The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedNicanor Parra
Title QuotedVersos de salon
Date (Year/Month/Day)1965/03/20
Imprint[S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1962
QuotationThanks very much for the two books of poems, which you sent me some time ago. You seemed diffident about Versos de salon but I enjoyed it very much and, as you see, I have made a few translations. [James] Laughlin would be interested in using some of my translations of your work, but after I had made these he spoke of needing some of the "antipoems," so I may try some of these later. I am not sure whether I do not like the earlier book even better than the more recent one. In any case I find that I agree with your dissonances, and find them to be in fact very monastic. In fact, today the poets and other artists tend to fulfill many of the functions that were once the monopoly of monks"”and which of course the monks have made haste to abandon, in order to center themselves firmly in the midst of a square society.
Quotation SourceThe Courage for Truth: Letters of Thomas Merton to Writers.; Selected and edited by Christine M. Bochen. / New York : Farrar Straus Giroux. 1993, p. 212
Letter toNicanor Parra
Notes 
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