /
because of his distant eyes (…).
Out goes his throat / outside/ asking
/ for the moon knife / sharpen water
(…) Let the head fly, / the head
alone / wounded by sea waves / black
ones…".
In the summer of 1935, she knew
the terrible news: she had breast
cancer. She was operated on, but the
cancer continued. She suffered
depressions. Since then she called
the sea in her poems and talks about
the embrace of the sea and the
crystal house awaiting for her there
in the bottom, in the Madre pore
avenue. The suicide floats in the
environment. In 1937, Horacio Quiroga
also gets sick of cancer. One
midnight he took cyanide. Alfonsina
Storni said good-bye with moving
verses: "Dying like you,
Horacio, in your full senses, like in
your stories, It is not bad".
Then Leopoldo Lugones poisoned
himself.
Storni, Dragon of fire, he begged
the sea, his rage, his fierceness:
Oh sea, give me your tremendous
rage,
I spent a life forgiving
Cause I understood, sea, I gave
myself away:
"Mercy, mercy for the most
offensive".
Give me your salt, your iodine,
your fierceness,
Sea Breeze! Oh, tempest, oh anger!
Poor me, I am a sharp rock,
And I die, sea, I succumb in
poverty
Finally, the sea asked for her.
And, in the place were she went down
ready for everything, a Monday night,
there is a statue in her honour,
overlooking the sea.
