The 15 Best Phrases By Luis De Góngora (and Verses)
Luis de Góngora and Argote (Córdoba, 1561 – 1627) was one of the most prominent Spanish playwrights and writers of the Golden Age). His poetry and prose marked a style, perhaps the most representative of the golden age of Spanish literature.
In this article we are going to review some of Góngora’s most famous verses, thoughts and phrases This compilation includes excerpts from his best-known works, such as Solitudes (1613) or Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea (1612).
1. That he who knows the most aphorisms is a more serious doctor, may well be; but it cannot be that he who has died the most is not more expert.
An ironic phrase that can have different readings.
2. What impertinent closure and what a proper error, to make the bars of your prison out of other people’s mistakes!
A metaphorical phrase from Góngora that invites reflection.
3. This thing about amending customs is dangerous and violent.
A sign of his conservatism.
4. It may well be that a rich miser collects the doubloons a hundred by a hundred; But it cannot be that the Gentile successor does not spend them thousand by thousand.
About the financial misgovernance of the heirs of great fortunes.
4. Even wisdom sells the University.
A scathing criticism of educational institutions, although it is difficult to guess what exactly it refers to.
5. Send love in your fatigue that is felt and not said; But I am happier that it is said and not felt.
One of those romantic sentences extracted from the poetic work of Góngora.
6. Naked the young man, what the ocean has already drunk, he restores to the sands.
Another excerpt from his poetry.
7. Give me now, sacred sea, an answer to my demands, as you may well, 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 traitor gallant, the moon finds her and the sun leaves her, always adding passion to passion, memory to memory, pain to pain.
9. The roe deer is so light that it is no less annoying to follow it with its eyes than it is to reach it with its feet; And so on my own account I find that, if you agree to say this, he did more than you in shooting, the arrow in reaching it. But let your arm be happy, Camila, because today, although impossible, you will be able to say that you have hurt the wind.
One of his best-known and most studied poems in philology faculties.
10. Let your eyes be calm, and do not give more pearls, because what is bad for the sun is what is good for the dawn.
His love verses continue to be the object of study.
11. I no longer sing, mother, and if I sing, my songs are very sad dirges; because he who left, with what he brought, left silence, and carried the voice.
When loneliness appears, the inner silence can be deafening.
12. You are jealous, the girl, you are jealous of that blessed one, because you look for him, blind, because he does not see you.
Another verse about unrequited love.
13. Live happily, he said, long course of age never long; and if long-winded, always live in loving knots, spouses.
About the hopeful future of a love in the making.
14. In exchange for seeing them gone, since I am the one who is interested, I can say that it does not bother me that they are favored.
Extracted from one of his quintessential dramaturgical works.
15. The admiration is silent, it speaks silently, and, blind, a river follows, which – shining from those mountains, son – with twisted speech, although prolix, usefully tyrannizes the fields.
