The 15 best phrases of Luis de Góngora (and verses)
Luis de Gongora y Argote (Córdoba, 1561 - 1627) was one of the most prominent Spanish playwrights and writers of the so-called Golden Age). His poetry and prose marked a style, perhaps the most representative of the golden age of Spanish literature.
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Famous phrases of Luis de Góngora
In this article we are going to review some of the most famous verses, thoughts and phrases of Góngora. This compilation includes excerpts from his best-known works, such as solitudes (1613) or Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea (1612).
1. That the most serious doctor is the one who knows the most aphorisms, it may well be; but that the one who died the most is not more expert, it cannot be.
A ironic phrase which can have different readings.
2. What an impertinent closure and what a proper error, to fabricate the bars of his prison out of other people's mistakes!
A metaphorical phrase from Góngora that invites reflection.
3. This to amend customs is dangerous and violent.
A sample of his conservatism.
4. It may well be that a rich miser collects the doubloons one hundred by one hundred; but that the gentile successor does not spend them thousand by thousand, it cannot be.
On the financial misrule of the heirs of great fortunes.
4. Even wisdom sells the University.
A scathing criticism of educational institutions, although it is hard to guess what exactly it refers to.
5. He sends love in his fatigue that he sits and does not say; but I am more content that it is said and not felt.
One of those romantic sentences extracted from the poetic work of Góngora.
6. Naked the young man, how much the ocean dress has already drunk, restore it to the sands.
Another excerpt from his poetry.
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7. Give me now, sacred sea, answer my demands, that you can, if it is true that the waters have languages.
Góngora demonstrates his mastery of the maritime metaphor in this verse.
8. Mourning the absence of the traitorous gallant he finds her the moon and leaves her the sun, always adding passion to passion, memory to memory, pain to pain.
About heartbreak and suffering.
9. The deer is so light that following it with the eyes is no less annoying than reaching it with the feet; And so for my account I find that, if you consent, I say, he did more than you in hurting him, the arrow in reaching him. But the arm is happy, camila, because today more, although impossible, you can say that you have hurt the wind.
One of his best known poems and studied in the faculties of philology.
10. Let your eyes be calm, and don't give more pearls, because what the dawn is good for is bad for the sun.
His love verses are still the subject of study.
11. I no longer sing, mother, and if I sing, my songs are very sad dirges; because the one who left, with what he carried, left the silence, and carried the voice.
When loneliness appears, the inner silence can be deafening.
12. You're jealous, the girl, you're jealous of that happy man, because you're looking for him, blind, because he doesn't see you.
Another verse about unrequited love.
13. Live happily -he said-long course of age never wordy; and if neat, in loving knots always live, spouses.
About the hopeful future of a budding love.
14. In exchange for seeing them gone, as I am the one that interests me, I know how to say that it does not bother me that they are favored.
Extracted from one of his dramaturgical works par excellence.
15. He mutes his admiration, speaks silently, and, blindly, a river follows, which - shining from those mountains, son - with twisted speech, although prolix, usefully tyrannizes the fields.
A thoughtful reflection on admiration.