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{{Short description|Mexican writer, poet and diplomat (1914–1998)}}
{{family name hatnote|Paz|Lozano|lang=Spanish}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Expand Spanish|topic=bio|date=November 2023}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2018}}
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{{Infobox writer
| name             = Octavio Paz
| spouse           =  {{Plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Elena Garro]]|1937|1959|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Marie-José Tramini|1965|1998}}
}}
| image            = Octavio Paz - 1988 Malmö.jpg
| caption          = Paz in 1988
| birth_name       = Octavio Paz Lozano
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1914|3|31|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Mexico City]], Mexico
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1998|4|19|1914|3|31|mf=y}}
| death_place      = Mexico City, Mexico
| occupation       = {{hlist | Writer | poet | diplomat}}
| period           = 1931–1965
| movement         = {{hlist | [[Surrealism]] | [[existentialism]]}}
| awards           = {{unbulleted list | [[Miguel de Cervantes Prize]] (1981) | [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (1990)}}
}}

'''Octavio Paz Lozano'''{{efn|Spanish pronunciation: {{IPA|es|oɣˈtaβjo pas loˈsano|}}, <small>{{Audio|Octavio Paz.ogg|audio}}</small>.}} (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 [[Jerusalem Prize]], the 1981 [[Miguel de Cervantes Prize]], the 1982 [[Neustadt International Prize for Literature]], and the [[1990 Nobel Prize in Literature]].

==Early life==
Octavio Paz was born near [[Mexico City]]. His family was a prominent [[Liberalism in Mexico|liberal]] political family in Mexico, with [[Spaniards|Spanish]] and [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico|indigenous Mexican]] roots.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Poets|first=Academy of American|title=About Octavio Paz {{!}} Academy of American Poets|url=https://poets.org/poet/octavio-paz|access-date=2020-06-07|website=poets.org}}</ref> His grandfather, [[Ireneo Paz]], the family's patriarch, fought in the [[War of the Reform]] against conservatives, and then became a staunch supporter of liberal war hero [[Porfirio Díaz]] up until just before the 1910 outbreak of the [[Mexican Revolution]]. Ireneo Paz became an intellectual and journalist, starting several newspapers, where he was publisher and printer. Ireneo's son, Octavio Paz Solórzano, supported [[Emiliano Zapata]] during the Revolution, and published an early biography of him and the Zapatista movement. Octavio was named for him, but spent considerable time with his grandfather Ireneo, since his namesake father was active fighting in the Mexican Revolution; his father died in a violent fashion.<ref>[[Enrique Krauze|Krauze, Enrique]]. ''Redeemers: Ideas and Power in Latin America''. New York: Harper Collins 2011, 122–131.{{ISBN|978-0066214733}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2020-06-07|title=Octavio Paz|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/octavio-paz|access-date=2020-06-07|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en}}</ref> The family experienced financial ruin after the Mexican Revolution; they briefly relocated to Los Angeles, before returning to Mexico.<ref name=":1" /> Paz had blue eyes and was often mistaken for a foreigner by other children—according to a biography written by his long-time associate, historian [[Enrique Krauze]], when Zapatista revolutionary [[Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama]] met young Octavio, he said, "''Caramba'', you didn't tell me you had a [[Visigoths|Visigoth]] for a son!" Krauze quotes Paz as saying, "I felt myself Mexican but they wouldn't let me be one."<ref>quoted in Krauze, ''Redeemers'', 137</ref>

Paz was introduced to literature early in his life through the influence of his grandfather Ireneo's library, filled with classic [[Mexican literature|Mexican]] and [[Western literature|European literature]].<ref>[[Guillermo Sheridan]]: ''Poeta con paisaje: ensayos sobre la vida de Octavio Paz''. México: ERA, 2004. p. 27. {{ISBN|968411575X}}</ref> During the 1920s, he discovered [[Gerardo Diego]], [[Juan Ramón Jiménez]], and [[Antonio Machado]]; these Spanish writers had a great influence on his early writings.<ref>[[Jaime Perales Contreras]]: "Octavio Paz y el circulo de la revista Vuelta". Ann Arbor, Michigan: Proquest, 2007. pp. 46–47. UMI Number 3256542</ref>

As a teenager in 1931, Paz published his first poems, including "Cabellera". Two years later, at the age of nineteen, he published ''Luna Silvestre'' (''Wild Moon''), a collection of poems. In 1932, with some friends, he founded his first literary review, ''[[Barandal (magazine)|Barandal]]''.

For a few years, Paz studied law and literature at [[National Autonomous University of Mexico|National University of Mexico]].<ref name=":0" /> During this time, he became familiar with [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] poets, such as Chilean [[Pablo Neruda]].<ref name=":1" /> In 1936, Paz abandoned his law studies, and left Mexico City for [[Yucatán (state)|Yucatán]] to work at a school in [[Mérida, Yucatán|Mérida]]. The school was set up for the sons of [[peasant]]s and workers.<ref>Sheridan: ''Poeta con paisaje'', p. 163</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Quiroga|first1=Jose|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kJOqj6Sm2p8C&q=octavio+paz+merida&pg=PA25|title=Understanding Octavio Paz|last2=Hardin|first2=James|date=1999|publisher=Univ of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-1570032639|language=en}}</ref> There, he began working on the first of his long, ambitious poems, "Entre la piedra y la flor" ("Between the Stone and the Flower," 1941, revised 1976); influenced by the work of [[T. S. Eliot]], it explores the situation of the Mexican peasant under the domineering landlords of the day.<ref>{{cite book |title= Octavio Paz |last= Wilson |first= Jason |year= 1986 |publisher= G. K. Hall |location= Boston }}</ref>

In July 1937 he attended the Second International Writers' Congress—the purpose of which was to discuss the attitude of intellectuals to [[Spanish Civil War|the war in Spain]]—held in [[Valencia]], [[Barcelona]] and [[Madrid]] and attended by many writers, including [[André Malraux]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], [[Stephen Spender]], and [[Pablo Neruda]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Hugh |title=The Spanish Civil War |date=2012 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=978-0141011615 |page=678 |edition=50th Anniversary}}</ref> Paz showed his solidarity with the Republican side, and against the [[fascism|fascists]] led by [[Francisco Franco]] and supported by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. While in Europe he also visited Paris, where he encountered the [[Surrealism|surrealist]] movement, which left a profound impact upon him.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Riding|first=Alan|date=1994-06-11|title=Octavio Paz Goes Looking for His Old Friend Eros|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/books/octavio-paz-goes-looking-for-his-old-friend-eros.html|access-date=2020-06-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After his return to Mexico, in 1938 Paz co-funded a literary journal, ''{{ill|Taller (magazine)|lt=Taller|es|Taller (revista)}}'' ("Workshop") and wrote for that magazine until 1941. In 1937 he married [[Elena Garro]], considered to be one of Mexico's finest writers; they had met in 1935. They had one daughter, Helena, and were divorced in 1959.

In 1943, Paz received a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] and used it to study at the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California at Berkeley]] in the United States. Two years later, he entered the Mexican diplomatic service, and was assigned for a time to New York City. In 1945, he was sent to Paris, where he wrote ''[[The Labyrinth of Solitude|El Laberinto de la Soledad]]'' (''The Labyrinth of Solitude'', English translation 1963); ''The New York Times'' later described it as "an analysis of modern Mexico and the Mexican personality in which he described his fellow countrymen as instinctive nihilists who hide behind masks of solitude and ceremoniousness."<ref>{{cite news|title=Octavio Paz, Mexican Poet, Wins Nobel Prize|last= Rule|first=Sheila|work=[[The New York Times]]|location=New York|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/12/books/octavio-paz-mexican-poet-wins-nobel-prize.html|date=October 12, 1990}}</ref> In 1952, he travelled to India for the first time, and that same year went to [[Tokyo|Tōkyō]] as ''[[chargé d'affaires]]''. He next was assigned to [[Geneva]], Switzerland. He returned to Mexico City in 1954, where he wrote his great poem "Piedra de sol" ("Sunstone") in 1957, and published ''Libertad bajo palabra'' (''Liberty under Oath''), a compilation of his poetry up to that time. He was again sent to Paris in 1959, and in 1962, he was named Mexico's ambassador to India.

==Later life==
In [[New Delhi]], as Ambassador of Mexico to [[India]], Paz completed several works, including ''El mono gramático'' (''The Monkey Grammarian'') and ''Ladera este'' (''Eastern Slope''). While in India, he met numerous writers of a group known as the [[Hungry Generation]] and had a profound influence on them.

In 1965, he married Marie-José Tramini, a French woman who would be his wife for the rest of his life. That fall, he went to [[Cornell University]] and taught two courses, one in Spanish and the other in English—the magazine ''LIFE en Español'' published a piece, illustrated with several pictures, about his tenure there in their July 4, 1966 issue. He subsequently returned to Mexico.

In 1968, Paz resigned from the diplomatic service in protest against the Mexican government's [[Tlatelolco massacre|massacre of student demonstrators in Tlatelolco]];<ref>Preface to ''The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz: 1957–1987'' by Eliot Weignberger</ref> after seeking refuge in Paris, he again returned to Mexico in 1969, where he founded his magazine ''Plural'' (1970–1976) with a group of liberal Mexican and Latin American writers.
From 1969 to 1970, Paz was [[Simón Bolívar Professor of Latin-American Studies|Simón Bolívar Professor]] at the [[University of Cambridge]]. He was also a visiting lecturer during the late 1960s, and the [[A. D. White]] Professor-at-Large from 1972 to 1974 at Cornell. In 1974, he was the [[Charles Eliot Norton Lectures|Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry]] at [[Harvard University]]; his book ''Los hijos del limo'' (''Children of the Mire'') was the result of his lectures. After the Mexican government closed ''Plural'' in 1975, Paz founded ''[[Vuelta (magazine)|Vuelta]]'', another cultural magazine. He was editor of that until his death in 1998, when the magazine closed.

Paz won the 1977 [[Jerusalem Prize]] for literature on the theme of individual freedom. In 1980, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Harvard, and in 1982, he won the [[Neustadt Prize]]. Once good friends with novelist [[Carlos Fuentes]], Paz became estranged from him in the 1980s in a disagreement over the [[Sandinistas]], whom Paz opposed and Fuentes supported.;<ref name=NYT>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/books/carlos-fuentes-mexican-novelist-dies-at-83.html |title=Carlos Fuentes, Mexican Man of Letters, Dies at 83 |author=Anthony DePalma |date=May 15, 2012 |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 16, 2012}}</ref> in 1988, Paz's magazine ''[[Vuelta (magazine)|Vuelta]]'' published criticism of Fuentes by [[Enrique Krauze]], resulting in the estrangement.<ref name=WP>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/carlos-fuentes-mexican-novelist-dies-at-83/2012/05/15/gIQAx7dxRU_story.html |title=Carlos Fuentes, Mexican novelist, dies at 83 |author=Marcela Valdes |date=May 16, 2012 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=May 16, 2012}}</ref>

A collection of Paz's poems (written between 1957 and 1987) was published in 1990, and in that year, he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref name="Nobel Prize Literature 1990">{{Nobelprize|accessdate=29 April 2020}}</ref>

Paz died of cancer on April 19, 1998, in Mexico City.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-23163-24439-71?cc=1923424&wc=M9W1-L3L:1513580468 |title=Civil Death Registration |author=México, Distrito Federal, Registro Civil |date=20 Apr 1998 |website=FamilySearch.org  |publisher=Genealogical Society of Utah. 2002 |access-date=22 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Arana-Ward |first1=Marie |year=1998 |title=Octavio Paz, Mexico's Great Idea Man |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/features/paz.htm |access-date=October 3, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kandell |first1=Jonathan |year=1998 |title=Octavio Paz, Mexico's Man of Letters, Dies at 84  |journal=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/21/books/octavio-paz-mexico-s-man-of-letters-dies-at-84.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |access-date=October 3, 2013}}</ref> His ashes, along with those of his spouse, Marie-José Tramini, are kept at a memorial in the [[Colegio de San Ildefonso]] in Mexico City.<ref>{{cite web | last=Cultura | first=Secretaría de | title=Octavio Paz y Marie José Tramini descansan en San Ildefonso | website=gob.mx | date=2024-07-24 | url=https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/octavio-paz-y-marie-jose-tramini-descansan-en-san-ildefonso | language=es | access-date=2025-02-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Memorial Octavio Paz | website=Colegio de San Ildefonso | url=https://www.sanildefonso.org.mx/memorialpaz/ | language=es | access-date=2025-02-25}}</ref>

[[Guillermo Sheridan]], who in 1998 was named by Paz as director of the Octavio Paz Foundation, published a book, ''Poeta con paisaje'' (2004), with several biographical essays about the poet.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

==Aesthetics==
"The poetry of Octavio Paz," wrote the critic [[Ramón Xirau]], "does not hesitate between language and silence; it leads into the realm of silence where true language lives."<ref>Xirau, Ramón (2004) ''Entre La Poesia y El Conocimiento: Antologia de Ensayos Criticos Sobre Poetas y Poesia Iberoamericanos''. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica p. 219.</ref>

==Writings==
A prolific author and poet, Paz published scores of works during his lifetime, many of which have been translated into other languages. His poetry has been translated into English by [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Charles Tomlinson]], [[Elizabeth Bishop]], [[Muriel Rukeyser]] and [[Mark Strand]]. His early poetry was influenced by [[Marxism]], [[surrealism]], and [[existentialism]], as well as religions such as [[Buddhism]] and [[Hinduism]]. His poem, "Piedra de sol" ("Sunstone"), written in 1957, was praised as a "magnificent" example of surrealist poetry in the presentation speech of his Nobel Prize.

His later poetry dealt with love and eroticism, the nature of time, and Buddhism. He also wrote poetry about his other passion, modern painting, dedicating poems to the work of [[Balthus]], [[Joan Miró]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], [[Antoni Tàpies]], [[Robert Rauschenberg]], and [[Roberto Matta]]. As an essayist, Paz wrote on topics such as [[Politics of Mexico|Mexican politics]] and [[Economy of Mexico|economics]], [[Pre-Columbian art|Aztec art]], [[anthropology]], and [[Human sexuality|sexuality]]. His book-length essay, ''[[The Labyrinth of Solitude]]'', delves into the minds of his countrymen, describing them as hidden behind masks of solitude; due to their [[History of Mexico|history]], their identity is lost between a pre-Columbian and a Spanish culture, negating either. A key work in understanding [[Culture of Mexico|Mexican culture]], the essay greatly influenced other Mexican writers, such as [[Carlos Fuentes]]. Ilan Stavans wrote that Paz was "the quintessential surveyor, a [[Dante]]'s Virgil, a Renaissance man".<ref>{{cite book
| last = Stavans
| title = Octavio Paz: A Meditation|publisher=University of Arizona Press
| year = 2003|page=3
}}
</ref>

[[File:Paz0.jpg|thumb|upright|Octavio Paz]]
Paz wrote the play ''La hija de Rappaccini'' in 1956. The plot centers around a young Italian student who wanders about Professor Rappaccini's beautiful gardens, where he espies the professor's daughter, Beatrice. He is horrified to discover the poisonous nature of the garden's beauty. Paz adapted the play from an 1844 short story by American writer [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], which was also entitled "[[Rappaccini's Daughter]]"; he combined Hawthorne's story with sources from the Indian poet [[Vishakadatta]] and influences from Japanese [[Noh]] theatre, Spanish ''[[autos sacramentales]]'', and the poetry of [[William Butler Yeats]]. The play's opening performance was designed by the Mexican painter [[Leonora Carrington]]. In 1972, Surrealist author [[André Pieyre de Mandiargues]] translated the play into French as ''La fille de Rappaccini '' (Editions Mercure de France). First performed in English in 1996 at the [[Gate Theatre]] in London, the play was translated and directed by [[Sebastian Doggart]] and starred [[Sarah Alexander]] as Beatrice. The Mexican composer Daniel Catán adapted the play as an opera in 1992.

Paz's other works translated into English include several volumes of essays, some of the more prominent of which are ''Alternating Current'' (tr. 1973), ''Configurations'' (tr. 1971), in the [[UNESCO Collection of Representative Works]],<ref>[http://www.unesco.org/culture/lit/rep/pop.php?fnc=record&lng=en_GB&record=5821 Configurations], Historical Collection: UNESCO Culture Sector, [[UNESCO]] official website</ref> ''The Other Mexico'' (tr. 1972); and ''El Arco y la Lira'' (1956; tr. ''The Bow and the Lyre'', 1973). In the United States, [[Helen Lane]]'s translation of ''Alternating Current'' won a [[National Book Award]].<ref name=nba1974>
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1974 "National Book Awards – 1974"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-11. <br />
There was a [[List of winners of the National Book Award#Translation|National Book Award category Translation]] from 1967 to 1983.</ref>
Along with these are volumes of critical studies and biographies, including of [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] and [[Marcel Duchamp]] (both, tr. 1970), and ''The Traps of Faith'', an analytical biography of [[Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz]], the Mexican, seventeenth-century nun, [[List of feminist poets|feminist poet]], mathematician, and thinker.

Paz's works include the poetry collections ''¿Águila o sol?'' (1951), ''La Estación Violenta'', (1956), ''Piedra de Sol'' (1957). In English, ''Early Poems: 1935–1955'' (tr. 1974) and ''Collected Poems, 1957–1987'' (1987) have been edited and translated by [[Eliot Weinberger]], Paz's principal translator into American English.

==Political thought==
[[File:II Congreso internacional de escritores para la defensa de la cultura, 1937.jpg|thumb|left|250px|II International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture.]]
Originally, Paz supported the Republicans during the [[Spanish Civil War]], but after learning of the murder of one of his friends by the Stalinist secret police, he became gradually disillusioned. While in Paris in the early 1950s, influenced by [[David Rousset]], [[André Breton]] and [[Albert Camus]], he started publishing his critical views on totalitarianism in general, and particularly against [[Joseph Stalin]], leader of the Soviet Union.

In his magazines ''Plural'' and ''Vuelta'', Paz exposed the [[Human rights|violations of human rights]] in Communist regimes, including [[Fidel Castro|Castro's]] [[Cuba]]. This elicited much animosity from sectors of the Latin American Left: in the prologue to Volume IX of his complete works, Paz stated that from the time when he abandoned Communist dogma, the mistrust of many in the Mexican [[intelligentsia]] started to transform into an intense and open enmity. Paz continued to consider himself a man of the left—the democratic, "liberal" left, not the dogmatic and illiberal one. He also criticized the Mexican government and leading party that dominated the nation for most of the twentieth century.

Politically, Paz was a [[social democracy|social democrat]], who became increasingly supportive of liberal ideas without ever renouncing his initial leftist and romantic views. In fact, Paz was "very slippery for anyone thinking in rigid ideological categories," Yvon Grenier wrote in his book on Paz's political thought. "Paz was simultaneously a romantic who spurned materialism and reason, a liberal who championed freedom and democracy, a conservative who respected tradition, and a socialist who lamented the withering of fraternity and equality. An advocate of fundamental transformation in the way we see ourselves and modern society, Paz was also a promoter of incremental change, not revolution."<ref>Yvon Grenier, ''From Art to Politics: Octavio Paz and the Pursuit of Freedom'' (Rowman and Littlefield, 1991); Spanish trans. ''Del arte a la política, Octavio Paz y la busquedad de la libertad'' (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1994).</ref>

{{blockquote|There can be no society without poetry, but society can never be realized as poetry, it is never poetic. Sometimes the two terms seek to break apart. They cannot.|Octavio Paz<ref>{{cite book
| last = Paz
| first = Octavio
| title = "Signs in Rotation" (1967), '''The Bow and the Lyre''', trans. Ruth L.C. Simms (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973), p. 249
}}</ref>
}}

In 1990, during the aftermath of the [[Fall of the Berlin Wall|fall of the Berlin wall]], Paz and his ''Vuelta'' colleagues invited several of the world's writers and intellectuals to Mexico City to discuss the collapse of Communism; writers included [[Czesław Miłosz]], [[Hugh Thomas (writer)|Hugh Thomas]], [[Daniel Bell]], [[Ágnes Heller]], [[Cornelius Castoriadis]], [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]], [[Jean-François Revel]], [[Michael Ignatieff]], [[Mario Vargas Llosa]], [[Jorge Edwards]] and [[Carlos Franqui]]. The encounter was called ''The Experience of Freedom'' (Spanish: ''La experiencia de la libertad''), and broadcast on Mexican television from 27 August to 2 September.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.letraslibres.com/revista/convivio/memorias-del-encuentro-la-experiencia-de-la-libertad |title=Memorias del encuentro: "La experiencia de la libertad" |author=Christopher Domínguez Michael |date=November 2009 |work=Letras Libres (in Spanish)| access-date=July 10, 2013}}</ref>

Paz said that the literature on Spanish and Portuguese colonialism is biased and "is full of somber details and harsh judgments". He said that there were also immense gains:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paz |first=Octavio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G76_m_22zo8C |title=In Light of India |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-15-600578-4 |location=London |pages=76 |language=en |translator-last=Weinberger |translator-first=Eliot}}</ref>{{Blockquote|text="Not all was horror: over the ruins of the pre-Columbian world the Spanish and Portuguese raised a grandiose historical construction, much of which is still in place. They united many peoples who spoke different languages, worshiped different gods, fought among themselves, or were ignorant of one another. These peoples became united by laws and judicial institutions, but, above all, by language, culture, and religion. Although the losses were enormous, the gains were immense.
To measure fairly the effect of the Spanish in Mexico, one must emphasize that without them—that is, without the Catholic religion and the culture the Spanish implanted in our country—we would not be what we are. We would probably be a collection of peoples divided by different beliefs, languages, and cultures."|author=|title=}}Paz criticized the [[Zapatista uprising]] in 1994.<ref>Huffschmid (2004) pp. 127–151</ref> He spoke broadly in favor of a "military solution" to the uprising of January 1994, and hoped that the "army would soon restore order in the region". With respect to President Zedillo's offensive in February 1995, he signed an open letter that described the offensive as a "legitimate government action" to re-establish the "sovereignty of the nation" and to bring "[[Chiapas]] peace and Mexicans tranquility".<ref>Huffschmid (2004) p145</ref>

=== First literary experiences ===
Paz was dazzled by ''[[The Waste Land]]'' by [[T. S. Eliot]], in Enrique Munguia's translation as ''El Páramo'' which was published in the magazine ''Contemporaries'' in 1930. As a result of this, although he maintained his primary interest in poetry, Paz also had an unavoidable outlook on prose: "Literally, this dual practice was for me a game of reflections between poetry and prose".

Worried about confirming the existence of a link between [[morals]] and [[poetry]], in 1931, at the age of sixteen, he wrote what would be his first published article, "Ethics of the Artist", in which he posed the question of the duty of an artist among what would be deemed "art of thesis," or pure art, which disqualifies the second as a result of the teaching of tradition. Employing language that resembles a religious style and, paradoxically, a [[Marxism|Marxist]] one, Paz finds the true value of art in its purpose and meaning, for which the followers of pure art—of whom he is ''not'' one—are found in an isolated position and favor the [[Kantianism|Kantian]] idea of the "man that loses all relation with the world".<ref>{{Cite book|last= Paz|first= Octavio|title= Primeras letras (1931–1943)|year= 1988|publisher= Vuelta|page= 114}}</ref>

The magazine ''Barandal'' appeared in August 1931, put together by [[Rafael López Malo]], Salvador Toscano, [[Arnulfo Martínez Lavalle]] and Paz; all of them were not yet in their youth, except for Salvador Toscano, who was a renowned writer thanks to his parents. Rafael López participated in the magazine "Modern" and, along with [[Miguel D. Martínez Rendón]], in the [[movimiento de los agoristas]], although it was more commented on and known by high-school students, over all for his poem, "The Golden Beast". Octavio Paz Solórzano became known in his circle as the occasional author of literary narratives that appeared in the Sunday newspaper add-in [[El Universal (México)|El Universal]], as well as [[Ireneo Paz]] which was the name that gave a street in [[Mixcoac]] identity.

==Awards==
* Inducted Member of [[Colegio Nacional (Mexico)|Colegio Nacional]], Mexican highly selective academy of arts and sciences 1967<ref name=ColegioNacional>[http://www.colegionacional.org.mx/SACSCMS/XStatic/colegionacional/template/content.aspx?se=vida&te=detallemiembro&mi=176 Member of Colegio Nacional (in spanish)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919164408/http://www.colegionacional.org.mx/SACSCMS/XStatic/colegionacional/template/content.aspx?se=vida&te=detallemiembro&mi=176 |date=2011-09-19 }}</ref>
* [[Peace Prize of the German Book Trade]]
* [[National Prize for Arts and Sciences (Mexico)]] in Literature 1977
* Honorary Doctorate [[National Autonomous University of Mexico]] 1978<ref>{{cite web |url=http://100.unam.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1379&Itemid=1378&lang=es |title=Honorary Degree National Autonomous University of Mexico |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225195139/http://100.unam.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1379&Itemid=1378&lang=es |archive-date=2014-02-25 }}</ref>
* Honorary Doctorate (Harvard University) 1980<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.harvard.edu/honorary-degrees |title= Honorary Degree Harvard University}}</ref>
* [[Ollin Yoliztli Prize]] 1980
* [[Miguel de Cervantes Prize]] 1981
* [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1990<ref name="Nobel Prize Literature 1990"/>
* Grand Officer of the [[Order of Merit of the Italian Republic]] 1991<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirinale.it/elementi/Onorificenze.aspx?pag=0&qIdOnorificenza=&cognome=Paz&nome=Octavio&daAnno=1800&aAnno=2013&luogoNascita=&testo=&ordinamento=1 |title=Awards granted to Octavio Paz by the Italian Republic|access-date=August 13, 2013 |author=Presidency of the Italian Republic |language=it}}</ref>
* Premio Mondello (Palermo, Italy)
* [[Alfonso Reyes International Prize]]
* [[Neustadt International Prize for Literature]] 1982
* [[Jerusalem Prize]]
* [[Menéndez Pelayo International Prize]]
* [[Prix Alexis de Tocqueville]], 1989,
* [[Xavier Villaurrutia Award]]

==Works==

===Poetry collections===
* 1933: ''Luna silvestre''
* 1936: ''No pasarán!''
* 1937: ''Raíz del hombre''
* 1937: ''Bajo tu clara sombra y otros poemas sobre España''
* 1941: ''Entre la piedra y la flor''
* 1942: ''A la orilla del mundo'', compilation
* 1949: ''Libertad bajo palabra''
* 1954: ''Semillas para un himno''
* 1957: ''[[Piedra de Sol]]'' (''Sunstone'')
* 1958: ''La estación violenta''
* 1962: ''Salamandra (1958–1961)''
* 1965: ''Viento entero''
* 1967: ''Blanco''
* 1968: ''Discos visuales''
* 1969: ''Ladera Este (1962–1968)''
* 1969: ''La centena (1935–1968)''
* 1971: ''Topoemas''
* 1972: ''Renga: A Chain of Poems'' with [[Jacques Roubaud]], [[Edoardo Sanguineti]] and [[Charles Tomlinson]]
* 1974: ''El mono gramático''
* 1975: ''Pasado en claro''
* 1976: ''Vuelta''
* 1979: ''Hijos del aire/Airborn'' with [[Charles Tomlinson]]
* 1979: ''Poemas (1935–1975)''
* 1985: ''Prueba del nueve''
* 1985: ''Lectura y contemplación'' (essay on translation)
* 1987:  ''Árbol adentro (1976–1987)''
* 1989: ''El fuego de cada día'', selection, preface and notes by Paz

===Anthology===
* 1966: ''Poesía en movimiento (México: 1915–1966)'', edition by Octavio Paz, [[Alí Chumacero]], [[Homero Aridjis]] and [[Jose Emilio Pacheco]]

===Essays and analysis===
* 1950: ''El laberinto de la soledad: Vida y pensamiento de México'' (Published in English in 1961 as ''[[The Labyrinth of Solitude]]: Life and Thought in Mexico'')
* 1956 - ''El arco y la lira'' (edición revisada y aumentada: 1967)
* 1957 - ''Las peras del olmo''
* 1965 - ''Cuadrivio''
* 1965 - ''Los signos en rotación''
* 1966 - ''Puertas al campo''
* 1967 - ''Corriente alterna''
* 1967 - ''Claude Levi-Strauss o El nuevo festín de Esopo''
* 1968 - ''Marcel Duchamp o El castillo de la pureza'' (edición aumentada: ''Apariencia desnuda'', 1973)
* 1969 - ''Conjunciones y disyunciones''
* 1970 - ''Posdata'', continuación de ''El laberinto de la soledad''.
* 1973 - ''El signo y el garabato''
* 1974 - ''Los hijos del limo. Del romanticismo a la vanguardia''
* 1974 - ''La búsqueda del comienzo. Escritos sobre el surrealismo''
* 1978 - ''Xavier Villaurrutia en persona y obra''
* 1979 - ''El ogro filantrópico''
* 1979 - ''In/Mediaciones''
* 1982 - ''Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe''
* 1983 - ''Tiempo nublado''
* 1983 - ''Sombras de obras''
* 1984 - ''Hombres en su siglo y otros ensayos''
* 1988 - ''Primeras letras (1931-1943)'' (antología de sus prosas de juventud)
* 1990 - ''Pequeña crónica de grandes días''
* 1990 - ''La otra voz. Poesía y fin de siglo''
* 1991 - ''Convergencias''
* 1992 - ''Al paso''
* 1993 - ''La llama doble''
* 1993 - ''Itinerario''
* 1994 - ''Un más allá erótico: Sade''
* 1995 - ''Vislumbres de la India''
* 1996 - ''Estrella de tres puntas. André Bretón y el surrealismo''
* 2000 - ''Luis Buñuel. El doble arco de la belleza y de la rebeldía''

===Translations by Octavio Paz===
* 1957: ''Sendas de Oku'', by [[Matsuo Bashō]], translated in collaboration with Eikichi Hayashiya
* 1962: ''Antología'', by [[Fernando Pessoa]]
* 1974: ''Versiones y diversiones'' (Collection of his translations of a number of authors into Spanish)

===Translations of his works===
* 1952: ''Anthologie de la poésie mexicaine'', edition and introduction by Octavio Paz; translated into French by Guy Lévis-Mano
* 1958: ''Anthology of Mexican Poetry'', edition and introduction by Octavio Paz; translated into English by [[Samuel Beckett]]
* 1971: ''Configurations'', translated by G. Aroul (and others)
* 1973: ''Early Poems 1935-1955''; with English translations by [[Muriel Rukeyser]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early Poems 1935-1955 |url=https://www.ndbooks.com/book/early-poems-1935-1955/ |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=www.ndbooks.com |language=en}}</ref>
* 1974: ''The Monkey Grammarian'' (''El mono gramático''); translated into English by [[Helen Lane]]
* 1987: ''Collected Poems 1957-1987''; with English translations by [[Eliot Weinberger]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collected Poems 1957-1987 |url=https://www.ndbooks.com/book/collected-poems-1957-1987/ |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=www.ndbooks.com |language=en}}</ref>
* 1995: ''The Double Flame'' (''La Llama Double, Amor y Erotismo''); translated by Helen Lane

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://zonaoctaviopaz.com/ Zona Octavio Paz]
* [http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1990/paz-bio.html Nobel museum biography and list of works]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070303094532/http://www.octaviopaz.org/ Boletin Octavio Paz]
* [http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2192/the-art-of-poetry-no-42-octavio-paz "Octavio Paz" The Art of Poetry No. 42 Summer 1991 ''The Paris Review'']
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1990 ''In Search of the Present''
* [http://podcast.lannan.org/2010/05/04/octavio-paz-18-october-1988-video/ Recorded in Washington D.C. on October 18, 1988. Video (1 Hr)]
* {{Books and Writers |id=opaz |name=Octavio Paz}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-4329/ Consuelo Hernández, Enrico Santí on Octavio Paz. Recorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division’s video literary archive. 2005]
* Review of Octavio Paz: [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/nf4/Krauze.pdf El poeta y la revolución], Enrique Krauze, ''Mexican Studies/Estudios mexicanos'' (2015), 31 (1): 196–200.
* [https://www.loc.gov/item/93842718 Octavio Paz Corral recorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division’s audio literary archive on March 23–24, 1961]
* [[Consuelo Hernández|Hernández, Consuelo]]. "The Poetry of Octavio Paz". ''Library of Congress'', 2008. https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-4329/

{{Navboxes
|title=Awards received by Octavio Paz
|list1=
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1976–2000}}
{{1990 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Miguel de Cervantes Prize}}
{{Neustadt International Prize for Literature}}
{{Mondello Prize}}
}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Paz, Octavio}}
[[Category:Octavio Paz| ]]
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