Emptiness as metaphor in the work of Roberto Juarroz

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate some points of contact between the work of the Argentine writer Roberto Juarroz (1925-1995) and Zen Buddhism, for which the poet has expressed great interest. Taking as a point of our analysis koans, enigmatic expressions in that the paradox plays a key role, we not only better understand the frequent use of paradoxes in the work of Juarroz, but also can perceive another aspect largely ignored by critics yet: the use of metaphor by the author. Davidson’s statement specifying that a metaphor does not say anything new, but points to an aspect that commonly would not be noticed helps us to elucidate part of the puzzling and confusing nature of Juarroz’s poetry: as in the case of koans, a significant part of that work does not ask our understanding in strictly discursive terms, but ask that we transform our vocabulary with this, and transform ourselves with it. It is evident, therefore, that the appropriation of Eastern culture by Juarroz differs from that which prevails in the Spanish-American literature of the time primarily for its emphasis on ethopoetic aspect (not just aesthetic) of literature – that will get in the koan and not in the haiku, a model for his own creation.