Saúl Yurkiévich: Cimetière du Montparnasse #26

'SAÚL YURKIÉVICH

1931 – 2005'

Saúl Yurkiévich was a poet, essayist and literary critic from a poor family in Argentina. He lived in Paris, where he became professor of hispano-American literature at the University of Vincennes, from 1969. he died in a motor accident.

(I had to take this grave at such a distant, skewed angle to avoid getting my shadow in the picture.)

The poem is of course one of Yurkiévich's, and is called 'Desde al fondo' ('From the back'), and is clearly about a voice (presumably of God) calling to him and summoning him. But the first line of the poem, 'desde al fondo del café', is missing:

'Una tenue voz
dulcemente
                  me llama
... Saúl... Saúl...
suave musita alguien
                                  ¿quién?
y no se ve
alguien que fue y estuvo
que está conmigo
allá
    ¿dónde?
está
y me convoca'.