Saturday Rave: Gustavo Adolpho Becquer.

Gustavo Adolpho Bécquer (1836 - 1870) is said to be the second most-read Spanish writer after Cervantes.

He was a poet, a playwright, and a teller of stories. He suffered greatly from unrequited love, had an unhappy marriage, and died young and in poverty, possibly from consumption.

He was also impossibly good-looking.


portrait by his brother, Valeriano Bécquer

Naturally, with all those qualifications, what could he be but hugely and in every sense romantic?

Here's part of one of his poems to give some sense of the extraordinary rush of his creative spirit. It was translated into English by Mason Carnes.

Longings to weep and sudden
Flashes of joy; strange wishes,
Memories dim and misty

Of things that never were;

Nervous energy vainly
Striving to find an outlet;
A winged steed swift-speeding

Through space, unbridled, wild;

Madness that thrills and kindles
And raises high the spirit;
Of genius creative

Ebriety divine

Such is Inspiration.

Gigantic voice that orders
The brain's anarchic chaos
And hurls swift through the shadows
A thunderbolt of light;

Strong dazzling golden bridle
That curbs the flying courser -
The mind wild and ecstatic

And checks its mad career

****

I find it magnificent and strangely wonderful. 

Here's to Gustavo Adolpho Becquer.

Word To Use Today: courser. In this poem a courser is a swift horse. The word came to English in the 1200s from the Old French coursier, from cours, course.