Miguel Arteche

Miguel Salinas Arteche (4 June 1926 – 22 July 2012),[1] best known as Miguel Arteche, the name he adopted after legally reversing his maternal and paternal surnames in 1972, was a Chilean poet and novelist. He was born in Nueva Imperial, Cautín, 9th Region, on June 4, 1926, but spent most of his adult life in Santiago, Chile serving in academics. He was also awarded government positions, both in Chile and abroad. His writings appeared first in the Anthology of the Generation of 1950, compiled by Enrique Lafourcade, a well-known Chilean writer.

Miguel Salinas Arteche
Born4 June 1926
Nueva Imperial, Cautín Province, Chile
Died22 July 2012 (aged 86)
Santiago, Santiago Province, Chile, Chile

Biography

He studied Law in the Universidad de Chile, but shortly dropped to study Literature in the Universidad de Madrid, in Spain from 1951 to 1944. His work ranges from poetry to novel and short stories.

In 1947 he publishes his first book, Invitación al olvido. He keeps on publishing poetry books, with Cantata del desterrado as his last book before parting to Europe. Spain will be fundamental to his writing, approaching him to his family roots and the intellectual world. He later returns to Chile, where he continues his writing. It is in 1976 that he writes one of his most famous books, Destierros y tinieblas.

In 1956, Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva nominates him to the Chilean Embassy in Madrid, where he remains until 1970, then he is added to the Chilean Embassy in Honduras, where he stays until 1971, remaining an additional period as Visiting Professor of the University. Once again he returns to Chile. He soon opposes to the military government of Augusto Pinochet, which will lead to less frequent publication of his books and marginalization of his work. Only after the return of democracy in Chile he is able to republish his books.

In 1996 he is awarded with the Premio Nacional de Literatura, the greatest literary award in Chile.

Literary generation of 1950

Miguel Arteche is one of the authors of the so-called Generación literaria de 1950. Writers inside this category were born between 1920 and 1934. This classification was impulsed by author Enrique Lafourcade in 1954. Prominent writers of this generation are Miguel Arteche, Enrique Lafourcade, Pablo Neruda, Vicente Huidobro, Humberto Díaz Casanueva, Rosamel del Valle, Jorge Edwards, Claudio Giaconi, et al. These writers are influenced by authors like Walt Whitman, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Miguel Arteche has also stated that his influences come from the Spanish Siglo de oro and (golden century). He taught his students the traditional art of metrical writing against the use of free verse.

Works

El agua (the water), from Destierros y Tinieblas (Exiles and Darkness), 1963, is one of his known poems; he had it in display hand-carved in wood at the entrance of his studio. Translated by Walter Hilliger, one of his students from the 90s:

EL AGUATHE WATER

A media noche desperté.
Toda la casa navegaba.
Era la lluvia con la lluvia
de la postrera madrugada.
Toda la casa era silencio,
y eran silencio las montañas
de aquella noche. No se oía
sino caer el agua.
Me vi despierto a medianoche
buscando a tientas la ventana;
pero en la casa y sobre el mundo
no había hermanos, madre, nada.
Y hacia el espacio oscuro y frío
y frío el barco caminaba
conmigo. ¿Quién movía
todas las velas solitarias?
Nadie me dijo que saliera.
Nadie me dijo que me entrara,
y adentro, adentro de mí mismo
me retiré: toda la casa.
Me vio en el tiempo que yo fui,
y en el seré la vi lejana,
y ya no pude reclinar
mi juventud sobre la almohada.
A medianoche busqué
mientras la casa navegaba.
Y sobre el mundo no se oyó
sino caer el agua.

I woke up at midnight
the whole house set sail.
In the early morning,
there was rain with rain.
The house was in silence,
the mountains restrained,
that night, one could hear
but the falling rain.
I saw me that night
searching vents in vain;
at home, and the world,
no brothers, mum, friends.
The space was dark, cold,
and cold the ship stayed
with me. Who moved all
lonely candle flames?
No one told me, go,
No one told me, stay,
inside, within me,
Home, I left away.
She saw who I was,
she seemed far someday.
I couldn't lean back
on the pillow's surface.
That midnight I searched
while the house sailed straight.
Above the world hearing
but the fall of rain.

Poetry
  • La invitación al olvido, 1947
  • Oda fúnebre, 1948
  • Una nube, 1949
  • El sur dormido, 1950
  • Cantata del desterrado, 1951
  • Solitario, mira hacia la ausencia, 1953
  • Otro continente, 1957
  • Quince poemas, 1961
  • Destierros y tinieblas, 1963
  • De la ausencia a la noche, 1965
  • Resta poética, 1966
  • Para un tiempo tan breve, 1970
  • Antología de veinte años, 1972
  • Noches, 1976
  • Cantata del Pan y la Sangre, 1980, 1981, 1986
  • Variaciones alemanas, 1986
  • Variaciones sobre versos de Karol Wojtyla, 1987
  • Monólogo en la Torre, 1989
  • Siete canciones, 1989
  • Tercera antología, 1991
  • Fénix de madrugada, 1975–1992
  • Poemas para nietos, 1996
  • Para un tiempo tan breve, 1997
  • Jardín de relojes, 2002

Novel
  • La otra orilla, 1964
  • El Cristo hueco, 1969
  • La disparatada vida de Félix Palissa, 1975
  • El alfil negro, 1992 (unpublished)

Short Story
  • Mapas del otro mundo, 1977
  • Las naranjas del silencio, 1987

Autobiography
  • Los ángeles de la provincia, 1975

Essay
  • Notas para la vieja y la nueva poesía chilena, 1958
  • La extrañeza de ser americano, 1962
  • Discurso de incorporación a la Academia Chilena de la Lengua, 1965
  • El extraño caso de Gabriela Mistral, 1968
  • Tres visiones de Carlos Droguett. 1971
  • Alfonso Calderón o cuarenta años después, 1978
  • Llaves para la poesía, 1984
  • Algunos de mis fantasmas, 1985
  • Algo acerca de la experiencia poética, 1988
  • La crítica poética y el crítico único, 1988
  • Exposición sobre un taller de poesía, 1988
  • La fuente dividida de Gabriela Mistral, 1989
  • El nombre perdido y buscado en América, 1989
  • Cómo leer un poema, 1989
  • Gabriela Mistral: seis o siete materias alucinadas, 1989
  • Escribir como niño para niños, 1990
  • De modo inseguro y problemático, 1990
  • Los coléricos hijos de Damaso Alonso, 1990
  • Algunos aprendices de brujo, 1989
  • Palabras en Alberti, 1991.

References
  1. "Memoria Chilena - Miguel Arteche (1926-2012) - Presentación". Memoriachilena.cl. Retrieved 2012-08-28.
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