Muerte sin fin / Mort sans fin

Mexico al filo, an exhibition by Emiliano Gironella Parra dedicated to drug trafficking

José Gorostiza’s poem Muerte sin fin was first published in 1939.  Seventy years later, in 2009, Conaculta celebrates this anniversary with an edition in Spanish and French, which is a double homage: to the poem and to Spanish-speaking readers, as they will have access to the French translation by Claude Couffon, published in 1991 by La Différence publishing house, with a preface by Mexican writer Vilma Fuentes to introduce the French public to the poetic work of José Gorostiza.

Muerte sin fin /Mort sans fin offers the most refined version of Gorostiza’s poem, free of the errata of the publications subsequent to its princely edition, presented by Arturo Cantú in his edition and study En la red de cristal (2005). Also included in the first part, corresponding to the Spanish edition, is the aforementioned study by Cantú, dedicated to the analysis of the meaning of the poem, where the original structure that sustains the work is vindicated.

Of Muerte sin fin, José Gorostiza’s masterpiece, one of the greatest poems of Mexican literature, it can also be said that it is “one of the summits of Spanish poetry of all times and a high point of modern universal poetry, in the tradition of the extended poem that culminates under great names such as those of T. S. Eliot and Paul Valéry”, says Sergio Vela in his presentation. Gorostiza’s poem in Spanish is accompanied by the graphics of Emiliano Gironella Parra, who, captivated by Muerte sin fin, created a sort of Gorostiza Suite, composed of 12 drypoint engravings.