Rosalía de Castro

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Rosalía Castro de Murguía better known as Rosalía de Castro (24 February 1837 – 15 July 1885) was a Galician writer and poet.

A native of Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region of northwest Spain, she wrote in both Galician and Castilian.

Writing in the Galician language, after the Séculos Escuros (Dark Centuries), she became an important figure of the Galician romantic movement, known today as the Rexurdimento ("renaissance"), along with Manuel Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal. Her poetry is marked by 'saudade', an almost ineffable combination of nostalgia, longing and melancholy.

She married Manuel Murguía, member of the Galician Academy, historian, journalist and editor of Rosalía's books.

The date she published her first collection of poetry in Galician, Cantares gallegos ("Galician Songs"), May 17, 1863, is commemorated every year as the Día das Letras Galegas ("Galician Literature Day"), an official holiday of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, and dedicated to an important writer in the Galician language since 1963.

Melancholy associated with the Galician culture is one of the main traits of her personality, although her defense of the poor, the hungry and and the powerless is another trend represented in her poetry. Her contemporary was the late Emily Dickinson, an American, who also wrote poetry. Her image appeared on the 500 peseta Spanish banknote.

[edit] Sample of Rosalía de Castro's Poetry

I was born with plants and blossoms

In a month when gardens grew,

In a dawn so very gentle,

In a dawn of April dew.

That’s the reason why I’m Rosa,

Smiling lips made red by rue,

Bristling thorns for everybody

(Never, though, a thorn for you)

Since I fell in love (a thankless

Thing I did) life’s gone askew

And I let it go, believing

You my life and glory too.

Why then this complaining Mauro?

Why the rage? You know it’s true-

If my dying made you happy,

Happily I’d die for you.

Still you stab me with a dagger

Spiked with curses. Not a clue

What it was you really wanted,

Crazy deeds you made me do!

All I had to give I gave you

In my hungering for you.

Now at last my heart I send you,

You'll unlock it with this key.

I’ve got nothing left to give you,

You’ve no more to ask of me.

Translated by Sasha Foreman from the original Galician "Nasín cand' as prantas nasen"