Juan Ramon Jimenez is a Spanish poet who spoke of his poetry as a unit inextricably linked with his own life path. He lived exclusively for his creativity and became one of the best Spanish lyric poets.
Biography
Juan Ramon Jimenez Mantecon was born in Moguera on December 24, 1881, to Victor Jimenez and Purification Mantecon López-Parejo. His parents owned a wine and tobacco production and export business. Such activities allowed young Juan Ramón to enjoy the life of a typical Andalusian well-to-do young man.
Moger, St. Clara Monastery Photo: Miguel Angel "fotografo" / Wikimedia Commons
In October 1893, after graduating from elementary school in Huelva, Jimenez continued his studies at Jesuit Colegio de San Luis Gonzaga. The young poet found the school very gloomy and disturbing. He focused on studying his favorite subject, French. He also spent time reading such meaningful and profound literature as the theological treatise "On the Imitation of Christ" by Thomas of Kempis.
When the time came to decide on a future profession, Juan Ramon Jimenez's father insisted on getting a law degree. He wanted to see his son as a lawyer. But young Jimenez believed that he had the talent of an artist. He persuaded his father to make concessions. It was decided that Juan Ramon will study at the Faculty of Law of the University of Seville and take painting lessons at the same time.
University of Seville Photo: Anual / Wikimedia Commons
In the fall of 1896, he entered a higher education institution and began his artistic education in the workshop of Salvador Clemente, a genre painter from Cadiz. Jimenez showed himself to be a capable student, who was especially attracted to impressionism in the visual arts.
Soon, absorbed in artistic activities, Juan Ramon gave up legal education, devoting himself entirely to creativity. The decisive attitude of the young man found support in the Jimenez family. Financial support from his parents, which generously covered the maintenance costs, allowed him to develop in a literary direction as well. Soon, at the invitation of the Almerian modernist poet Francisco Villaspes, he moved to Madrid to expand his cultural horizons.
Creation
In 1900, Jimenez traveled to Madrid with a collection of his early poems. They were collected and published in collections called Ninfeas and Almas de violeta. In the same year, his father dies. The death of a loved one affected the emotional state of the poet and became the cause of a mental disorder. In search of peace of mind, he spends many months in clinics in France and Madrid. But, in spite of everything, Jimenez continues to write poetry and is the initiator of the creation of the literary magazine "Helios".
In 1905, Jimenez returned to Moger. He spent the next six years in peace and creating new poetic creations: Elejlas (1908), Baladas de primavera (1910), La soledad sonora (1911) and others. At its core, it was impressionistic poetry with a stylized background of nature in pastel colors. The languid melancholy is dressed by the poet in an elegant, aristocratic and musical form. And even here, the images of Jimenez are aimed at sublimating human emotions. In early adulthood, this tendency becomes more pronounced. Especially in the excellent book Sonetos espirituales (1915).
In 1916, Jimenez went to the United States. On this trip, he wrote his book Diario de un poeta reciencasado (1917). The central place in it was occupied by two main images - the sea and the sky. Returning to Madrid, the poet focused on his poetry. He authored four major books: Eternidades (1917), Piedra y cielo (1918), Poesca (1923), and Belleza (1923).
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Jimenez, far from politics, went to the United States again. His poetic activity has somewhat weakened. Now he was engaged not only in the creation of new works, but also lectured, and also began to teach.
Spanish Civil War. Republican siege of Alcazar, Toledo Photo: Mikhail Koltsov / Wikimedia Commons
In 1949, while traveling by sea to Argentina, the last significant work in his work, Dios deseado y deseante, was created. Through this book, Jimenez expressed his neo-myistic union with God. He spoke of himself as an enlightener, a translator between the word of the Creator and the heart of man.
In October 1956, the Swedish Academy voted to award Jimenez the Nobel Prize in Literature. And three days later, his wife died. With the death of his beloved woman, the poet increasingly sought solitude and led a secluded life. In the last years of his life, he practically did not write.
Personal life
In 1896, the first serious love of the future poet happened. Young Jimenez was inflamed with feelings in Blanca Hernandez - Pinson, the daughter of a local judge. But the girl's family opposed this relationship. In their opinion, the young man was too impulsive and had a tyrannical character.
Later, while undergoing treatment at the Rosario sanatorium, Jimenez was in love with almost all the sisters of mercy. And some of them are even mentioned in his works.
In 1903, the young poet became seriously interested in the attractive and educated Louise Grimm, the wife of the Spanish entrepreneur Antonio Muryedas Manrique de Lara. But Jimenez's feelings did not receive any development.
Dedication to Juan Jimenez Zenobia Photo: Fedekuki / Wikimedia Commons
Finally, in 1913, he met Rabindranath Tagore Zenobia Kamprubi, who became his wife and helper. They got married in 1916. The couple were together to death the beloved poet Zenobia in 1956. Jimenez lived without his muse for several more years. He died on May 29, 1958 in the same clinic as his wife.
