The Galloping Hour: French Poems--never before rendered in English and
unpublished during her lifetime--gathers for the first time all the
poems that Alejandra Pizarnik (revered by Octavio Paz and Roberto
Bolano) wrote in French. Conceived during her Paris sojourn (1960-1964)
and in Buenos Aires (1970-1971) near the end of her tragically short
life, these poems explore many of Pizarnik's deepest obsessions: the
limitation of language, silence, the body, night, sex, and the nature of
intimacy.
Drawing from personal life experiences and echoing readings of some of
her beloved/accursed French authors--Charles Baudelaire, Germain
Nouveau, Arthur Rimbaud, and Antonin Artaud--this collection includes
prose poems that Pizarnik would later translate into Spanish. Pizarnik's
work led Raúl Zurita to note: "Her poetry--with a clarity that becomes
piercing--illuminates the abysses of emotional sensitivity, desire, and
absence. It presses against our lives and touches the most exposed,
fragile, and numb parts of humanity."