Figures & Figurations

by Maríe José Paz, Maríe José Paz, Eliot Weinberger (Translator)

A beautiful collaboration between husband and wife. His poems to her collages, call and response from Mexico's greatest poet. "Marie Jose's constructions and boxes are three-dimensional objects transfigured by her imagination and her sensibility into visual ideas, mental enigmas, bearers of bizarre and disturbing images, or of ironic perceptions. More than things to be seen, they are wings for traveling, sails for wandering and wondering, mirrors through which to cross." Octavio Paz Figures & Figurations , one of the last books completed by the late Mexican poet Octavio Paz before his death in 1998, is a collaborative effort with his wife of thirty years, the artist Marie Jose Paz. In response to ten of her collage-constructions, he wrote ten new short poems; she in turn created two new artworks in response to two of his earlier poems. Twelve poems, twelve pieces of art reproduced in full color, in a book first published in Spanish in 1999 and now appearing in a bilingual edition. In addition to the poems and collage-constructions, Figures & Figurations includes an essay by Octavio Paz on Marie Jose Paz's work, "The Whitecaps of Time," in which he relates how her friendship with Joseph Cornell became a stimulus for her assemblages and how she was further spurred on by other friends, such as Roman Jakobson and Elizabeth Bishop. "These objects sometime surprise us," he writes, "sometimes make us laugh or dream. Signs that invite us to a motionless voyage of fantasy, bridges to the infinitely small or galactic distances, windows that open on to nowhere. The art of Marie Jose is a dialogue between here and there."

Genres: Poetry, Art

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Lucy Dacus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet collaborative poetry book, Octavio Paz's poems based off of his wife's art, which is also shown. The original Spanish translations are in the back, so if you're an English speaker trying to learn some Spanish, I recommend reading in Spanish and then English back and forth til everything makes sense. Was really helpful for me.

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The constellation of the Body

Eyes born of night
are not eyes that see:
they are eyes that invent
what we see.

Theater of metamorphosis:
in the center of time
the rotation of the heavens
has stopped for a moment,
as long as the glance that sees it.

The stars are seeds,
sprouting in the subheavens.

Time plays chess with its shadow;
mirror that unfolds in reflection,
reflections that disappear:
the winner loses, the loser wins.

In the lens of his kaleidoscope
the astronomer sees the constellation
turned into a woman, a wave of clarity.

It is the dawn that returns to earth:
closing the eyes of night,
it opens the eyes of men.

[Aldo Diosdado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este poemario que combina las letras, las fotos y la instalación me parece una Mezcla artística fabulosa. Las construcciones poéticas de Marie José son mágicas, de un mundo único y abstracto. Paz, por su lado acompaña estos sueños con otros sueños, sus palabras, sus poemas, tres de ellos reunidos en “Árbol adentro”.

[kelly]

"Eyes born of night
are not eyes that see:
they are eyes that invent
what we see."

[Leopoldo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesante pero prescindible.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an odd book, but it is odd in a good way and not a bad way, a way that is intriguing and not a way that is frustrating.  In many ways this book is a feast of scraps, a last bit of work as someone was approaching the end of life, an effort to get new and original person of someone who was aging and whose energy was probably flagging at this point, as often happens with the elderly.  The book is also a labor of love, in that it includes both the poetry of Octavio Paz (always something to appreciate) as well as some works by the author's wife who is given co-authorship credit here.  I happen to think that this work was made better by the combination of English and Spanish as well as the combination of poetry and visual material, which gives a sense of unity and even complexity that provides a context for the work.  For those readers who can read and appreciate both the English and Spanish, there is something in the translations that can allow the reader to guess at depths that may not be present had this been only an English level translation, as one can see what sense of various words the author was using.

As a poetry collection this book is a somewhat short one.  In the first part of the book there are twelve poems in English translation with the associated figures from the poet's wife, often given French titles:  "Calm," "Your Face," "The Brushes Awake," "Imperial Fireplace," "Cipher," "India," "Enigma," "Door," "The Arms Of The Trade," "The Constellation Of The Body," "The Dream Of Pens," and "Here."  The drawings are suitably quirky, the poems short but intensely allusive.  After this comes the same twelve poems in their Spanish originals, also short and allusive and excellent.  After this there is a third part that contains a short essay called "The Whitecaps Of The Hours" by the poet that pays honor to the artistic work of his wife, and a short afterward by Yves Bonnefoy on the poet and his wife that comments on the unity of their relationship as well as their often subversive desires when it came to art.  One can appreciate both what unites and what undercuts in both the poems and the drawings, if one is into that sort of thing, as I am.

In general I found this collection of works to be quite excellent.  Had it merely been a collection of twelve poems in either English or Spanish, it would have been a very slight work indeed.  Even with both the poems in their original and in translation, it would have seemed to be missing something.  Yet the addition of the figures that relate to the poems as well as some essays that put the collection in a greater context greatly improve the work as a whole.  This is a whole that is indeed greater than the sum of its parts, with art that, as collage, has the same feature of being a coherent whole that nevertheless wears its fragmented nature on its sleeve, much like the book as a whole.  And it is that appropriateness that makes this a small but worthwhile gem in the catalog of works by Octavio Paz, an easy enough book to appreciate on its own merits and also a work that allows the reader to ponder what it is that makes one appreciate small and fragmented works that may not be impressive on their own but take on a much richer value when looked at in association with the beauty of art as well as translation.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Octavio Paz's wife is a wonderful artist of surreal, eclectic found object sculptures and he writes simple compact verse to accompany them. The essays in the back honor the work and their collaborative creative relationship and this is very cute and sweet.

[Inês Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

7,5/10

[tate · Rating 4 out of 5]

poems and collage are great, i want Yves Bonnefoy dead

[Sur Cur Lengel · Rating 4 out of 5]

AGGRESSIVE DREAMING (7-1997)(for Andy)

Late in the night;
no light.
Naked, very tired
and leaning on the wall:
I was aware
of the spread of the bear
as it gorged the dark room
encroaching on my fears.
I listened to the beast
tumbling slowly
like a voiceless mantra from my lips.
It grumbled
as if it was death:
unfulfilled,
needy
and familiar.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Octavio Paz is just excellent. His poems are extremely short, beautiful, and easy to understand. He's also a Nobel Prize winner that students can use for their anthology project. This edition is bilingual.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous book.

[Jana Gutiérrez Kerns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Octavio Paz: enough said.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars