Jose Asuncion Silva

Jose Asuncion Silva Poems

These recollections with the scent of ferns
Are the idyll of early years
(Gregorio Gutierrez González)
...

The little girl, though very ill,
Went out one morning
To wander, with faltering footsteps,
...

One night
one night all full of murmurings, of perfumes and music of wings;
one night
in which fantastic fireflies burnt in the humid nuptial shadows,
...

In a fragile vase
In your chamber are
Preserved butterflies
That when touched by
...

5.

The lamp that stands beside the crib
Is not yet lighted to warm the gloom
Of the blueish, opaque light falling
...

No, that was not passion,
It was the vague tenderness
Inspired by a sickly child,
Lang syne, and moon pale nights.
...

Si en tus recuerdos ves algún día
entre la niebla de lo pasado
surgir la triste memoria mía
medio borrada ya por los años,
...

Until sunset!
From the dawn!
See the woodsmen of San Juan,
They want bread before it’s gone!
...

Jose Asuncion Silva Biography

Jose Asuncion Silva along with Jose Marti, Julian del Casal, Salvador Diaz Miron, and Manuel Gutierrez Najera first wrote poetry in the modernist vein or Moderniso (Modernist poetry that often created an exotic tapestry and in some of its aspects it represented, like contemporary movements in other literatures, a rejection of the materialist world of the day). His poems are supposed to be some of the most beautiful in the Spanish language. They are marked by technical innovations, haunting musical tones, and a brooding spirit of pessimism. Reflecting the spirit of European symbolism, they had great influence on Ruben Dario and other modernistas. The best known are Nocturno III, an elegy for his sister, Crepusculo, and Dia de difuntos (Day of the Dead). Silva also wrote a novel, De Sobremesa, notable for its rejection of realist conventions and its intense, lyrical focus on emotional experience. Unfortunately the life of this gifted poet was shadowed by the loss of a crucial manuscript, family debt, and the death of a beloved sister, and he committed suicide in 1896, leaving behind a debt of $210,000. Fernando Vallejo in his book Almas en pena, chapolas negras, tries to unravel the mystery of Silva's financial setbacks and suicide.)

The Best Poem Of Jose Asuncion Silva

Childhood

These recollections with the scent of ferns
Are the idyll of early years
(Gregorio Gutierrez González)

Accompanying the hazy memories
Time so generously glorifies,
Returning to a welcoming heart
And flocking like white butterflies,
Come fantasies of happy childhood days.

Blue Beard, Little Red Ridinghood,
Lilliputians and the giant Gulliver,
All of you, floating in the mist of dreams,
Spread your wings, fly,
So I, the happy journeyer
Through storybooks, may summon you
To join with other, beloved characters.

O blessed youth! Eyes aglimmer
With dawning discovery
Follow the weary teacher’s hand
Across the big red figures
In the tattered primer,
Where traces of vague recognition,
Rewarding periods of youthful despondency,
Beneath indifferent shadows
Begin forming letters into words

On a dewy, white,
Luminous, restless August morning,
Helping a blazing sun rise
On wings of the breeze
Toward skies dotted with drifting clouds;
Listening to a grandmother’s
Exemplary fairy tales;
Skipping school
To organize a clamorous battle
In which rocks rattle like bullets
And a rumpled kerchief becomes a flag.
Constructing a manger scene
Of materials gathered from the woods,
Then, after the long, rowdy outing
Arranging the grasses,
Coral twigs, and treasured mosses,
And on strange and alien landscapes,
Perspectives never seen or dreamed,
Creating roads of golden sand
And waterfalls of gleaming tinsel.

Positioning the Wise Men on the hill
And overhead
The star that led them from afar;
In the crib, the laughing Baby Jesus
In his bed of
Softest mosses and leafy ferns.

Pristine soul, blush-pink cheeks,
Skin like ermine on the snow,
Flaxen curls,
Sparkling yet peaceful eyes, how fair
In memory the innocent babe!

Childhood, hallowed valley
Of blessed calm and coolness,
Where rays that will later blast our days
So softly shine,
How saintly your pure innocence,
How fleeting your brief happiness,
How sweet in hours of bitterness
To turn back to the past
And call upon those memories!

Jose Asuncion Silva Comments

Fabrizio Frosini 04 November 2015

I didn't know Jose Asuncion Silva and his interesting poetry. Thank you PH

6 0 Reply
Juan Rodriguez 04 November 2013

This great Colombian poet is one of the greatest of the modernist movement. Silva just like Marti and Dario rejected a materialist world that was killing humanity just like today!

8 2 Reply

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