Juan Ramon Jimenez

Juan Ramón Jiménez was one of the most influential Spanish poets of the 20th century. He was born in Moguer, a small town in the province of Huelva, in 1881. He came from a wealthy family of wine merchants and landowners. He received a Jesuit education and then studied law and painting at the University of Seville. However, he soon abandoned his studies to devote himself to literature, under the influence of Rubén Darío and French symbolism. He published his first two books of poetry, Almas de violeta (Souls of Violet) and Ninfeas (Water Lilies), in 1900. The death of his father in the same year affected him deeply and caused him a severe depression. He was sent to France and then to a sanatorium in Madrid, where he lived from 1901 to 1903. During this period, he wrote many erotic poems that reflected his sexual fantasies and experiences. He also experimented with different poetic forms and styles, such as sonnets, free verse, and prose poems. He returned to Moguer in 1905 and stayed there until 1912. He wrote some of his most important works in this period, such as Elegías puras (Pure Elegies), La soledad sonora (Sonorous Solitude), and Poemas mágicos y dolientes (Magic Poems of Sorrow). His poetry became more introspective, musical, and colorful, expressing his feelings of loneliness, nostalgia, and love. He also celebrated his native land and its people in his prose poem Platero y yo (Platero and I), which tells the story of a writer and his donkey. In 1916, he married Zenobia Camprubí Aymar, a Spanish writer and translator who became his indispensable companion and collaborator. They traveled to the United States, where Zenobia translated the works of Rabindranath Tagore into Spanish. Jiménez wrote Diario de un poeta recién casado (Diary of a Newly-Wed Poet), which marked a turning point in his poetic evolution. He adopted a new style that he called "naked" or "pure" poetry, characterized by simplicity, clarity, and precision. He also explored metaphysical and religious themes in his poems. He returned to Spain in 1917 and settled in Madrid. He became the leader of the new generation of poets known as the Generation of '27. He was also active as a critic and editor of literary journals. He published some of his most celebrated collections of poems in this period, such as Eternidades (Eternities), Piedra y cielo (Stone and Sky), Poesía (Poetry), Belleza (Beauty), and La realidad invisible (The Invisible Reality). In 1936, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he left Spain with Zenobia and went into exile in Puerto Rico. He suffered another depression and was hospitalized for eight months. He later became a professor of Spanish literature at the University of Puerto Rico. He continued writing poetry and revising his previous works. He also influenced many Puerto Rican writers with his poetic vision. In 1956, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistic purity. Two days later, Zenobia died of ovarian cancer. Jiménez never recovered from the emotional devastation and died two years later, on May 29, 1958, in the same clinic where his wife had died. Both are buried in his hometown of Moguer, Spain.