Translations and Poems in Honor of Elias L. Rivers

Elias L. Rivers had a deep interest in translation. To give just a few examples: he helped Gilbert F. Cunningham bring into print his verse translation of Góngora’s Soledades and wrote the introduction to it; he translated Hijos de la ira, by his teacher and friend Dámaso Alonso, and Notas de viaje, by the Chilean poet Pedro Lastra; he wrote articles that deal with translation, such as “Fray Luis de León: traducción e imitación”; and, with Anne Cruz, he translated the prose manifestos of Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega. Perhaps his most profound legacy as a translator, however, has been his book Renaissance and Baroque Poetry of Spain with English Prose Translations. This volume has for decades been a basic resource for scholars outside the field seeking knowledge of Golden Age Spanish poetry, a help to undergraduate and graduate students of Spanish, and an invaluable collection of the most important poems of the era. The translations in it provide a bridge to the original texts that enable someone with limited Spanish to experience directly the work of poets such as Garcilaso, Luis de Góngora, Lope de Vega, and Francisco de Quevedo. As an homage to Dr. Rivers and to this aspect of his work, I offer some of my translations, along with a few of my poems inspired by Spanish poets and by my experiences in Spain.

After studying Spanish poetry and writing poems for many years, I merged the two endeavors by translating Spanish sonnets form-to-form, creating sonnets in English. These are primarily what I present here. Since a sonnet, or any poem for that matter, combines music and meaning, it has been my goal to convey the meanings while retaining the music of the sonnet form. As I am sure Dr. Rivers would have agreed, the task is an impossible one, but that very impossibility appeals to me.