2 ?b90

125
by them to achieve this end, in "Las eras imaginarias: la biblioteca
como drag6n":
El taoismo establecl'o lo que ellos llaman la respira-
ci6n embrionaria, que trataba de imitar la respiraci6n
del feto en la vientre maternal. Al volver a la base,
al retornar al origens se expulsa a la vejez, se vuelve
al estado de feto, se retorna al origen. (11,899)
It could be a description of Cemi's dream, with the new rhythm it brirgs,
but for the fact that the dream is virtually an unconscious experience
for the five year old. This is but a preliminary return to the ouroboric,
undefined Unconscious. Cemi must yet,, like Orpheus, make the journey as
a fully-conscious adult in order to make the experience his own, prior to
winning the gift of poetic insight.
II. Images of Death
La poesia es algo nids misterioso que una dedicaci6n,
pues yo le puedo decir a usted que cuando mi padre
muri6 yo tenia e ocho affos, y esa ausencia me hizo hipersensible
a la presencia de una imagen. Ese hecho
fue para mi una conmoci6n tan grande que desde muy
nifro ya pude percibir que era muy sensible a lo que
estaba y no estaba, a lo visible ya lo invisible.
Yo siempre esperaba algo, pero si no sucedfa nada en-
tonces percibia que mi espera era perfecta, y que ese
espacio vacio, esa pausa inexorable tenia yo que Ile ý4
narla con lo que al paso del tiempo fue la imagen.
In these moving words Lezama expresses his belief that the death of
his own father is the major event in his poetic development. It has
come to represent in his mind the basis of his image-forming capacity.
Confronted with the inexplicable absence of a person once centrally placed
in his world3, the child's mind is filled with horror by the sudden empti-
ness and hastens to eliminate the infinite void with the images formed
in the course of grappling with the concept of death. Something which
began as a balm to the child's troubled spirit gradually transforms itself