Translation as "Poetic Device". Raúl Gustavo Aguirre, between Rimbaud and Char

Abstract

As a poet-translator, Raúl Gustavo Aguirre embodies a highly productive figure for translation theory. Main promoter of the work of René Char in Argentina, Aguirre traduces and publishes his work in the fifties. Both poets share devotion to Arthur Rimbaud, whom the author of Fureur et mystère considers untouchable, “phenomenon whose only reason is to be” (Char 1956). The hypothesis of this article is that Aguirre builds his own legitimacy as a poet when he intervenes, through translation, on Illuminations and Une Saison en enfer, thus touching what Char considers to be poetry’s unattainable core.