Defense of the Idol

by Omar Cáceres, Mónica de la Torre (Translator)

Branded a “poète maudit” for the cryptic circumstances surrounding his life and death, Omar Cáceres once tried to destroy all copies of his one and only book. The myth around him survived thanks to the inclusion of fifteen poems from Defense of the Idol in the groundbreaking anthology Antología de poesía chilena nueva from 1935. Presented here for the first time in English translation, along with the sole foreword Vicente Huidobro ever wrote for a poet, the poems of Cáceres possess a ghostly, metaphysical energy combined with modern-age imagery: bows pulsate, moons hurtle, rains sing, trees drag their shadows in drunk stupors, winds break the sky open. But the interior life of the poet assumes dominance, interrogated through anguished, turbulent dreamscapes of language.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Omar Cáceres (b. 1904) was a cult poet in the Chilean avant-garde. He published one book of poetry, Defense of the Idol (1934), with an introduction by Vicente Huidobro, of which only two copies survived after Cáceres tried to burn the entire print run upon publication due to the edition's numerous typos. He had ties with the Communist Party, and according to poet Jorge Teillier, played the violin in an orchestra of the blind. He was murdered by unknown assailants in 1943.

Reviews

[Lani M · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Now, as I remember my former self, the places that I've inhabited, that continue displaying my sacred thoughts, I understand that sense, the plea with which all alien solitude surprises us, is nothing but the proof of human sadness that remains." (Uninhabited Blue, p. 43).

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Legendary early 20C Chilean poet. When I stumbled across this and saw that Mónica de la Torre had translated, had to take a look.

Cáceres limns patterned motions of insentient objects (leafstorms, waves in the ocean) in a very idiosyncratic pathetic fallacy:
-“the meteorite of your body sets the seasons, / from the empty arc of its skin” // “el aerolito de tu cuerpo fija las estaciones, / desde el arco vacío de su piel”
-“you show up at your own levity’s abandonment, / like a spring mocking its bedrock” // “al abandono de tu propia levedad asistes, / como un manantial riendo de su peña”
-“ocean of metallic waves, shackles from his abandoned life, / those waves still sing by his childhood’s side” // “océano de olas metálicas, argollas de su vida abandonada, / esas olas aún cantan al costado de su infancia”
As the poet himself explains, it’s about braiding “my inner states of being and the TRUE situation of of my I [ego] in space and time.” I especially like one poem about the early experience of riding in automobiles:
“(100, 200, 300, / thousands of kilometers, perhaps.) / The motor becomes isolated. / Life goes on. Eternity crouches, prepares itself […]
each one of us feels lonely, indescribably lonely / oh infinite friends!”
// “ (100, 200, 300, / miles de kilómetros, tal vez). / El motor se aísla. / La vida pasa. / La eternidad se agacha, se prepara […] cada uno de nosotros se siente solo, indescriptiblemente solo, / oh amigos infinitos!”
The “alone-together” bit is a bit emo, but also strikingly contemporary; I have to admit I like it.

My favorite poems of all are the two that are about mirrors. A certain appealing diffuse Freudianism here.

Still, Cáceres is the kind of poet that’s so liberal with motifs of infinity that at a certain point things lose proportion and shape. In my current state of mind, I’ve found this maddening.

[Benjamin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story behind Omar Caceres is what sold me on his collection of poetry before I ever got to read how beautiful his mind and soul was. Tortured by himself over minor errors in the text after the publication, Omar hunted down and destroyed every copy of his work that was created. Two original publications survived his relentless assault on his own work, thank goodness. Omar Caceres has an ever-evolving 'I', looking in and out as the world, universe, and love pass each of us by, breaking something in us, off of us, and away from us; leaving something in us, with us, and for us to search for lifelong. I thoroughly enjoyed each of his writings, and desperately wish more existed.

[Puri Kencana Putri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pasa el viento a estirones con el mar, desarrugánaldolo; ráfaga de músculos azules, recoge sus cenizas perfumadas (Cáceres, p. 26, 1935). Omar Cáceres was a communist sympathiser in Chile before he passed away in 1943. He used to play violin in an orchestra of the blind. There is a fun fact about this publication. After he released the book, the one and only publication he had, he made an attempt to burn it with no reason. So I guess as a rare collection, Defense of the Idol is important to be read

[Greg Bem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible in its obscurity and profound in its density. This book will leave your wrangling and wringing, demanding reapproach in response to the poet's short life and short body of work. It's fantastic that it exists in contemporary English and will no doubt impact a lot of authors new and existing.

[Isidora Molina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Delante de tu espejo no podrías suicidarte:
eres igual a mí porque me amas
y en hábil mortaja de rabia te incorporas
a la exactitud creciente de mi espíritu.”

“Y un solo pensamiento, oh poetas,
los poemas EXISTEN,
nos llegan!”

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read UDP’s translation.