The Metaphysical Canon in Poetry: on Cristina Campo’s Translation Activity

Abstract

The article focuses on Cristina Campo’s poetry translations in the context of her literary choices infl uenced by her predilection to metaphysical literature. The category of metaphysical literature can be understood, fi rst of all, as related to metaphysical English poets like John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Henry Vaughan. Metaphysical were also those authors whose writings defi ed the categories of space and time, and transcended the temporal and geographical limits. One of the greatest Campo’s fascinations from that perspective was the poetry of William Carlos Williams, as well as other authors that entered in her category of imperdonabili. Campo’s translational activity followed a well-delineated path related strictly to her metaphysical inclinations and manifested certain traits of the tendency to establish the personalized canon of real and worthwhile literature that at the same time opposed the mainstream literary choices of that time