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 couple had seven children: Alexandra (1859-1937, unmarried), Aura (1868-1942), twins Gala (1871-1964) and Ovidio (1871-1900, without having married nor descendants), Amara (1873-1921), Adriano (1875-1876) and Valentina (stillborn, 1877). Though Aura married in 1897 and Gala in 1922, they left no children and thus today there are no living descendants of Rosalía de Castro and her husband. Her son Ovidio was a good painter, but his early death cut his career short.

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.

Relative poverty and sadness marked her life, although she had a strong sense of commitment to the poor and to the defenseless. She was a strong opponent of abuse of authority and defender of women's rights. She suffered from cancer of the womb and died of this illness. 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"