Jiménez << hee MAY nayth >>, Juan Ramón (1881-1958), a Spanish poet, won the 1956 Nobel Prize for literature. His poems were identified with the literary movement called Modernism because of their elegant style and profound emotion. Jiménez’s poetry reflects his belief in the simplicity of nature and an awareness of God’s eternal presence. Jiménez constantly revised his poems, and his works greatly influenced later poets.
A good introduction to Jiménez’s poetry is Forty Poems, translated in 1967 by the American poet Robert Bly. In Jiménez’s most famous work, Platero and I (1914), the poet chats with his donkey, reminiscing about life in the village of Moguer, where he was born on Dec. 24, 1881. He created lyrical descriptions that are transformed into perceptive prose poetry. Jiménez left Spain in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. He then lived in North and South America until his death on May 29, 1958.
