The interpretation of "Have you anything to say in your defense?" by Cesar Vallejo?

Question

I just read this poem today and I don't really understand it. Especially when he says "There is an empty place in my metaphysical shape that no one can reach: a cloister of silence that spoke with the fire of its voice muffled". What are the empty place, metaphysical shape, a cloister of silence represent for? and why is poet saying that the cloister of silence that spoke with the fires of its voice muffled?

Answer 1

It's all about the real person, who we are, not just what we look like on the exterior.

Metaphysical is that which is beyond the physical, that which is beyond our bodies and what people see of us. If there is any emptiness that is beyond the physical he is suggesting that in his true self, his soul if one cares to use that word, of in his deep interior self, the part that no one can see, the part that transcends time and place, there is an emptiness that has been muffled, quieted, so that no one else can hear it or see what is there. Only through true knowing, not by any form of artificial or exterior love, any sort of cheap or surface caring, can this interior space be reached and touched. It takes more than simple puppy love, it takes what the Greeks referred to as agape love, love that is totally giving and caring. Only there can this interior, metaphysical place be reached.