| José Antonio Ramos Sucre | |
|---|---|
| Born | 9 June 1890 Cumaná |
| Died | June 13, 1930 (aged 40), Geneva |
| Occupation | poet, writer |
| Nationality | Venezuelan |
José Antonio Ramos Sucre (Cumaná, 1890 - Geneva, 1930) was a Venezuelan poet, professor, consul and erudite. He is a member of the Sucre family of Venezuela and the great-great-nephew of Antonio José de Sucre. He was educated at the Colegio Nacional, and then at the Universidad Central de Venezuela where he studied Law, Letters and Languages (ancient and modern Greek and Sanskrit).
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Upon finishing his studies, and becoming proficient in Danish, English, French, German, Italian and Swedish, he worked as a translator and interpreter at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela and later as Consul to Geneva where he would pass away in 1930. At the same time, Ramos Sucre served as a Professor of World History, World Geography, History & Geography of Venezuela, Latin and Greek. He also briefly worked as a Civil Court Judge.
He is best remembered however for his work in poetry and literature, amongst them:
In 1956, the Ministry of Education published his work in the collection Biblioteca Popular Venezolana, and in the 1960s he would become to the new generations one of the most valid references for excellence. He is remembered as "the poet of pain, a poet who felt a hypnotic fascination for the obscure and the abyss, a poet that suffers in his loneliness", according to the Venezuelan poet and literary critic Francisco Pérez Perdomo.
1. O mensageiro/El mensajero, Floriano Martins (trad.), (n.t.) Revista Literária em Tradução, nº 1 (set/2010), Fpolis/Brasil, ISSN 2177-5141
2. English translations of Ramos Sucre by Guillermo Parra at Venepoetics blog (2008–present) Venepoetics
To honor his memory, the University of Salamanca, created the José Antonio Ramos Sucre Professorship of Venezuelan Literature and in 1999, the Fondo de Cultura Económica de México published the book Obra Poética, comprising his poetic works, with a prologue by his cousin Guillermo Sucre. His collected writings are also available in Obra completa (Caracas: Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989) and Obra poética: Edición crítica (Paris: UNESCO/Colección Archivos, 2001). In 2006, Venezuelan novelist Rubi Guerra was awarded the Premio de Novela Corta Rufino Blanco Fombona for his novella based on Ramos Sucre's final months in Europe, La tarea del testigo (Caracas: Fundación Editorial El perro y la rana, 2007).