Vesperal Study Notes

VESPERAL His only book of verses, Vesperal, which he corrected the proofs of the page days before his death, was published postmortem in March 1957. The publication was in charge of the Literature section of the Ateneo de Cienfuegos, chaired by Florentino Morales Hernández, who expressed in the words he wrote on the back of the cover: (...) his spirit always lived in love with poetry, in which the dreams and visions that always accompanied him did not fully congeale due to immediate material urgencies. the same in the hours of joy as in those of sorrow. Many times he told us that his greatest aspiration was to attain through his daughter Nivaria, who was like an extension of his life, the fullness to which he had vainly aspired. The selection and revision of the poems contained in this book, which he finished precisely on the eve of his death (...) surely sweetened the pain of his last days on earth. Many times we contemplate how the reading of an image or a twist that pleased him erased with a faint smile the bitter rictus that the cruel disease had carved on his lips... Tejera will always be remembered with brotherly affection by those of us who had the privilege of approaching the tender stronghold of his intimacy, witnessing the marvellous spectacle of a pure heart of an everlasting poet and of a brain always in tension, like an arch, towards all the winds of the spirit.35 Vesperal was his last farewell. Implicit in the title of the book is the content of the book. A book of plainchant containing the book of vespers,36 and Saturninus was already on the eve of his death, hence the title of his book. The dedication is a poem in itself: "With the forgiveness of Nivaria, my daughter, I take this escape through the lyrical door before the sun goes down, to leave her even a few green roots of the tree that she wanted to be and was not." To appreciate the depth of his work, let us quote some verses from his poem "The New Shoes" contained in this book: Along the old roads I go looking for the stones of childhood, but I do not find them... (...) Fifty years is more than half a life for a heart that grew tired prematurely, of so much walking on stones, of so much slipping through the prisons of political rancor, of so much humiliation of the spurs, of so much ingratitude of comrades; of so much reasoned nonsense... In the book he left his dreams as a poet, his desires and his feelings, as can be seen in these verses of his poem "Volutas de humo": The world belongs to those who walk: rhapsodist or peddler, pilgrim or immigrant, missionary or troubadour... Life belongs to those who walk: the star and the wayfarer; the poet and the beggar make the earth small; with feet, with caravels, with wheels, ideas, wings... and also with wills. Although Saturninus was born and lived on two islands surrounded by the sea, and had to cross the sea to emigration and exile, we do not find, however, marked references in his book to the seafaring motif. Of the eleven poems that make it up, he only alludes to the sea or marine flora and fauna in four of them: "Abismales", "Volutas del humo", "Barquitos de papel", and "Sol". The sea does not appear in the book as the identity of all or the vast majority of Canarian writers and poets.37 In "Abismales" he recreates fauna: fish, octopuses and mermaids adorn the poem. In "Volutas de humo" the sea appears as a lived experience: "The sea has already been explored; the sea, the sky and the soul..."; however, in "Paper Boats" he manages to capture the reality of the marine environment: the serene shore of the sea, the brown sand, the foam, the bottom of the sea, the snails, the breeze, the underwater shells, the red corals, the fish, the algae, the underwater landscape and the waves; All of this is tinged with the desire to be born again, to be a child, to play with the boats, "to wait for the dawn and begin life". The book closes with the poem "Sun", in which the atmosphere is desolate: the sand is hot, the sea is dry, the wind petrified the foam and he, implores Father Sun...; And yet you are a god and life; You are everything and I am your child; I am your light and your warmth; For you it's night and day... And because you matured The apple of the original sin of my being, I kindle in my heart The light of my thought, To illuminate the shadows In the hours of your absence... It was already the twilight of a life that was extinguished forever, the radiant sun went down for Saturnino Tejera García from Tenerife. This is our modest tribute to Tejera, to whom Cienfuegos owes a debt to pay, who contributed so much to literature, journalism and local fraternity, for the socio-cultural well-being of the city and to whom he gave the best years of his life, which has been reflected and forgotten in the burning linotype of memory.