The Knowledge José Watanabe Builds. Considerations Regarding Some Moments in His Poetry

Abstract

This article lays the foundation for a long-term research which postulates the following hypothesis: the subject who dwells in the poems by the Peruvian poet Jose Watanabe is one that manufactures knowledge through elements found outside of the writing framework, i.e., pieces of advice and the family or community short stories, that which inhabits in, and arises from—to put it in one of his verses—“the deep mouth of the eldest”. This article also addresses Watanabe’s way of understanding the world, especially the world opened through his word, which involves a dimension of experience that constantly stands in opposition to certain types of knowledge, for example, physics, mathematics, linguistics, or medicine. The subject who dwells in Watanabe’s poems is at the antipodes of this kind of knowledge. The wisdom transmitted through his poetry depends on both the personal experience of the subject and that which comes out from “the deep mouth of the eldest”.