Cesar Vallejo 1892-1938, Peruvian poet and writer. Santiago de Chuco was born in the mountains of the north and died in Paris. His father is of Spanish descent and his mother is an Indian. Before graduating from middle school, he made a living on his own and worked as a rural teacher and factory and mine employee. In 1913, he entered the Department of Philosophy and Literature of the Free University of Trujillo, the provincial capital, to study literature, and two years later changed to law. He once participated in the literary group Northern Society, and his early poems were influenced by the pessimism of the group. In 1918, he settled in Lima to work as a journalist and began literary creation. In the same year, he published his first collection of poems, "The Black Messenger," which contains traces of symbolism and modernism, as well as poems expressing the sufferings of the indigenous Indian peoples. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1920 for radical thoughts, but was released a few months later. In prison, he wrote many poems in the short story collection "Scales" and the poetry collection "Trierse". He went to France in 1923 and later went into exile in Europe. Joined the Spanish Communist Party in 1927. He visited the Soviet Union twice in 1928 and 1929. During this period, he published a large number of articles in newspapers and periodicals and wrote the novella "Tungsten Mine". He went to Spain in 1930 and participated in the anti-fascist struggle in the Spanish Civil War. The collection of poems "Spain, I Can't Drink This Bitter Wine" is a work from this period. In 1938, Vallejo died quietly in Paris on a rainy day, fulfilling the prophecy he wrote 18 years ago: "I will die in Paris, on a rainy day." At that time, even among avant-garde groups such as Paris's literary circles, Vallejo's poetry had difficulty finding a foothold - in fact, most doctors believed that Vallejo had died of starvation, and during his lifetime At that time, hunger was a normal part of his life. Regarding this, the poet seemed to have a premonition before going to Paris: "There, I will eat stones." Sure enough, in the last ten years of his life, Vallejo left a large number of poems describing hunger, in addition to several paintings The painting - it was Picasso's sketch of the poet's face after his death - decades later, what we can read from these lines is still hunger and pain. But the irony is that this ending may have been lucky for Vallejo. If he had not chosen to live in exile in Paris, then, in Lima, a wanted order was waiting for him. For the sensitive Vallejo, being arrested may be worse than going to hell. In 1922, it was the 100 days in prison that made him determined to leave his country. From then on, the two pale paths leading to his hometown in the Andes Mountains could only appear in his dreams. Another collection of poems published after his death, "Human Poems", includes all other poems he wrote after 1923.
Vallejo is an influential poet in Latin America. His poems have distinctive Latin American characteristics, combining modernism with national tradition, with unrestrained passion and a fresh and bright style. "Trierse" made a new exploration of poetry form and broke through the traditional language structure and thinking logic. The first edition did not attract attention. When it was republished in 1931, it attracted the attention and appreciation of the literary world. As a Peruvian poet with Indian ancestry, he is a painful person. Although he also published several small collections of poems during his lifetime, he truly achieved a high status in the world of poetry long after he died of starvation. At that time, Latin American literature was entering an era of explosion and was being watched by the whole world. At this time, people were surprised to find that Vallejo, a person who had always criticized modern poetry for being artificial and weak, turned out to be the true pioneer of modern Latin American poetry, and he His poems, like his native Andes, represent the height of Latin America.
Compared with Pablo Neruda, another great Latin American poet, Vallejo is unfortunate. While Neruda was already famous all over the world, Vallejo was only the poet. A great genius known only to a few ardent lovers of poetry. Of course, Neruda himself understood the weight of Vallejo. He told reporters, "I love Vallejo, he is my brother." After many years, more and more people believed that Vallejo was better than Neruda. The greatest Spanish poet. However, this comparison is actually meaningless. It is very likely that the two poets walked the same path of poetry through hustle and loneliness.