Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera (December 22, 1859 - February 3, 1895) was a Mexican writer and political figure.
As a writer, he was a precursor of the Latin American literary movement of modernismo. Also a writer of short stories, collections of these include 1883's Cuentos frágiles ("Gossamer Stories") and 1898's Cuentos de color de humo ("Smoke-colored Stories"). The founder of the periodical Revista Azul, his verse, which was influenced by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, bridged the gap between romanticism and the contemporary movements of modernismo and Symbolism.
What thing than the lily unstained is more white?
More pure than the mystic white taper so bright?
...
¡No moriré del todo, amiga mía!
de mi ondulante espiritu disperso,
algo en la urna diáfana del verso,
piadosa guardará la poesía.
...
In the deep darkness underneath the ground
That never has been reached by mortal sight,
There silent currents of black water glide
...
Quiero morir cuando decline el día,
en alta mar y con la cara al cielo;
donde parezca un sueño la agonía,
y el alma, un ave que remonta el vuelo.
...
Speak not a word of wild, blaspheming grief!
Be proud, be brave, though fallen in the strife,
And gaze, oh poet, with supreme disdain
...