Day 21 and Ruben Diaro, the legend nica poet

Trip Start Nov 2007
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Trip End Dec 2007


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Thursday, December 6, 2007

This morning i missed the first hour of classes due to stomach problems. I was going to skip the whole 4 hour session to rest, but i just couldn´t stand the thought of how dejected my teacher would be. When i got there he was hanging his head with a lesson plan all laid out on the table so i was glad i made it. We talked alot about his radio show... he´s a sandinista and knows people in the party. He suggested one day that the party should have a radio show and they said... ok, you do it. He said that, although he is a sandinista he is not a fan of the current president. They said that was ok so he signed up for it. He wants to do a show on Melissa and I a week from Sunday, however we won´t be around. He said he still might try to interview us tomorrow and send us a link to the recording of the show. I really don´t think my spanish is good enough, though! And we´ll have lots to do tomorrow with it being the biggest day of the year in leon.

After that, we upped the food quality for the sake of my stomach and ate at Comedor Lucia. We HIGHLY recommend this place if you are in leon. For $2.50 you get a full meal with rice, meat, beans, side, salad and drink. The chicken kabobs were wonderful.

Then we explored the city. Here were some observations...

We walked down Avenida Ruben Dario, past Parque Ruben Dario to the cultural center where you can buy the poetry of Ruben Dario and finally to the Ruben Dario museum. Needless to day, Ruben Dario is EVERYWHERE in Leon. In general, Nicaragua is huge on poetry. There are articles about it in the newspaper and you can´t have an arts related conversation without it turning to poetry. And Ruben Dario is the king of Nica poets.

Here is a blurb from wikipedia... [Rubén Darío](January 18, 1867 - February 6, 1916) was a Nicaraguan journalist, diplomat, and influential poet who is known as The Father of Modernism. His poetry brought vigor to the stale, monotonous Spanish-language poetry of the time. [stuff removed] Rubén Darío participated in, or was the leader of, many literary movements in Nicaragua, Chile, Spain and Argentina. The Modernismo movement was a recapitulation of three movements in Europe: Romanticism (romanticismo), Symbolism (simbolismo) and Parnassianism (parnasianismo). These ideas express passion, visual art, and harmonies and rhythms with music. Darío was the genius of this movement. His style was exotic and very vibrant.

One interesting thing is that our guide book said that ruben dario didnt seem too attached to Nicarauga. He was raised near leon, but left around 19 years old and spent much of his life in El Savidor, Chile and elsewhere. he hung out in an ´elite´ society that did not exist in Nica.

Here is a famous poem of his... FATALITY

The tree is happy because it is scarcely sentient;
the hard rock is happier still, it feels nothing:
there is no pain as great as being alive,
no burden heavier than that of conscious life.

To be, and to know nothing, and to lack a way,
and the dread of having been, and future terrors...
And the sure terror of being dead tomorrow,
and to suffer all through life and through the darkness,

and through what we do not know and hardly suspect...
And the flesh that temps us with bunches of cool grapes,
and the tomb that awaits us with its funeral sprays,
and not to know where we go,
nor whence we came!...
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