Centre for Romanian Studies

Poetry in Translation, (CCLXXXI) – SPAIN /Cantabria, José Luis HIDALGO (1919, Torres – 1947, Madrid): “Ai coborât“, “Has bajado“

Ai coborât
José Luis HIDALGO (1919-1947)

Ai coborât din ceruri, când nimeni nu te auzea.
Ai privit pe cei vii si ai numărat pe cei morţi.
Pace Ţie, Doamne! Timpul tău a trecut.
Acum poţi închide ochii care erau mari deschişi.

Rendered in Romanian by Constantin ROMAN
© 2014 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

Has bajado
José Luis Hidalgo (1918-1947)

Has bajado a la tierra, cuando nadie te oía,
y has mirado a los vivos y contado tus muertos.
Señor, duerme sereno; ya cumpliste tu día.
Puedes cerrar los ojos que tenías abiertos.

SHORT BIO: The literary figure of José Luis Hidalgo (Torres,Cantabria, 1919 – Madrid, 1947), both a poet and a painter, achieves renown once more as a representative of a generation of writers from Cantabria (in the north of Spain) which came to light around the 1940’s. His work, as brief as his short but intense life, is remarkable for the great feeling of his poetry in the use of imagery and metaphors, which draw his verse near the domain of the vivid and sensorial. His concerns have deep existentialist roots; as a young man the poet was a devoted reader of great thinkers such as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer or Unamuno; it is the latter with whom he has an undeniable affinity of ideas. José Luis Hidalgo’s search for the truth draws on transcendent metaphysics and has a profound religious significance, in a sincere and straightforward dialogue with God. The formal simplicity of his poetry contrasts with the complex symbolic system of natural elements and spaces… where he fluctuates between tradition and avant-garde. We find echoes that take us from Becquerian Romanticism through Symbolism to avant-garde movements—mainly Surrealism— and The Poets of 1927. His work, Los muertos (The Death), highlights the peak of the long post-war period. (www(dot)poeticous(dot)com/jose-luis-hidalgo?locale=en)