Remembering Octavio Paz, 20 years after
To commemorate Octavio Paz 20 years after his death, the Embassy of Mexico in India took his poetry to the streets of New Delhi to capture the faces of a new generation of potential readers of this Mexican Nobel laureate and Ambassador to India (1962–1968).
This week, we commemorate the 20th death anniversary of Octavio Paz, noted Mexican poet, Nobel laureate and Mexico’s Ambassador to India.
For his body of work, he was awarded the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature.
“Everything that I saw (in India) was the re-emergence of forgotten pictures of Mexico”.
In 1951, Octavio Paz, then a 37-year-old mid-level diplomat at the Mexican embassy in Paris, received the news of his official transfer to India. Mexico had recently established relations with the newly independent nation. British colonialism had been brought to its knees, and the entire world was greeting the events with enthusiasm, even after the Gandhi assassination. Jawaharlal Nehru was prime minister. Paz arrived in Bombay a few months later, in 1952.
He had two stints in India a few months in 1952 and a decade later, six years as ambassador. He resigned from this post in protest of the student massacre in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Square, a repressive response by the Mexican government to the growing dissatisfaction against its long-standing autocratic policies.
Octavio Paz’s poetic journey in India and many friendships have contributed to getting India and the Spanish speaking world closer.
“The Delhi of Octavio Paz” is a programme conceived by the Embassy of Mexico in India, as a set of poetic interventions in those places to which he dedicated poems and thoughts to.
Santiago Ruy Sánchez, Head of Cultural and Tourism Affairs at the Embassy comments: “Even if he explored most of the country, an important part of his work on India gravitates around this mesmerizing city. The result is a poetic topography of places, especially Nizamuddin , Humayun’s Tomb, Lodhi Gardens, Old Delhi…”
If Paz’s exploration of Delhi has become one more of the multiple layers of urban history, time has come to make his unique views accessible to the young audiences and the uncommon readers. “By approaching the wanderers of these sites, we intend to use the current popularity of portraits as a tool to outreach people that wasn’t aware of Paz’s contributions to the poetry of the city”.
The photos can be seen in the social networks of the Embassy and will keep on growing.
His book ‘In Light of India’ is a window to the subcontinent and fundamental guide to any Latin-American interested in this diverse and fascinating country. It provides tools to imagination, sparks our perception. That is also to say about ‘Grammarian Monkey’ or ‘East Slope’.
“How does a Mexican writer at the end of the twentieth century perceive the immense reality of India?”
Octavio Paz’s renowned text, “In Light of India,” was based on a lecture given at the invitation of Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, written as an expression of the author’s love for India. The essay focuses on all things Indian — from food to literature, art, history and architecture — reflecting the Nobel laureate’s love for the country.
The book has Mexican-Indian comparisons scattered throughout. For instance, Paz writes of their shared fondness for spicy food and dance, and often, Paz concentrates his attention on the colonial history. The path to independence for these countries was quite different, however, in both instances, European colonial powers, namely Spain and Great Britain, functioned, in the words of Paz, as “agents of unification.”
“Monkey Grammarian”: That double feature, the monkey’s rambunctiousness and his linguistic aptitude, fascinates Paz: objectively, Hanumān travels the universe; subjectively, he sews it together through words. The story of a trip to the ruined palace and monastery of Galta, near Jaipur, in India; the reading of the description of the harem of Ravana, in the Ramayana; the story of Hanuman’s jump (the monkey god who, according to Hindu mythology, wrote the first grammar) from the Himalayas to Ceylon; and above all, a reflection on writing and language, in light of the concept of “emptiness” (sunyata) of Buddhist thought.
Paz’s encounter with India was transformative. He read broadly and traveled widely. It is here, he met his second wife, Marie José Tramini, who became his indefatigable companion. His inquisitive spirit was in constant stimulation, reinvigorating him as a poet and essayist and opening new vistas not only to the world but to understanding his native Mexico. He also wrote profusely. Years later, already close to his death in 1998, Paz published a memoir-cum-disquisition on religion, politics, and society about that crucial period called Vislumbres de la India (1994). Fittingly, the English translation is titled In Praise of India.
“It was because of Octavio, that I received the government scholarship and went to study etching in Paris in 1967.” — Indian sculptor Himmat Shah
In addition to his insightful and intimate works written about India, he had a deep influence on several generations of artists, poets and intellectuals: M. F. Husain, Jagdish Swaminathan, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, Himmat Shah, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Ashok Vajpayi and K. Satchidanandan.
The Embassy of Mexico in India is planning to launch a poster contest to create a dialogue between graphic and poetry around the work of Paz. The best visual interpretations of Paz will be showcased in an exhibition of Indian and Mexican designers to be held in November along with other activities to commemorate one of the most outstanding representatives of Mexican poetry.
Video: Octavio Paz and Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, with their respective wives, Marie-José Tramini and Aurora Bernárdez, in the gardens of the Embassy of Mexico in India, at the beginning of 1968.
Remembering Octavio Paz — 20 years after
All photographs ©:
Embassy of Mexico in India
- The poems were taken from “Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957–1987”, Edited and translated by Eliot Weinberger, A New Directions Paperbook, 1987
- Special thanks to our friends, photographer Faiyaz Ali, and all the volunteers who participated.
