Alfonsina Storni
Sunday, September 29, 2013
VOY A
DORMIR ( Alfonsina Storni , May 29, 1892 – October 25, 1938)
Dientes de
flores, cofia de rocío,
manos de
hierbas, tú, nodriza fina,
tenme
prestas las sábanas terrosas
y el
edredón de musgos escardados.
Voy a
dormir, nodriza mía, acuéstame.
Ponme una
lámpara a la cabecera;
una
constelación; la que te guste;
todas son buenas;
bájala un poquito.
Déjame
sola: oyes romper los brotes...
te acuna un
pie celeste desde arriba
y un pájaro
te traza unos compases
para que
olvides... Gracias. Ah, un encargo:
si él llama
nuevamente por teléfono
le dices
que no insista, que he salido...
Teeth of flowers, hairnet of dew,
hands of herbs, you, perfect wet nurse,
prepare the earthly sheets for me
and the down quilt of weeded moss
I am going to sleep, my nurse, put me to bed.
Set a lamp at my headboard;
a constellation; whatever you like;
all are good: lower it a bit.
Leave me alone: you hear the buds breaking through . .
a celestial foot rocks you from above
and a bird traces a pattern for you
so you'll forget . . . Thank you. Oh, one request:
if he telephones again
tell him not to keep trying for I have left . . .
Alfonsina Storni
A year and a half
after her friend Quiroga committed suicide in 1937, and haunted by solitude and
breast cancer, Storni sent her last poem, Voy a dormir ("I'm going to
sleep") to La Nación newspaper in October 1938. Around 1:00 AM on Tuesday
the 25th, Alfonsina left her room and headed towards the sea at La Perla beach
in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Later that morning two
workers found her body washed up on the beach. Although her biographers hold
that she jumped into the water from a breakwater, popular legend is that she
slowly walked out to sea until she drowned.
Her obituary,
published in La Nación on October 26, 1938 included the above poem that some
think was dedicated to her only
son, Alejandro who was 26 years old.
When I contacted Argentine model Roxana via email from Vancouver she indicated that she would pose for Nora Patrich and for me. She suggested we do something on modernist poet (Swiss born) Alfonsina Storni.
Because Storni had committed suicide by walking into the sea in Mar del Plata I saw a parallel with Hamlet's Ophelia. We took the picture in Nora Patrich's empty swimming pool (she was cleaning it). A nearby and very large clump of calla lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica) fit right in with our photograph.
Because Storni had committed suicide by walking into the sea in Mar del Plata I saw a parallel with Hamlet's Ophelia. We took the picture in Nora Patrich's empty swimming pool (she was cleaning it). A nearby and very large clump of calla lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica) fit right in with our photograph.
