Source: Platero and I (1917), Ch. 1 : Platero, as translated by Eloïse Roach (1957).
Quotes from book
Platero
Juan Ramón Jimenéz
Original title
Platero y yo
(Spanish, 1914)
Platero and I is a 1914 Spanish prose poem written by Juan Ramón Jiménez. The book is one of the most popular works by Jiménez, and unfolds around a writer and his eponymous donkey, Platero . Platero is described as a "small donkey, a soft, hairy donkey: so soft to the touch that he might be said to be made of cotton, with no bones. Only the jet mirrors of his eyes are hard like two black crystal scarabs."Platero remains a symbol of tenderness, purity and naiveté, and is used by the author as a means of reflection about the simple joys of life, memories, and various characters and their ways of life.
“He is as loving and tender as a child, but strong and sturdy as a rock.”
Source: Platero and I (1917), Ch. 1 : Platero, as translated by Eloïse Roach (1957).
Context: He is as loving and tender as a child, but strong and sturdy as a rock. When on Sundays I ride him through the lanes in the outskirts of the town, slow-moving countrymen, dressed in their Sunday clean, watch him a while, speculatively:
"He is like steel," they say.
Steel, yes. Steel and moon silver at the same time.
