Jotamario Arbeláez

Jotamario Arbeláez Poems

Jotamario Arbeláez Biography

Jotamario Arbeláez is the main exponent of the nadaísta movement, a group of rebellious poets and writers who revolutionized Colombian literature in the 1960s. He was one of the first followers of its founder, Gonzalo Arango. He dropped out of high school, but some years later was awarded an honorary degree for having written the ‘vindicative’ poem, ‘Santa Librada College’. For twenty years he worked in an advertising agency, has been awarded three national poetry prizes, and is now a columnist at El Tiempo newspaper. He has spoken at poetry festivals in sixteen countries.)

The Best Poem Of Jotamario Arbeláez

Chinese Vengeance

The secret agents that pursued me are now in the same prison where
they planned to consign me
The girlfriends who abandoned me are now married with ragamuffins
The executives that rejected my job applications have seen their
companies go bankrupt
The real estate agency that aspired to throw an eviction order at me
was closed up by the government
The fop who deflowered my sister in a pool drowned himself in a river
The teachers who made me flunk my senior year were green with envy
when they read, in the small thickly bound book published in Paris,
under the letter "A":

Translation: 2006, Nicolás Suescún

Jotamario Arbeláez Comments