Eagle or Sun? | A Poem by Octavio Paz
“Eagle or Sun?” by Octavio Paz, translated by Eliot Weinberger, from “Eagle or Sun?” This collection of poems, written in 1949-1950, is the first major book of short prose poems written in Spanish. Paz, a poet from Mexico, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990. This collection introduces three personae throughout: the goddess Itzapaplotl, the prophet clerk, and the poet, and each are aspects of the land. Paz says of this collection, “‘Eagle or Sun?’ is an exploration of Mexico, yes, but at the same time, and above all, it is an exploration of the relations between language and the poet, reality and language, the poet and history.”
The eagle and sun are two sides of a Mexican coin, similar to heads or tails in the U.S.
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