Homesick for Death: Dead Nocturnes: The Complete Poems of Xavier Villaurrutia

Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. Gay & Lesbian Studies. Translated from the Spanish by D.M. Stroud and a preface and afterword by Elias Nandino. Xavier Villaurrutia (1903-1950) was the most distinguished member of Mexico’s most celebrated literary group, the Contemporaneos. A closet queen who escaped his closet, instead of bursting forth with the energy of a Whitman, he flits about the corridors of his dreams like a sinister black moth. The very suppression of energy here is what creates its intensity, as in the unforgettable Decimas. This is the first complete bilingual edition of Villaurrutia’s poems and will fill an important gap in the study of both gay and Mexican literature. “These beautiful translations convey perfectly the mixture of fear, hope, guilt, sensuality and elegance that are so typical of Villaurrutia”–Manuel Duran.