Ruben Dario´s Life and Works
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Thursday, July 2, 2015
I.
Biography of Rubén Darío
Rubén Darío stated the following:
¨Poetry will exist as long as
long as there is an issue of life and death. Art is a superior gift that allows
entering what is unknown about the past and what is forgotten later; this is
achieved either in daydreams (fantasy) or meditation. There is a perfect music
and oral rhythm, which is not a matter of schools: it is a matter of poets. The
true artist understands every form, finding beauty in everything. A poet´s
glory and eternal memory depend on human consciousness¨ El canto errante (The Wandering Song).
Rubén was born in a humble hamlet
named Metapa (today Ciudad Darío), northern Nicaragua, Central America, on
January 18, 1867, and he died on February 6, 1916. His father was Manuel García
Rojas and his mother Rosa Sarmiento Alemán. His original name was Félix Rubén
García Sarmiento. His parents were from León, and they separated when he was
two. His great-uncles adopted and raised Darío in León. However, Darío wondered
if there was black and Indian blood in his veins because his physique showed
features of different races. Darío was baptized at León Cathedral on March 3,
1867.
The poet grew up in an old
colonial house in León, Nicaragua, where he heard many local legends and wonder
tales. Since there was no electricity at night, the boy used to read long our
hours during the day. Darío lived in a world in which there was no separation
between reality, magic, religion, and myth.
The couple Ramirez and Sarmiento
loved the curious boy. Doña Bernalda Sarmiento taught him to pray, and Colonel
Ramirez, who was a liberal, taught him how to ride horses. Living in a tropical
country, Darío learned—through children´s stories—about snow, apples in
California, and the countryside in France.
The boy, a prodigy, could read at
the age of three. He attended a Jesuit-run school and began writing verse at
12. He was able to describe his experiences lived as a child with his foster
parents. He described the city and his trips to other farms, travelling on
ox-drawn carts in the tropics. Although his real name was Félix Rubén García
Sarmiento, he began to sign as Rubén Darío since he was 14. As an adult, he
remembered his pure life as a child in this poem.
Far
Away
Ox whose steaming clouds of
breath I saw as a boy
Under the Nicaraguan hot burning
sun
On the rich plantation filled
with tropical harmonies
Woodland dove, of the woods that
sang
With the sound of the wind
Of axes, birds, and wild bulls
Receive greetings all of you
Since you are the very same stuff
of life…
When Darío was a child, one day
he was visited by a strange woman dressed in black. She hugged and kissed him;
she cried without saying a word. His neighbor told Darío later that such woman
was her real mother. Rosa had come from a distant place. Darío did not
understand at that moment the tender words and advice uttered by such strange
woman. She gave him some sweets and little gifts. To Darío, this was a rare
vision, which vanished later. He would see his mother twenty years later.
As a child Darío read Don
Quixote, the Bible, Thousand and One Nights, La Corina by Madame de Stael, many
classic Spanish comedies and novels. This cocktail of readings was enough to
start the curious and creative mind of Darío at an early age. Doña Bernalda
discovered his verses, and soon these verses caught the attention of his
relatives and friends, who even asked Darío to write epitaphs when somebody
passed away.
At children´s parties, although
his cousin played the piano very well, Darío was always the first one to perform.
There he met Luis H. Debayle, who would be one of his closest friends.
Nicaraguan intellectuals listen to Darío´s poems
Colonel Felix
Ramirez died, and Darío felt the need to work at the age of 12. The child poet
went to help a tailor—Trinidad Méndez— to learn such trade, but he did not like
this job. His teacher, Felipe Ibarra, and his friends have told Darío to
continue attending school and use his talent. His uncle Pedro Alvarado helped
the child, as an intern, to enter the school named Instituto San Francisco.
Bernalda Sarmiento de Ramirez
Doña Bernalda
was an important influence on Darío. According to Edgardo Buitrago Buitrago,
Bernalda was a beautiful, smart, funny, and conservative wife. She was also a
great reader. Darío had an opportunity to be exposed to discussions on
philosophy, politics, art, etc. parties, trips, religious processions, and
friendly neighbors in town. The woman even played the piano and harp, reciting
poems, and she was known as Bernalda Darío.
So, Darío
published his first poem in a Rivas newspaper called Termómetro. This poem was some sort of elegy dedicated to a friend
who had just lost his father.
Your father
passed away, right?
You´re right,
when you´re crying.
But get this
over
There´s
eternal life
Where there´s
no strife
And good guys
will rest
On one bed of
lilies
Immortal ones
there live
Having fun and
happiness
Listening to
the harmony
Of heavenly
lyres
Darío
remembers in his autobiography that his erotic desire was aroused for the first
time, when he saw a US acrobat/trapeze girl performing in a circus by 1880. Her
name was Hortensia Buislay. Since Darío did not have money to go to the circus
everyday, he entered by carrying a musical instrument (violin) of a band. When
the circus was leaving the town, Darío wanted to go with the circus to be close
to Hortensia. Darío took the test for clowns, but he did not pass.
He quit
attending school at 14, and he became a grammar teacher at school. Also, he
began to contribute to La Verdad newspaper, starting his career as a journalist in
León. Working at this liberal newspaper, he began to write against the
conservative government. Once he was brought to trial, but the religious
principal of his school helped him.
His teachers
had instilled in him Catholic beliefs, but as a young writer, he became
familiar with different ways of thinking. He got a masonic book and began to
write libertarian and anti-religious verses. The ideas of the liberal colonel
Félix Ramirez—foster father— also influenced him. Likewise, he always supported
the Central American Union. When liberal general Máximo Jeréz died, he read a
very long poem to pay tribute to him. Darío put together his ideas for his
first book. Poesías y artículos en prosa
(Poems and Articles in Prose).
At that time,
Darío was already known in the rest of Central America. Liberal politicians
invited Darío to move to Managua, asking Congress to send Darío to Europe to
complete his education. However, one day Darío read some of his anti-religious
ideas at the presidential palace, and the Conservative government of Pedro
Joaquin Chamorro Alfaro did not approve the idea of sending Darío to be
educated in Europe.
Nevertheless, Darío´s influential
friends—Guatemalan historian Lorenzo Montúfa and Cuban speaker Antonio Zambrana
got Darío to work at the National Library, where the teenager spent months
reading classic books. Antonio Aragón, an educated polyglot, guided Darío in
regard to his reading.
Darío was staying at the house of
Modesto Barrios, and one day Barrios took Darío to visit a family, where Darío
felt in love with a beautiful girl, Elena, whom Darío referred to in ¨brown
herons¨ in the story contained in Azure.
To the poet, Azure or this blue color
meant illusion, fantasy, the color of art—Greek color, the color of the ocean
and the sky. This young poet wrote verses with passion for his love. But Darío
also dreamt of travelling to faraway countries.
While in the capital city,
Managua, he fell in love with Rosario Murillo, the `brown heron´ of the story
`White Doves and Brown Herons.´ To prevent an undesirable marriage with her,
his friends suggested to him move to El Salvador in 1882, where one of his
admirers was the Salvadorian President Rafael Zaldívar. At 15, he began his
wandering, visiting El Salvador and becoming a bohemian boy. Rubén got
interested in a foreign artist staying at the same hotel. The President knew
this female artist, and he decided to have Darío work as a grammar teacher,
where he enjoyed teaching verses to students. Darío read some excellent verses when
marking the centenary of Simón Bolívar. And the President let him leave the
school.
Without government support, the
poet led a poor bohemian life with some of his friends like Francisco Gavidia,
who admired Victor Hugo who was the great genius of Romanticism. Through
Francisco, Darío had the revelation of a great poet of the Légende des Siécles,
discussing a lyric reform, which would mark his fate. Darío began to get
familiar with French literature. Then, Darío got smallpox and was about to die.
After some nurses had taken care of him, he decided to come back to Nicaragua.
Reprint Edition of First Notes by
Rubén Darío (Romantic poems written in 1883-1884), published under President
Adán Cárdenas
Back in Nicaragua in 1883, he
worked as a journalist and librarian; he got a job under the administration of
Adán Cardenas del Castillo. Rubén resumed his literary work, by writing in the
newspaper. He also began to see his `brown heron,´ but he was disgusted by
Rosario´s infidelity. Then, he sought solitude walking along the coast of Lake
Managua in the evenings. At the age of 19, he went to Chile in 1886: this
country was crucial for his literary development.
Darío wanted to go to the United
States, but Salvadorian general and poet, Juan José Cañas, who was his friend,
advised Darío to go to Chile. This general had fought against William Walker,
and he had been a diplomat in Chile. Amid political commotion in Nicaragua, our
poet, with little money but high hopes, took a ship at Corinto port. He reached
Valparaíso, Chile, on June 24, 1886, and one of his friends Eduardo Poirier was
managing the Telégrafo Nacional.
Poirier, a young Valparaíso journalist, helped Darío, who was carrying his credentials.
Darío showed his recommendation
letters written by general Juan José Cañas. These letters were addressed to
Agustín Edwards Ross, an influential politician and director of La Época newspaper in Santiago, Chile.
Eduardo McClure gave him a room and job at La
Época headquarters. Darío described Santiago as a progressive modern city
with some European influence, with theaters, libraries, and bars. This city
claimed to be democratic, but it was very aristocratic and religious at that
time.
Darío enjoyed big-city life for
the first time. While he was working at La
Época, the son of the country´s president was his friend, so he had access
to a vast collection of French books. Also, he got in contact with
intellectuals and European contributors such as Gladstone, Jules Simon, Sarcey,
Emilio Castelar, Ramón de Campoamor, Ortega, etc. He got collaboration from the
country´s best writers, building his literary movement.
However, Darío was not welcome
enthusiastically as it happened earlier in Managua and San Salvador. Originally
those writers did not recognize Darío, but Vicente Grez, Alfredo Irarrázabel,
Narciso Tondreau Valín, and Samuel Ossa Borne liked him. He also got in contact
with Pedro Nolasco Préndez, Narciso Tondreau, Galleguillos Lorca, etc. Manuel
Rodríguez Mendoza and Pedro Balmaceda Toro, son of the president of Chile,
became Darío´s good friends. Manuel was very familiar with Spanish literature,
and Pedro kept reading French writers.
After work,
they used to go to elegant restaurants, and they might end up at the house of
some nice girls. They talked about literature, love, scandals, projects, and
hopes. Pedro Balmaceda was a very generous friend of his, and they had a lot to
talk about since the very first time they met. They talked about fine arts, the
latest French books, dreaming of Paris and exotic countries. They made plans
about Paris and its French writers, later they would travel to Italy, Spain and
the East—China, Japan, India.
The originally
humble Nicaraguan poet soon became very eloquent about the latest literary
trends in France; he was so creative particularly around friends after some
alcoholic drinks. He talked about his homeland, but he also listened to his
friends, while writing verses on any piece of paper. His verses were commented
later by Manuel Rodríguez Mendoza.
The poet did not earn a lot of
money as a reporter at La Época, and sometimes he felt homesick, afraid of
cholera, and with a broken heart. Later, he was invited by Pedro Balmaceda to
visit Viña del Mar. He collected some of his verses and wrote `Abrojos´ (Thisthles) book, which was
published in 1887 through the support provided by Manuel Rodríguez and Pedro
Balmaceda at the Ministry of Education.
He lost his
job at La Época, but he became a
contributor to La Libertad Electoral
newspaper. Soon he was poor and had to live at his friend´s house. Eduardo de
la Barra and Eduardo Poirier helped the Nicaraguan poet in Valparaíso: Eduardo
de la Barra got him to work at El Heraldo
newspaper, and Poirier let Darío use his house, asking him for help in writing
a novel in a short time for a literary Varela contest. This novel `Emelina´ got a prize, but not the first
one.
On the other
hand, Darío visited Eduardo de la Barra, spending long hours reading at his
friend´s library. He also spent some of his time along the coast, being invited
by literary friends on ships. Then, Balmaceda Toro let Darío know about a new
literary contest, asking him to write by following the style of Gustavo Adolfo
Bécquer and an epic song to honor Chilean heroes. Darío took this opportunity,
writing `Otoñales´ (Autumnal Colors) a number of short poems and an extensive
composition titled ¨Epic Song for Glorious Chilean People,¨ which won the first
place in 1887.
Despite his
bohemian life, Darío kept writing verses. Once he met a homeopathic doctor, who
brought Darío to his house and tried to help him. Darío published some of his
poems and stories in other papers. He put together his poems in a manuscript,
using an unusual titled `Azul´ (Azure). Eduardo de la Barra and Eduardo Poirier turned to subscribers to be able
to publish this manifesto.
A landmark for Darío personally
was the first edition of Azure.
Critical acclaim in Spain put Darío and `Modernismo´ on the international map.
Modernismo is used exclusively to refer to the literary movement led by Darío.
Through his contacts, he became a Santiago correspondent who wrote for an
important Buenos Aires newspaper, La
Nación. Spending two
and a half years in Chile helped the young Nicaraguan poet. Darío learned more
about European literature and arts in Chile. Eventually, Darío got homesick,
and his friends helped him to return to Nicaragua in 1889.
Back home, the poet was already a
full-fledged writer, owning a literary trend that would influence the Spanish
language. Juan Valera and Alcalá-Galiano praised Dario´s Azure in El Liberal
newspaper in Madrid, Spain.
He spent several months in León
and Chinandega, Nicaragua, getting involved in some love affairs. For instance,
a groom was giving a party to her bride and when Darío got drunk, he began to
say horrible things about the host and the bride´s family. He was kicked out of
the party. Darío´s friends suggested him to go to El Salvador. He met some of
his old friends in El Salvador: he stayed with one of his friends, Rubén
Rivera, in Sonsonate city, writing the poem `Claro de Luna.´
Later, he moved to La Fortuna
farmhouse, where he enjoyed the peaceful tropical life, reading and writing
enthusiastically. He wrote the second Edition of Azure published in 1890. On this farm, he thought about another
book `El libro del Trópico,´ writing
fresh verse and prose. He wrote Symphony in Grey Major poem—Worldly Verses, From the Tropics, and
Tropical Nature. His close Chilean friend had died on July 1, 1889, so Darío
wrote a book dedicated to him.
The President of El Salvador,
Francisco Menéndez, was a Central American unionist, and he gave Darío funds to
run a newspaper. Soon the poet became the director of `La Unión Centroamericana´ newspaper. The Nicaraguan poet got the country´s best writers, including a
political journalist from Costa Rica, Tranquilino Chacón and the Costa Rican
poet Aquileo Echeverría. Chacón did a good job, and he advised and warned Darío
about the high expenses incurred because of poet´s bohemian life.
Rubén Darío in Costa Rica
The position in El Salvador
became untenable, so he moved on to Guatemala, where he was in charge of another
newspaper. In 1891, this newspaper was shut down, and he moved to Costa Rica
for a while.
The Nicaraguan poet has a
prolific sojourn—August 1891 to May 1892—in Costa Rica. Among his most
important works are ¨Tutecotzimí, El Clavicordio de la abuela, Los Centauros¨
(Palimpsesto), and a great deal of prose.
According to Pablo Steiner Jonas
in his book Intermezzo en Costa Rica,
Darío´s statements in El Heraldo are
true even today. ¨…Uncle Sam is a legitimate father of Barnum—American showman
and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes… We do not accept
the motto America for the Americans… they preach false doctrines for the sake
of peace and harmony; the Yankees… Home sweet home, but the claw of the eagle
soon will be stuck in our necks…¨
Earlier in La Unión newspaper in El Salvador, Darío met the two Costa Rican
writers, Aquileo J. Echeverría and Tranquilino Chacón. As soon as A. de Gilbert was published, Echeverría
praised such book. Darío called Tranquilino his brother, because he was the
first one to make an effort in promoting Azure
in Central America.
When Darío and his Costa Rican
wife, Rafaela Contreras, arrived in Costa Rica, the Nicaraguan poet was warmly
welcome with nice messages through the different newspapers in Costa Rica. He
had the freedom to work for any newspaper, and he could share his contributions
with other papers. He was a newspaper editor at La Prensa Libre, September 3 – November 10, 1891; Diario del Comercio, December 1, 1891 –
March 1, 1892; and El Heraldo de Costa
Rica, March16 –May 9, 1892, according to Pablo Steiner.
Here is Darío´s literary
production—poems, stories, columns, essays, followed by newspaper and
date—while in Costa Rica. This is just a
Costa Rican snapshot of what Darío used to do as a writer.
This is just the tip of the
iceberg. I recommend you get the complete book to understand and enjoy Darío´s
works.
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