Also from Against the Professional Secret,
Vallejo here places us in one of his favorite scenes: before the
tribunal. This allows the Peruvian poet to explore the ideas of
justice, guilt, innocence & responsibility through numerous
perspectives. Indeed, his three month incarceration
in Peru was clearly a big part of his proclivity to take up the topic–
especially because he was unjustly imprisoned & since it took the
Peruvian government 8 years (!) to formally express a pardon. Nonetheless,
here Vallejo explores the relationship between the accused & the
collective that will decide his fate. The figure of Milad– his likeness
–is the key to the piece. Is it that this double simply extracts the
guilt out of the "murderer" because of this likeness, or is it that the
likeness itself convinces the "accused" that he is guilty, that he is
the murderer?
