酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Poem of the Week

The Other or Another Wrinkled Self?


The Other by Octavio Paz

He invented a face for himself.
gggggggggggggggggggggggBehind
it,
he lived died and resurrected
many times.
gggggggggHis face now
has the wrinkles from the face.
His wrinkles have no face.


Reflection:

The concept of the other has gained its significant role in social and literary theories. Who is the other? What is the other? How can we know the other? What do we respond to the other? Octavio Paz’s The Other layers a series of masks, one upon the other, in such a way that the other, the title of the poem, is hidden from the reader completely. What we can see, revealed in the concluding line, is the wrinkles of the other, but they are wrinkles that have no face.

Note:

Thank Christine for posting this well-crafted and thought-provocative poem. My interpretation of this poem is benefited from Roger Moore's course material about a deeper exploration of the texts of Octavio Paz's poetry.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Poem of the Week

The Other or Another Wrinkled Self?


The Other by Octavio Paz

He invented a face for himself.
gggggggggggggggggggggggBehind
it,
he lived died and resurrected
many times.
gggggggggHis face now
has the wrinkles from the face.
His wrinkles have no face.


Reflection:

The concept of the other has gained its significant role in social and literary theories. Who is the other? What is the other? How can we know the other? What do we respond to the other? Octavio Paz’s The Other layers a series of masks, one upon the other, in such a way that the other, the title of the poem, is hidden from the reader completely. What we can see, revealed in the concluding line, is the wrinkles of the other, but they are wrinkles that have no face.

Note:

Thank Christine for posting this well-crafted and thought-provocative poem. My interpretation of this poem is benefited from Roger Moore's course material about a deeper exploration of the texts of Octavio Paz's poetry.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

Octavio Paz once said: "The language that nourishes the poem is, after all, nothing but history, name of this or that, reference and meaning....Without history -- without men, who are the origin, the substance and the end of history -- the poem could not be born or incarnated, and without the poem there could be no history either, because there would be no origin or beginning."

He invented a face for "the Other," travelling deep into the history of "othering."
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Octavio Paz once said: "The language that nourishes the poem is, after all, nothing but history, name of this or that, reference and meaning....Without history -- without men, who are the origin, the substance and the end of history -- the poem could not be born or incarnated, and without the poem there could be no history either, because there would be no origin or beginning."

He invented a face for "the Other," travelling deep into the history of "othering."
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

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