All in a Life's Work: Translating the Poetry of César Vallejo

By RICHARD BYRNE

WIDOWS AND WORD HUNTS: In his foreword to The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo (University of California Press), the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa places his countryman in the category of "inexplicable" poets.

Mr. Vargas Llosa unpacks that label in this way: "It means that...