Arturo Borja Pérez (Quito, Ecuador, September 15, 1892 – Quito, Ecuador, November 13, 1912) was an Ecuadorian poet associated with the “Generación decapitada” (Decapitated Generation), a group of young poets known for their tragic early deaths. Borja was the first of the group to adopt Modernist styles, drawing influence from French Symbolist poets like Baudelaire and Verlaine, whom he studied while in Paris seeking medical treatment. His poetic output, though limited, includes twenty-eight poems compiled in the posthumous collection La flauta de ónix (1920). Known for themes of melancholy and existential reflection, his work has made a lasting impact on Ecuadorian literature, marking him as a key figure in early 20th-century Ecuadorian poetry.
Early Life and Education
Born into a prominent Quito family, Arturo Borja Pérez was the thirteenth of sixteen children of Dr. Luis Felipe Borja Pérez, a well-regarded jurist, and Carmen Amelia Pérez Chiriboga. His childhood, though quiet, was marked by the strict discipline of his father and his mother’s fragile health, which contributed to Borja’s reflective and sometimes melancholic nature.
At age fifteen, Borja suffered an eye injury and traveled to Paris in 1907 with his uncle, Carlos Pérez Quiñónez, for treatment. This period in Paris was transformative; Borja immersed himself in the city’s rich literary culture, studying Symbolist and Modernist poets like Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and especially Paul Verlaine, whose influence would shape his own poetry. The themes of existential reflection and melancholy found in these poets’ works left a profound impact on Borja, guiding his approach to poetry and solidifying his style.
Literary Career
Borja’s literary work, though limited in volume, established him as a prominent figure in Ecuadorian Modernist poetry. He is best known for his poetry collection, La flauta de ónix, which includes 28 poems showcasing his Symbolist influences and introspective tone. His poetry often dealt with themes of nostalgia, despair, and a search for transcendence, reflecting the Modernist fascination with the inner life and complex emotional landscapes. Although La flauta de ónix was published posthumously in 1920, the collection remains highly regarded in Ecuadorian literature.
In 1910, Borja published his Spanish translation of Les Chants de Maldoror by the Comte de Lautréamont in the literary magazine Letras. His admiration for French Symbolism and his familiarity with these works in their original language were notable among Ecuadorian writers of his generation. His poem Para mí tu recuerdo became especially popular after being adapted into a pasillo by composer Miguel Ángel Casares Viteri, and was later performed by artists such as Carlota Jaramillo.
The Decapitated Generation
Borja was part of the “Generación decapitada” (Decapitated Generation), a term referring to four Ecuadorian poets—Arturo Borja, Humberto Fierro, Medardo Ángel Silva, and Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño—who each committed suicide at a young age. This group is credited with introducing Modernism to Ecuador and drawing influence from the French Symbolist movement. Although they never formally organized as a literary group, these poets shared similar themes of romantic longing, existential despair, and the influence of French poetry.
Personal Life and Final Years
On October 15, 1912, Borja married Carmen Rosa Sánchez Destruge, to whom he dedicated two of his poems, “Por el camino de las quimeras” and “En el blanco cementerio.” However, in the months leading up to his marriage, Borja’s mental health had already been declining. He was devastated by the death of his father earlier in 1912 and inherited a modest sum of money, which he reportedly used to fund a morphine habit. This addiction, introduced to him by his friend Noboa y Caamaño, contributed to Borja’s increasing isolation and despair.
On November 13, 1912, a month after his marriage, Borja died from a morphine overdose in Quito. Though his death was likely suicide, details remain ambiguous, with some accounts suggesting a suicide pact with his wife, who reportedly survived.
Legacy and Influence
Borja’s poetry, despite its brevity, had a lasting influence on Ecuadorian literature. His collection La flauta de ónix, published posthumously in 1920 by his friends, the artists Nicolás E. Delgado, Antonio Bellolio, and Carlos Andrade Moscoso, remains a cornerstone in Ecuadorian modernist poetry. These friends illustrated the collection and printed it at the Central University of Ecuador. Borja is remembered as a sensitive and introspective poet whose works explore existential themes that resonated with his generation. Today, his legacy endures in Ecuador, with a national school in Quito and streets in various cities named in his honor. His association with the “Generación decapitada” continues to be a subject of scholarly interest, and his contributions are celebrated as pioneering efforts in early 20th-century Ecuadorian literature.
Arturo Borja’s poem “Para mí tu recuerdo” was made into a pasillo song. Here it is sung by Carlota Jaramillo.
3 Poems
POR EL CAMINO DE LAS QUIMERAS
Para Carmen Rosa
Fundiendo el oro
de tu belleza con el tesoro
de mi tristeza,
fabricaré yo un cáliz de áurea realeza
en donde, juntos, exprimiremos
el ustorio racimo de los dolores,
en donde, juntos, abrevaremos
nuestros amores...
Será una copa sacra. Labios humanos
no mojarán en ella;
decorarán sus bordes lirios gemelos como tus manos
como tus labios habrá pétalos rojos,
y en su fondo un zafiro que fue una estrella
como tus ojos. . .
El sortilegio
declinará. La magia de nuestro encanto
tendrá un veneno de sacrilegio;
la última gota
la absorberemos, locos, mezclada en llanto;
la copa rota,
se perderá, camino de las quimeras...
Tú estarás medio muerta. Mi último beso
morirá en tus ojeras,
mi último beso
se alejará, camino de las quimeras...
EN EL BLANCO CEMENTERIO
Para Carmen Rosa
En el blanco cementerio
fue la cita. Tú viniste
toda dulzura y misterio,
delicadamente triste…
Tu voz fina y temblorosa
se deshojó en el ambiente
como si fuera una rosa
que se muere lentamente…
Íbamos por la avenida
llena de cruces y flores
como sombras de ultravida
que renuevan sus amores.
Tus labios revoloteaban
como una mariposa,
y sus llamas inquietaban
mi delectación morosa.
Yo estaba loco, tú loca,
y sangraron de pasión
mi corazón y tu boca
roja, como un corazón.
La tarde iba ya cayendo;
tuviste miedo y llorando
yo te dije: —Estoy muriendo
porque tú me estás matando.
En el blanco cementerio
fue la cita. Tú te fuiste
dejándome en el misterio
como nadie, solo y triste.
MADRE LOCURA
¡Madre Locura! Quiero ponerme tus caretas.
Quiero en tus cascabeles beber la incoherencia,
y al son de las sonajas y de las panderetas
frivolizar la vida con divina inconsciencia.
¡Madre Locura! Dame la sardónica gracia
de las peroraciones y las palabras rotas.
Tus hijos pertenecen a la alta aristocracia
de la risa que llora, danzando alegres jotas.
Sólo amargura traje del país de Citeres...
Sé que la vida es dura, y sé que los placeres
son libélulas vanas, son bostezos, son tedio...
Y por esto, Locura, yo anhelo tu remedio,
que disipa tristezas, borra melancolías,
y puebla los espíritus de olvido y alegrías...
Style and Themes in the 3 Above Poems
Borja’s poetry reflects a sophisticated synthesis of French Symbolist techniques and distinctly Ecuadorian Modernist preoccupations. His work demonstrates both mastery of traditional forms and a modern sensibility toward existential themes, particularly evident in these three poems.
In “POR EL CAMINO DE LAS QUIMERAS,” dedicated to Carmen Rosa (who would become his wife), Borja crafts an alchemical metaphor that transforms romantic love into sacred ritual. The poem’s imagery builds around the central symbol of a chalice (“cáliz”), mixing religious and profane elements: “fabricaré yo un cáliz de áurea realeza” (“I will forge a chalice of golden royalty”). This deliberate conflation of sacred and secular love echoes Baudelaire’s techniques, while the poem’s progression from golden craftsmanship to inevitable dissolution (“la copa rota”) reveals a distinctly Modernist preoccupation with beauty’s impermanence. The repeated phrase “camino de las quimeras” (path of chimeras) serves both as structural refrain and thematic reinforcement of love’s illusory nature.
“EN EL BLANCO CEMENTERIO,” also dedicated to Carmen Rosa, exemplifies Borja’s masterful use of space and setting to create psychological landscapes. The whiteness emphasized in the title creates an immediate contrast with the dark themes that follow, while the cemetery setting becomes not merely a Gothic backdrop but a liminal space where love and death intertwine. The poem’s regular quatrains and measured rhythm contrast with its increasingly fevered emotional content, creating a tension between formal control and psychological intensity. Note the vampiric imagery in “sangraron de pasión/mi corazón y tu boca/roja, como un corazón” (“bled with passion/my heart and your mouth/red, like a heart”), which transforms romantic love into a kind of beautiful destruction.
“MADRE LOCURA” represents perhaps Borja’s most complex engagement with Modernist themes. The poem’s apostrophe to madness itself (“¡Madre Locura!”) recalls Rimbaud’s systematic derangement of the senses, but Borja’s treatment is more ambivalent. The carnival imagery (“cascabeles,” “sonajas,” “panderetas”) suggests not liberation but a desperate attempt at escape from consciousness, reinforced by the bitter recognition that “la vida es dura” and pleasures are mere “libélulas vanas” (vain dragonflies). The poem’s formal perfection – its measured sonnetic structure – creates an ironic counterpoint to its theme of seeking release through madness.
Across all three poems, Borja’s technical mastery serves to heighten rather than contain their emotional impact. His use of rhyme and meter creates a musical quality that, paradoxically, underscores the poems’ sense of impending dissolution. This tension between form and content, between beauty and despair, marks Borja as a crucial figure in Ecuador’s Modernist movement. The cemetery imagery, particularly in “EN EL BLANCO CEMENTERIO,” takes on an eerily prophetic quality when we consider his suicide shortly after writing these works. Lines like “Yo te dije: —Estoy muriendo/porque tú me estás matando” (“I told you: —I am dying/because you are killing me”) resonate with tragic foresight.
The influence of French Symbolism appears not just in Borja’s imagery but in his understanding of poetry as a form of alchemy, transforming personal experience into universal symbol. Unlike the broader Latin American Modernist movement, which often celebrated regional identity and cultural pride, Borja’s work exemplifies the distinctly cosmopolitan and introspective character of Ecuador’s “Generación decapitada.” His focus on personal anguish, existential isolation, and the search for meaning through formal beauty – while avoiding national themes – aligns him more closely with the French poètes maudits than with his Latin American contemporaries. These preoccupations would mark him as a key figure in the “Generación decapitada” and establish a unique direction in Ecuador’s literary development.
Revised Timeline of Arturo Borja’s Life
- September 15, 1892: Arturo Borja Pérez is born in Quito, Ecuador, the thirteenth of sixteen children. His father, Dr. Luis Felipe Borja Pérez, is a prominent jurist, and his mother, Carmen Amelia Pérez Chiriboga, is his father’s cousin.
- Early 1900s: Borja grows up in a strict household, influenced by his father’s discipline and his mother’s health struggles, factors that contribute to his melancholic disposition.
- 1907: At 15, Borja injures his right eye, reportedly with a writing pen, prompting a trip to Paris with his uncle Carlos Pérez Quiñónez for medical treatment.
- 1907–1908: In Paris, Borja immerses himself in French literature, particularly the works of Symbolist poets like Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé, influences that profoundly shape his later writing.
- 1909: Borja returns to Quito, where he begins writing poetry inspired by Symbolist themes and forms close friendships with other poets, including Humberto Fierro and Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño. Together, they form a literary circle reflecting the growing influence of Modernism in Ecuador.
- 1910: He publishes his Spanish translation of Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont in the magazine Letras, marking one of his earliest published works and establishing him as a proponent of Modernism in Ecuador.
- April 1912: The death of Borja’s father leaves him with an inheritance of 8,000 sucres, but the loss deepens his melancholy. Around this time, he reportedly begins using morphine, influenced by friends in his literary circle.
- October 15, 1912: Borja marries Carmen Rosa Sánchez Destruge, to whom he dedicated the poems POR EL CAMINO DE LAS QUIMERAS and EN EL BLANCO CEMENTERIO.
- November 13, 1912: Borja dies of a morphine overdose in Quito at age 20. His death is widely regarded as suicide, and some rumors suggest a possible suicide pact with his wife, though she survives.
- August 1920: His friends publish La flauta de ónix, a posthumous collection of 28 of Borja’s poems, with illustrations by artists Nicolás Delgado, Antonio Bellolio, and Carlos Andrade Moscoso. This publication cements Borja’s status as a key figure in Ecuadorian Modernist poetry and the Generación decapitada.
Selected Works
Individual Works
- La flauta de ónix (1920), a posthumouse collection of 28 poems.
Anthologies Included In
- Los poetas decapitados: Antología de autores (2023)
- La palabra perdurable (1991)
- Decapitados: Antología poética (2012)
Translations
- Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont (1910)
References
- Wikipedia. Arturo Borja. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Lecturalia. Arturo Borja Biography by Lecturalia. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Goodreads. Los poetas decapitados: Antología de autores by Medardo Ángel Silva, Arturo Borja, Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño, and Humberto Fierro. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Goodreads. La palabra perdurable by Jorge Enrique Adoum, Juan Bautista Aguirre, César Andrade y Cordero, and others. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Goodreads. Decapitados: Antología poética by Bruno Sáenz, Humberto Fierro, Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño, Medardo Ángel Silva, and Arturo Borja. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Goodreads. La flauta de ónix by Arturo Borja. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- EcuRed. Arturo Borja Pérez Biography. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Biografías y Vidas. Arturo Borja by Biografías y Vidas. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel. Arturo Borja Pérez by Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.
- Internet Archive. Arturo Borja, Poesías Completas. Retrieved on October 31, 2024. Click to view.