Enrique Lihn

Enrique Lihn Carrasco (3 September 1929 – 10 July 1988) was a Chilean poet, playwright, and novelist.

Biography

The son of Enrique Lihn Doll and María Carrasco Délano, he married Ivette Mingram (1932–2008). They had one daughter, the actress Andrea María Lihn Mingram. Linh was born in Santiago, Chile. He aspired to be a painter but after a failed attempt at pursuing this ambition during university he abandoned that dream to pursue writing. He proceeded to develop into a poet, playwright, and novelist and would teach literature at the University of Chile.

Lihn viewed both the past and the future as forms of death, and his emphasis on this point is evident throughout his literary works. His work revolved around his anger for the contemporary dictatorship, as Chile was governed by a military junta. Works layered with social, political, and religious commentary are common throughout Lihn's canon. His final book, Diario de Muerte was written in the six weeks preceding his death from cancer in Santiago. The evening before his death, he corrected the proofs.

A fictionalized version of Lihn appeared in Alejandro Jodorowsky's autobiographical film Endless Poetry (2016) performed by Leandro Taub.

Notable works

Poems

• "The Dark Room"
• "Cemetery in Punta Arenas"
• "Six Poems of Loneliness"
• "Torture Chamber"
• '"Of All Despondencies"
• "A Favourite Little Shrine"
• "Goodnight, Achilles"

Film

• Adiós a Tarzán, directed by Enrique Lihn & Pedro Pablo Celedón.

Novels

• "Batman in Chile"
• "The Crystal Orchestra"
• "The art of the word"

Works in English

• The Dark Room and Other Poems, transl. by Jonathan Cohen, John Felstiner, and David Unger, 1978, New Directions
• Figures of Speech, transl. by Dave Oliphant, 1999, Host Publications, Inc.

External links

• Enrique Lihn papers, 1941-1988. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California..
• Enrique Lihn webpage