Meditation on the Day of Exile by César Dávila Andrade translated by Jonathan Simkins

César Dávila Andrade (Cuenca, 1918—Caracas, 1967) was an Ecuadorian poet, short fiction writer, and essayist. He was known as El Fakir for both his physical appearance and the mystical and esoteric concerns of his work. His chronicle of atrocities and forced labor under Spanish rule, “Bulletin and Elegy of the Mitas,” is widely acclaimed, both critically and popularly, as a key text of 20th century Ecuadorian poetry.

Jonathan Simkins is the translator of El Creacionismo by Vicente Huidobro (The Lune). His translations of César Dávila Andrade have appeared in Bennington Review, Chicago Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Notre Dame Review, Tampa Review, The Journal, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal.

21 November 2023