Luis de Góngora Quotes

Luis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered the most prominent Spanish poets of all time. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorismo. This style existed in stark contrast to Quevedo's conceptismo. Wikipedia  

✵ 11. July 1561 – 23. May 1627
Luis de Góngora photo

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Soledades
Luis de Góngora
Luis de Góngora: 6   quotes 0   likes

Famous Luis de Góngora Quotes

“Let merchants traverse seas and lands,
For silver mines and golden sands;
Whilst I beside some shadowy rill,
Just where its bubbling fountain swells,
Do sit and gather stones and shells,
And hear the tale the blackbird tells.”

Busque muy en hora buena
el mercader nuevos soles;
yo conchas y caracoles
entre la menuda arena,
escuchando a Filomena
sobre el chopo de la fuente.
Letrillas, "Andeme yo caliente", line 24, cited from Robert Jammes (ed.) Letrillas (Madrid: Castalia, 1980) p. 116. Translation from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Poets and Poetry of Europe (New York: C. S. Francis, 1855) p. 695

“Let me go warm and merry still;
And let the world laugh, an' it will.”

Andeme yo caliente
y ríase la gente.
Letrillas, "Andeme yo caliente", line 1, cited from Robert Jammes (ed.) Letrillas (Madrid: Castalia, 1980) p. 115. Translation from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Poets and Poetry of Europe (New York: C. S. Francis, 1855) p. 695

“Feathers are Love's most fitting battle-ground.”

A batallas de amor, campo de pluma.
Las Soledades, Soledad 1, line 1091, cited from Gilbert F. Cunningham (trans.) The Solitudes of Luis de Góngora (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1968) p. 76. Translation from the same source, p. 77.

“Life is a wounded stag in whom the fast-stuck arrows function as wings.”

La vida es ciervo herido,
que las flechas le dan alas.
"¡Oh cuán bien que acusa Alcino!", line 23; cited from Poesias de D. Luis de Gongora y Argote (Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1820) p. 74. Translation from Ronald M. Macandrew Naturalism in Spanish Poetry from the Origins to 1900 (Aberdeen: Milne and Hutchinson, 1931) p. 75.

“Longer than a winter's night for a man who is ill-wed.”

Más largo
que una noche de Diciembre
para un hombre mal casado.
"Murmuraban los rocines", line 94, cited from Poesias de D. Luis de Gongora y Argote (Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1820) p. 83. Translation from Henry Baerlein The House of the Fighting-cocks (London: Leonard Parsons, 1922) p. 92.

“The hours will hardly forgive you, those hours that are wearing away the days, those days that are gnawing away the years.”

Mal te perdonarán a ti las horas;
las horas que limando están los días,
los días que royendo están los años.
"De la brevedad engañosa de la vida", line 12, cited from J. M. Cohen (ed.) The Penguin Book of Spanish Verse (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962) p. 278. Translation from the same source.

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