Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938) was serendipitously born in Sala Capriasca, Switzerland during a brief family trip abroad. She is considered one of the foremost poets in all of Latin American literature. She had to earn a living from a very early age and worked as a traveling actress at the age of thirteen, later as a school teacher at nineteen, and as a salesgirl in Buenos Aires until the age of twenty-five. Her luck changed after the publication of her first book, which rightfully received wide acclaim. According to the Antologia de la Poesia Hispanoamericana, she spoke alongside Gabriela Mistral and Juana de Ibarbourou at a 1938 event hosted by the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública de Urugay. That same year, at the age of 46 and knowing herself to be incurably ill with breast cancer, Storni committed suicide in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
from the article:
Little-Little Man
Little-little man, little-little man: set free your canary, for she wants to fly… For I am she, little-little man: let me leap.
I’ve been in your cage, little-little man, little-little man, who gives me a cage. I say little because you have neither understood me, nor will you ever understand.
I don’t understand you either, but in the meantime open for me this cage, I want to escape; little-little man, I loved you half a wing’s worth; don’t ask me for more.