Juan Ramón Jiménez

Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (Spanish pronunciation:

[xwan raˈmoŋ xiˈmeneθ manteˈkon];[a] 23 December Juan Ramón Jiménez
1881 – 29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific
writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in
Literature[1] "for his lyrical poetry, which in the
Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit
and artistic purity". One of Jiménez's most important
contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of
the concept of "pure poetry".

Biography
Juan Ramón Jiménez was born in Moguer, near
Huelva, in Andalucia, on 23 December 1881.[2] He
was educated in the Jesuit institution of San Luis Born Juan Ramón Jiménez
Gonzaga, in El Puerto de Santa María, near Cadiz. Mantecón
Later, he studied law and painting at the University of 23 December 1881
Seville, but he soon discovered that his talents were Moguer, Huelva, Andalucia,
[3]
better used for writing. He then dedicated himself to Spain
literature, under the influence of Rubén Darío and Died 29 May 1958 (aged 76)
[3]
French symbolism. He published his first two books San Juan, Puerto Rico
at the age of eighteen, in 1900. The death of his father Occupation poet
the same year devastated him, and a resulting Nationality Spanish
depression led to his being sent first to France, where Genre
poetry
he had an affair with his doctor's wife, and then to a
Notable Nobel Prize in Literature
sanatorium in Madrid staffed by novice nuns, where he awards
1956
lived from 1901 to 1903. In about 1904 Jiménez was
Spouse Zenobia Camprubí
hoodwinked by some Peruvians. José Gálvez, Carlos
Rodríguez Hübner and a 15 year old Maria Isabel Signature
Sanchez-Concha created a fictional woman named
Georgina Hübner and they started a correspondence
with the poet. José and Carlos were hoping to get
access to his writing and Sanchez-Concha did the writing.[4] Jiménez fell in love with their creation and
planned to travel to Peru to meet the young woman. The plan was only aborted by a telegram they
arranged via the Spanish consul to the poet, giving him the fabricated news of Georgina's death.[5]

He was among the contributors of the Madrid-based avant-garde magazine Prometeo between 1908 and
1912.[6] In 1911 and 1912, he wrote many erotic poems depicting romps with numerous women in
numerous locales. Some of them alluded to sex with novices who were nurses. Eventually, apparently,
their mother superior discovered the activity and expelled him, although it is not known whether the
sexual activity described in his poems actually occurred.
The main subjects of many of his other poems were music and color, which, at times, he compared to
love or lust.

He suffered a mental breakdown and depression, so he stayed hospitalised in France and Madrid.[3] He
celebrated his home region in his prose poem about a writer and his donkey called Platero and I (1914).
In 1916 he and Spanish-born writer and poet Zenobia Camprubí were married in the United States.
Zenobia became his indispensable companion and collaborator.

Upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he and Zenobia went into exile in Puerto Rico, where he
settled in 1946. Jiménez was hospitalized for eight months due to another deep depression. He later
became a Professor of Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Puerto Rico. His literary
influence on Puerto Rican writers strongly marks the works of Giannina Braschi, René Marqués, Aurora
de Albornoz, and Manuel Ramos Otero.[7] The university named a building on campus and a writing
program in his honor. He was also a professor at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. While
living in Coral Gables he wrote "Romances de Coral Gables". In addition, he was a professor in the
Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Maryland, which renamed Jimenez Hall for
him in 1981.

In 1956, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature; two days later, his wife died of ovarian cancer.
Jiménez never recovered from the emotional devastation, and he died two years afterwards, on 29 May
1958, in the same clinic where his wife had died. Both are buried in his hometown of Moguer, Spain.

Although he was primarily a poet, Jiménez' prose work Platero y yo (1917; "Platero and I"; Platero is a
donkey) sold well in Latin America and in translation won him popularity in the USA. He also
collaborated with his wife in the translation of the Irish playwright John Millington Synge's Riders to the
Sea (1920). His poetic output during his life was immense. Among his better known works are Sonetos
espirituales 1914–1916 (1916; “Spiritual Sonnets, 1914–15”), Piedra y cielo (1919; “Stones and Sky”),
Poesía en verso, 1917–1923 (1923; “Poetry in Verse”), Poesía en prosa y verso (1932; “Poetry in Prose
and Verse”), Voces de mi copla (1945; “Voices of My Song”), and Animal de fondo (1947; “Animal at
Bottom”). Both Jiménez and Camprubí used a simplified Spanish orthography different from the RAE
standard. A collection of 300 poems (1903–53) in English translation by Eloise Roach was published in
1962.

In popular culture
A quotation from Jiménez, "If they give you
ruled paper, write the other way," is the
epigraph to Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit
451 (1953).
The same quotation used in Fahrenheit 451
is used in The Lovely Bones (2002) by Alice
Juan Ramón Jiménez depicted on the 1980 2,000
Sebold.
Pesetas banknote
In 1968, the Spanish film director Alfredo
Castellón adapted Jiménez's novel Platero
and I into a movie by the same title.
The Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) by the Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi
features a scene in which poets and artists debate Jiménez's genius versus that of other
 Spanish-language poets Francisco de Quevedo, Luis de Góngora, Rubén Darío, Pablo
Neruda, Federico García Lorca, and Julia de Burgos.[8]
A rock band in Spain is named Platero y Tú after Jiménez's novel

Streets named after Jiménez

Several streets have been named after Jiménez, including one in Madrid[9] and one in Valencia.[10]

Published works (original editions)

Ninfeas (Water Lilies), 1900-Madrid.
Almas de violeta (Souls of Violet), 1900-Madrid.
Rimas (Rhymes), 1902-Madrid.
Arias tristes (Sad Arias), 1902
Jardines lejanos (Distant Gardens), 1904
Elejías puras (Pure Elegies), 1908
Elejías intermedias (Intermediate Elegies), 1909
Las hojas verdes (The Green Leaves), 1909
Poemas mágicos y dolientes (Magic and Painful Poems), 1909
Elejías lamentables (Sad Elegies), 1910
Baladas de primavera (Ballads of Spring), 1910
La soledad sonora (The Sonorous Loneliness), 1911
Pastorales (Pastoral), 1911
Melancolía (the sonorous loneliness), 1912
Laberinto (Labyrinth), 1913
Platero y yo (Platero and I) (edición reducida), 1914
Estío (Summer), 1916
Sonetos espirituales (Spiritual Sonnets), 1917
Diario de un poeta recién casado (Diary of a Recently Married Poet), 1917
Platero y yo (edición completa) (Platero and I), 1917
Eternidades (Eternities), 1918
Piedra y cielo (Stone and Sky), 1919
Segunda antología poética (Second Poetic Anthology), 1922
Poesía (Poetry), 1923
Belleza (Beauty), 1923
Canción (Song), 1935
Voces de mi copla (Voices of my Verse), 1945
La estación total (The Full Season), 1946
Romances de Coral Gables (Romances from Coral Gables), 1948
Animal de fondo (Animal from the Deep), 1949
Una colina meridiana (A Shining Hill) , 1950 (1° edición en España: Huerga & Fierro
editores, 2002). Prólogo y estudio preliminar de Alfonso Alegre Heitzmann.
La frente pensativa (1911-1912) [cuatro poemas inéditos] (The Thoughtful Face),
introducción de José Luis Puerto, Zamora: Lucerna, 2001.
 I Am Not I

Published works (translations)

Books of Love: The Lost Poems of Juan Ramon Jimenez. Athens:Kinchafoonee Creek
Press, 2022.

See also
Spanish poetry
Modernismo
Puerto Rican poetry
Puerto Rican literature
Sonnet

Notes
a. In isolation, Ramón is pronounced [raˈmon].

References
1. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Juan Ramón Jiménez" (https://www.britannica.co
m/biography/Juan-Ramon-Jimenez).
2. Mateo Pérez, Manuel (November 10, 2010). "Moguer y Juan Ramón Jiménez" (http://viajes.
elmundo.es/2010/11/10/espana/1289381950.html). El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved
February 17, 2018.
3. "Juan Ramón Jiménez. Biografía" (http://www.cervantes.es/bibliotecas_documentacion_esp
anol/biografias/nueva_delhi_juan_ramon_jimenez.htm). Instituto Cervantes (in Spanish).
Madrid. March 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
4. Guardia, Sara Beatriz (2014). "Homenaje. María Isabel Sánchez Concha de Pinilla. 1889 -
1977" (http://www.cemhal.org/anteriores/2013_2014/No_154.pdf) (PDF). Revista Historia de
las Mujeres. ISSN 2522-3690 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/2522-3690).
5. País, Ediciones El (2015-07-19). "Georgina y yo: Cuando Juan Ramón Jiménez fue
trolleado por una falsa admiradora" (https://verne.elpais.com/verne/2015/07/17/articulo/1437
133440_073193.html). Verne (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-08-09.
6. "Prometeo (Madrid. 1908)" (https://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/hd/es/issn/1576-1363) (in
Spanish). Hemeroteca Digital. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
7. "Elemental Creature" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160421050435/http://www.the-tls.co.u
k/tls/public/article1529106.ece). The Times Literary Supplement (in Spanish). March 10,
2015. Archived from the original (http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1529106.ece) on
April 21, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2018. "His lyrical and philosophical work influencing
Puerto Rican writers such as Manuel Ramos Otero and René Marqués."
8. Braschi, Giannina (1998). Sommer, Doris (ed.). Yo-Yo Boing! (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=9zhlAAAAMAAJ). Latin American Literary Review Press. p. 205. ISBN 0-935480-97-
8.
9. "Calle de Juan Ramón Jiménez" (http://madrid.callejero.net/calle-de-juan-ramon-jimenez.ht
ml). Callejero.net (in Spanish). Madrid: Hispanetwork Publicidad y Servicios, SL. Retrieved
 February 17, 2018.
10. "C/ Juan Ramón Jiménez" (http://valencia.callejero.net/c-juan-ramon-jimenez.html).
Callejero.net (in Spanish). Valencia: Hispanetwork Publicidad y Servicios, SL. Retrieved
February 17, 2018.

Bibliography
de Albornoz, Aurora, ed. 1980. Juan Ramón Jiménez. Madrid: Taurus.
Blasco, F. J. 1982. La Poética de Juan Ramón Jiménez. Desarrollo, contexto y sistema.
Salamanca.
Campoamor González, Antonio. 1976. Vida y poesía de Juan Ramón Jiménez. Madrid:
Sedmay.
Campoamor González, Antonio. 1982. Bibliografía general de Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Madrid: Taurus.
El Cultural. 14 Jun 2007. Los poemas eróticos de Juan Ramon Jiménez. Aparece Libros de
amor. Conoce los poemas del JRJ más lujurioso (https://archive.today/20070509191956/htt
p://www.elcultural.es/HTML/20070614/LETRAS/LETRAS20814.asp)
Diario de Córdoba. 6 Jan 2007. ´Libros de amor´ descubre a un Juan Ramón Jiménez
erótico (http://www.diariocordoba.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=292871) Archived (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20110721050111/http://www.diariocordoba.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pki
d=292871) 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
Díez-Canedo, E. 1944. Juan Ramón Jiménez en su obra. México City.
Guardian (London). 19 Jun 2007. My sex in the convent - by Nobel poet (https://www.thegua
rdian.com/world/2007/jun/19/books.spain)
Font, María T. 1973. Espacio: autobiografía lírica de Juan Ramón Jiménez. Madrid.
Guerrero Ruiz, J . 1961. Juan Ramón de viva voz. Madrid.
Gullón, R. 1958. Conversaciones con Juan Ramón Jiménez. Madrid.
Jensen, Julio, 2012, The Poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez. An Example of Modern
Subjectivity (https://web.archive.org/web/20150108071103/http://www.mtp.hum.ku.dk/detail
s.asp?eln=203326). Copenhagen.
Juliá, M. 1989. El universo de Juan Ramón Jiménez. Madrid.
Olson, P.R. 1967. Circle of Paradox: time and essence in the poetry of Juan Ramon
Jimenez. Baltimore.
Palau de Nemes, G. 1974. Vida y obra de Juan Ramón Jiménez. 2/e. 2 v. Madrid: Gredos.
Predmore, Michael P. 1966. La obra en prosa de Juan Ramón Jiménez. Madrid: Gredos.
Salgado, M. A. 1968. El arte polifacético de las caricaturas líricas juanramonianas. Madrid.

External links
Works by Juan Ramón Jiménez (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3230) at Project
Gutenberg
Works by Juan Ramón Jiménez (https://librivox.org/author/11397) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Works by or about Juan Ramón Jiménez (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28su
bject%3A%22Jiménez%2C%20Juan%20Ramón%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Jiméne
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1881-1958%22%20AND%20%28%22Jiménez%22%20OR%20Jimenez%29%29%29%20A
ND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the Internet Archive
Fundacion Casa-Museo Zenobia y Juan Ramón Jiménez (http://www.fundacion-jrj.es)
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/195
6/jimenez-speech.html)
Juan Ramón Jiménez (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/627) on Nobelprize.org
Juan Ramón Jiménez (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7533271) at Find a Grave
Juan Ramón Jiménez (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0422983/) at IMDb
Juan Ramon Jimenez recorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division’s audio
literary archive on May 17, 1947, Sept. 29, and Dec. 8, 1949 (https://www.loc.gov/item/9384
2920/)

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