León de Greiff Biography
Francisco de Asís León Bogislao de Greiff Haeusler (July 22, 1895 – July 11, 1976), was a Colombian poet known for his stylistic innovations and deliberately eclectic use of obscure lexicon. Best known simply as León de Greiff, he often used different pen names. The most popular were Leo le Gris and Gaspar de Nuit. De Greiff was one of the founders of Los Panidas, a literary and artistic group established in 1915 in the city of Medellín. It was a precursor of the modernismo movement in Colombia.
De Greiff was born on July 22, 1895 in the city of Medellín, Colombia to Luis de Greiff Obregón and Amalia Haeusler Rincóna. His father was of Swedish ancestry and was the grandson of Karl Sigismund Fromholt von Greiffb, a Swedish engineer and geographer who moved to Colombia in 1825 and whose family had played an active role in the abdication of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. De Greiff's mother was of German descent, the daughter of Heinrich Häuslera (a German mechanic and cabinetmaker who emigrated to Colombia in 1839). De Greiff was also the great-grandson of Francisco Antonio Obregón Muñoz, who had been Governor of Antioquia between 1836 and 1841.
Greiff was baptized on August 11, 1895 at the Church Parish of Veracruz by Fr. Pedro Alejandrino Zuluaga with the names Francisco de Asís, in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi, and León, in honour of Leo Tolstoy. His godparents were his paternal aunt Rosa Emma de Greiff Obregón and her husband Luis Vásquez Barrientos. Although of mixed Scandinavian-Germanic-Spanish-Criollo heritage, de Greiff's family had a strong Colombian identity and were part of standing mainstream Colombian society. His family background influenced many of his later works. He had four siblings, Leticia, Laura, Otto, and Olaf, and a half brother, Luis Eduardo.
On July 23, 1927 de Greiff married María Teresa Matilde Bernal Nicholls, a Colombian of English descent whom he met through his sister Leticia. They were married in a Roman Catholic ceremony in the Cathedral of Villanueva officiated by fr. Bernardo Jaramillo Arango a mutual friend of both families. Together they had four children: Astrid, an architect; Boris, a renowned chess player; Hjalmar, a cellist and editor; and Axel an architect who resettled in Sweden.
In your hair is the perfume of the night,
in your eyes the thunderous light of a storm.
The taste of the night trembles on your tongue.
My heart is nailed into the black ebony night.
...
It rains outside the windows (verlainesque
Rain, if not in in my heart:
My heart ran somewhere else one day in search
Of other songs to start)
...
Of this, that if this was not love
No other love could be.
This rose was a witness
From when you gave yourself to me!
...
For if love fled, if love it was...
let love go and go with the grief,
and embrace life with a clear head and open arms,
and cry a little bit for what was...
...
A Rafael Vásquez
Como llegamos a la venta
- desde donde, a lo hondo, se oye el río -
desmontamos de las cabalgaduras:
en las piedras cantaron los espolines
canción de estrellas teñidas de sangre . . .
- Ah de la venta! ah de la venta!
Cantaron nuestros vozarrones.
Luego cantaron canción de burbujas
y de cristales, las copas traslúcidas.
E inquirimos por el tesoro de la venta serrana:
- "Ya se irá, ya se va, si no se ha ido . . . ".
En la venta se cruzan vientos duros
- la venta, en la garganta de la sierra desnuda -.
Cantaba el viento, cantaba el viento.
Allá en el fondo, a lo hondo, la línea del río
y el treno del río.
Luego de la canción de las burbujas
cantó el fuego en las piedras del hogar.
Cantaba la sangre peán de lujuria.
Más tarde iban cantando las estrellas
vigías, su silenciosa música.
Y rezongaban preces las viejas de la venta . . .
Tornamos a inquirir:
- ¿dónde está María-Luz, de los besos de moras?
"Ya se irá, ya se va, si no se ha ido . . . ".
Y volvimos a las cabalgaduras piafantes.
La Cruz del Sur en la linde del monte y el cielo.
Cantó el hierro en los cantos redondos.
Callados iniciamos el descenso
por el camino en caracoles y en escalas;
por el camino en lumbre tamizada de violetas;
por el camino en perfumes del viento que susurra;
por el camino en perfumes ásperos del monte;
por el camino en músicas de las aguas dormidas
y de las aguas que se despeñan
De su prisión de vidrio verde
saltó el claro cristal: gorjear de burbujas
y del perfume del anís montañero.
Íbamos silenciosos. Cada cual dialogaba tácitamente
con su amigo de vidrio.
Mas uno de nosotros - el viandante de la barba taheña -
cantó, cantó (que taladró la noche
con su voz recia) El Rey de los Alisos
malamente . . . E inquirió con voz más ruda:
- ¿qué se haría el tesoro de la venta?
- "Ya se irá, ya se va, si no se ha ido . . . ".
Tornó a cantar la voz de las burbujas
y del claro cristal . . . Y al río, al fin, llegamos . . .
- ¿Si Nuño Ansúrez no nos pasa en la barca . . . ?
- Bah! Da lo mismo!
- Bah! Da lo mismo!
Nueva canción de vidrio y de burbujas
y fresco trasegar diamantes vívidos.
Media noche. En las márgenes del río
qué limpia media noche!
Esta es la selva
de múrice y de oro!
Esta es la abierta vida innúmera!
- ¿Y qué se haría el tesoro de la venta?
- ¿Dónde está María-Luz, de ojos de hulla,
de melena de hulla, y boca sombreada . . . ?
- "Ya se irá, ya se va, si no se ha ido . . . ".
Netupiromba. Noviembre 17, 1931.
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