La Bella Dormida: An Interpretation of the Image in Selected Spanish American Poets

Abstract

century poetry by a rather widespread penchant for nocturnal themes and oneiric imagery. In Spanish America the modernista poets, Jos6 Asunci6n Silva, Rub6n Dario and Leopoldo Lugones clearly reflect this tendency; more recently, such markedly different poets as Pablo Neruda, Xavier Villaurrutia, Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges share this preoccupation with Sleep and her two inseparable handmaidens, Love and Death. My objective in this study is to examine one particular image cluster within this general area of the nocturnal motif: that of the dormida, or sleeping woman. The realm of the sleeper may be poetically viewed either internally or externally. If the artist adopts the first of these approaches, he attempts to re-create the world of dreams with its ever-changing images and unexpected associations and, by so doing, endeavors to have his reader participate in the experience. By contrast, when the poet employs the external approach to the subject, he focuses upon the sleeper and his or her relationship to a second being. This second being may be simply a casual observer, or-and this is the specific situation which concerns us here-he may be the poet-lover. It is precisely the inability of this person to penetrate the dream world of the sleeper which provides the poetic crux of his creative problem. The poet thus finds himself in the realm of conjecture, of doubt, and quite often, of fear. The notion that the dreamer has in some manner abandoned his body, that his soul or spirit wanders during the eriod of sleep is deeply rooted in folkbeliefs and in primitive psychology. Closely related to this idea is the suggestion that in the somnolent state the wandering spirit returns to its original, genuine, primordial condition. This differentness which transcends the obvious physical problem of communication between the sleeping and waking state gives rise to a kind of amatory relationship that often approaches the mystical in its intensity. The theme of the beloved asleep, so rich in poetic suggestion, so laden with paradoxes and antitheses-death and regener tion, possession and loss, fear and tranquility-has been treated by a number of Spanish American poets: Jos6 Asunci6n Silva in Oh dulce nifia pilida and Mariposas; Leopoldo Lugones in Endecha; Octavio Paz in the Oda al suefio; Xavier Villaurrutia in some of his Noctumos; Herrera y Reissig in Plenilunio; Humberto Diaz Casanueva in La bella durmiente; and most notably by Jorge Luis Bo ges in Amorosa anticipaci6n.' A close examination of the Borges piece shows the richness of the poetry inspired by th dormida and also provides an excellent starting point for an analysis of the complex of images frequently surrounding the central figure: