Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (December 24, 1881 – May 29, 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956.
ADOLESCENCE
Juan Ramón Jimenéz
We were alone together
a moment on the balcony.
Since the lovely morning
of that day, we were sweethearts.
—The drowsy land around
was sleeping its vague colors,
under the gray and rosy
sunset of fall.
I told her I was going to kiss her;
she lowered her eyes calmly
and offered her cheeks to me
like someone losing a treasure.
—The dead leaves were falling
in the windless garden of the house,
and a perfume of heliotrope
was still floating in the air.
She did not dare to look at me;
I told her we would be married,
—and the tears rolled
from her mournful eyes.
=======
BEFORE THE VIRGIN SHADOW
Juan Ramón Jimenez
I forever entering you,
yet you forever virgin,
shadow; as on that day
when first I came
calling to your secret,
filled with unleashed desire.
Virgin dark and full,
pierced by deep rainbows
hardly seen; black
perfectly with the sublime
stars that do not attain
– above – to discover you!
======
I AM NOT I
Juan Ramón Jimenez
I am not I.
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And whom at other times I forget;
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk where I am not,
The one who will remain standing when I die.