Cover of Voices

Voices

Antonio Porchia (1886–1968) wrote one book, a slender collection of poetic aphorisms that became a classic in the Spanish-speaking world. With affinities to Taoist and Buddhist epigrams, Voices bears witness to the awe of human existence. Revised and updated with a new introduction by translator W.S. Merwin, this bilingual volume brings back into print one of Latin America’s great literary treasures.

Read more

He who tells the truth says almost nothing.

*

I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received.

*

Only a few arrive at nothing, because the way is long.

*

Out of a hundred years a few minutes were made that stayed with me, not a hundred years.

*

When I come upon some idea that is not of this world, I feel as though this world had grown wider.

*

This world understands nothing but words, and you have come into it with almost none.

*

We become aware of the void as we fill it.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 84 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Voices? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Voices. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Wheel with a Single Spoke: and other poems Shares poetry
  2. Complete Poems: Charles Baudelaire Shares poetry, شعر, poesía
  3. People on a Bridge Shares poetry, شعر
  4. Black Zodiac Shares poetry, fiction

“People who read Voices tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Vertical Poetry: Recent Poems
  2. Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962 - 1972
  3. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems
  4. The Collected Poems, 1956-1998

“If you want more of the same (philosophy), start with these.”

  1. The Poems of Dylan Thomas
  2. Gasoline
  3. Poetry and Prose of Alexander Pope
  4. Reality Sandwiches

“If it was the poetry that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Book of Questions
  2. Hotel Insomnia
  3. Rumi: Poems
  4. Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Philosophy in the Present
  2. Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone
  3. Cousine K
  4. Konfidenz