Antonio Porchia
Overview
 
Antonio Porchia was an Argentinian
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

. He was born in Conflenti
Conflenti
Conflenti is a comune and town in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region of Italy.As of 31 December 2006 it had a population of 1677 and an area of 31 Km2 .It is located at the feet of the Reventino -External links:**...

 (Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) but, after the death of his father in 1900, moved to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. He wrote a Spanish book entitled Voces ("Voices"), a book of aphorism
Aphorism
An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...

s. It has since been translated into Italian and into English (by W.S. Merwin, Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press
Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...

, 2003), French, and German. A very influential, yet extremely succinct writer, he has been a cult author
Cult Fiction
-Personel:* Matt Beck - guitar* Chris Raines - drums* Jon Spencer - vocals* Dan Tulloh - guitar...

 for a number of renowned figures of contemporary literature and thought such as André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....

, Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

, Roberto Juarroz
Roberto Juarroz
Roberto Juarroz was an Argentine poet famous for his "Poesía vertical" . He published fourteen volumes of poetry in all, numbered successively 1 to 14, under the general title "Poesía vertical", the first appearing in 1958 and the final one posthumously in 1997...

 and Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...

, amongst others.
Quotations

Creo que son los males del alma, el alma. Porque el alma que se cura de sus males, muere.

Translation: I believe that the soul consists of its sufferings. For the soul that cures its own sufferings dies.

I am chained to the earth to pay for the freedom of my eyes.

If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud. Oh, if only I could!

You can owe nothing, if you give back its light to the sun.

Those who gave away their wings are sad not to see them fly.

You are sad because they abandon you and you have not fallen.

Nothing is not only nothing. It is also our prison.

My great day came and went, I do not know how. Because it did not pass through dawn when it came, nor through dusk when it went.

Quien no llena su mundo de fantasmas, se queda solo.

Translation: He who does not fill his world with phantoms remains alone.

I would go to heaven, but I would take my hell; I would not go alone.

 
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