The Erotic Sonnets of Salvador Novo

In honor of National Poetry Month, we’re reading the work of Mexican writer and poet, Salvador Novo. The University of Texas Press recently published a new translation of Novo’s memoir, A Pillar of Salt, and included nineteen of his erotic sonnets at the end. These bold romantic verses about desire are a lot of fun to read. Novo was a highly regarded cultural figure in Mexico City during the twentieth century who lived dangerously as an open homosexual. Holding nothing back, Novo’s work is a celebration of love, self and language. His work is here excerpted with permission of University of Texas Press.

X

I think, in these hours, of you, my love,
burning as I do in merciless insomnia;
wanting your eyes, seeking the curve of your hip,
I feel the promises impressed by your lips.

I repeat the ringing syllables of your name,
hear the martial accent of your step;
I open my chest, I bare my heart—this
weepy embrace is but lying art.

My bed is languid and lugubrious,
for you, sun of my craving, angel of kisses,
are gone, and I am alone and delirious.

I look at life with mortal rue;
all this, my lord, is due to you,
for it’s a week since I have screwed.

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Salvador Novo (1904–1974) was a provocative and prolific cultural presence in Mexico City through much of the twentieth century. With his friend and fellow poet Xavier Villaurrutia, he cofounded Ulises and Contemporáneos, landmark avant-garde journals of the late 1920s and 1930s. At once “outsider” and “insider,” Novo held high posts at the Ministries of Culture and Public Education and wrote volumes about Mexican history, politics, literature, and culture. The author of numerous collections of poems, including XX poemas, Nuevo amor, Espejo, Dueño mío, and Poesía 1915–1955, Novo is also considered one of the finest, most original prose stylists of his generation.