2 ?b90

61
Phrases such as "la mujer que lo rozaba" and "el sudor caricioso"
(1,67-8) leave the reader in little doubt of what has taken place
between Michelena and Isolda and the sexual element is forcefully,
although subtly, represented.
It is most interesting that Lezama should choose the image of a
manatee in this passage since it is an animal, or fish, which appears
at intervals in his essays. Arrom is mainly concerned with "lo tra-
dicional en el mundo novelistico de Lezama Lima, " and recalls the
early writings of the Spanish explorers:
"si leemos a los cronistas
de Indias, pronto surge, clarisima ,
la
explicaci6n
Cof the word
manat-13:
la imagen del manati entra en las cr6nicas envuelta en un halo de lo
asombroso, lo ilusorio y lo fant4stico. " He goes on to explain that
Christopher Colombus himself was the first to connect the humble sea-
cow with the European myth of the sirens, in his Diario: "vido tres
sirenas que salieron bien alto de la mar ... pero no eran tan hermo-
sas como las pintan.... "
10
Arrom is at pains to point out that
Lezama, whatever his purpose, is using a specifically Cuban image, deriv-
ing from the actual arrival of the conquistadors in South America. I
find it more significant still that Lezama has used the image in his
essays also and have taken particular note of the contextsin which it
appears. The most striking occurrence of the manatee is to be found
in "Introducci6n a un sistema po6tico" which is collected in Tratados en
la Habana, first published in Havana in 1958.
ý It is important to note
that the first four chapters of Paradiso were published in isolation
in Orfgenes from 1949 to 1955 and "Introducci6n
a un sistema
podtico"
also appeared in the latter in 1954.11 "Introducci6n a los vasos
6rficos, "' which has also been useful in formulating an interpretation
of the Michelena episode, first appeared in. La cantidad hechizada, a
collection published in Havana in 1970, the essay being dated 1961.