La genèse du dizain « Niñez » de Jorge Guillén

• Main Author: Jean-Luc Puyau
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Casa de Velázquez 2004-11-01
• Series: Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez
• Subjects: Cántico; Genèse; Génétique textuelle; Guillén Jorge; Manuscrits; Rythme
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/mcv/1268

Prior to the ten-line poem «Niñez», published by Jorge Guillén in the first complete edition of Cántico (1950), there is a manuscript comprising forty-four pages written between 1945 and 1947. The point of departure of this proto-text is particularly surprising in that the first page presents to its readers a species of «drawing» where stronger and weaker figures seem to alternate in the author’s spirit before any word has yet been written down. One is reminded then of the «vain syllables» that Valéry referred to in his prose works as the possible beginning of a poem, and one is prompted to try and identify by what means a linguistic object could have been created from a cadence (or from a rhythm). A methodical exploration of Guillén’s swings and a measurement of the distance separating the initial poetic intent from the published text suggest that there is very little premeditation in the writing of «Niñez»; to the contrary, the text materialises to the rhythm with which the Spanish language reveals its discourse and the poet puts it to use with all the skill at his command.