Letters of Apollinaire to his lover Lou published for first time in Spain

The letters sent by French poet Apollinaire to his lover Lou during World War I have been published for the first time in Spain in a volume which, according to translator Marta Pino, "is the truest reflection of the poet's personality."

In letters that Apollinaire never dreamed would be published as a book, the author "tells all with complete sincerity, to such a degree that when they were published in France they caused a huge scandal and had censorship problems," Pino told Efe.

In "Letters to Lou," Apollinaire "explores and experiments with new literary forms; the texts are pure avant-garde that he wrote from the front after volunteering" for the army.

Apollinaire met Lou (Genevieve Marguerite Marie-Louise de Pillot de Coligny) in September 1914, soon after joining the 38th Artillery Regiment, and their meeting sparked a passionate, fiery love affair.

The poems and letters in which they grew close reveal his developing relationship with Lou along with his literary explorations, including the first "calligrammes," in which words or letters create a shape usually representing the subject of the poem.

Pino said that his poetic experiments can be observed "from some of the more classical poems employing traditional meters, to examples of free verse without rhyme or rigid format, all contained in the letters."

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