Octavio Paz's "Imprologo". Poetic-poetological points on the poetry of Vasko Popa

Abstract

This study is a close-reading of Octavio Paz' "Imprólogo" (Árbol adentro), a poem that served as prologue to the fi rst anthology of poetry of the Serbian poet Vasko Popa. I propose to analyze the text under three aspects: first, it is a poetic practice that evolves through the examination of the poetry of Paz' friend and colleague. Second, "Imprólogo" is a study of the value of negation, a lyrical exercise carried out through the repeated deferral to being carried out. Thirdly, the poem offers a new, poetological reflection on intertextuality, conceived as a poetic dialogue in suspense. Thus, Paz reaffi rms -on the new terrains of negation combined with intertextuality- the potential of the poetic to allude, through the words, to something beyond words.