Stories of Life and Death

by Juan Ramón Jiménez

Over one hundred vignettes in Stories of Life and Death create haunting images of the author's favorite women in love, children coping with tragedy, eccentrics, the emotions of compassion, bitterness, envy and longing. Meet Mercedita Saro, the shy, perfectly-groomed beggar-child of the local drunk, whom Jimenez loves, protects, and treats with sweets, forbidden by her father. And Max, "the blue child," a West Indian boy traveling on the same ship as Jimenez to live with relatives in South America, who covered his black face with white powder "to look whiter to my brothers." See a woman in love, "white tender, bray, submissive, delicate." and the tiny ray of sun awakening a baby, which "has opened in his eyes a magic and flowery garden that holds him bewitched." Feel sadness at the death of a village girl, empathy for the mother of a sailor lost at sea, and compassion for an angry man who gets drunk for the first time. The author creates an impressionistic landscape with subtle nuances of light and shadow, leaving tantalizing ambiguities to be resolved only in the eye of the beholder. For anyone not familiar with the writings of this modern master, this work, translated by the poet and scholar Antonio de Nicolas will demonstrate why Jimenez is considered one of the masters of twentieth-century poetry. Both prolific and profound, Juan Ramon Jimenez (1881-1958) wrote more than seventy books, winning the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Poetry

185 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Platero y Yo (1914) ranks as most famous work of Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, who introduced modernism to Spanish verse and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1956.

He won this prize "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity."

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ram...

Reviews

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

perhaps one of the most underrated nobel laureates. his prose is stunning, his tales beautiful, and his brevity breathtaking.