Rafael pigeon (1833-1912) was a Colombian writer, poet, short story writer, fabulist, translator and diplomat. He is considered one of the most outstanding poets of the 19th century in his country. However, as time passed, his children's stories overshadowed his lyrical quality and that led to him being known more for his narrative production.
The literary work of José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo was characterized by the predominance of a cultured, precise and expressive language. His poetry entered the romanticism movement and stood out for its reflective, subjective, emotional and sometimes philosophical content. The author wrote about God, woman, nature and love.
Regarding his work aimed at children, this intellectual developed stories with educational content and full of values. All loaded with imagination, grace and creativity. Some of the best known titles were: The poor old woman, Simón the bobito, The bandit cat and The walking tadpole.
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José Rafael Pombo was born on November 7, 1833 in Bogotá, old New Granada. The writer came from a cultured and wealthy family. His parents were the politician, diplomat and journalist Lino de Pombo O'Donell (signatory of the historical treaty Pombo-Michelena on the limits with Venezuela) and Ana María Rebolledo.
The first years of Rafael Pombo's educational training were in charge of his mother Ana María Rebolledo. In his childhood was when his taste for reading and poetry was born, and at the age of ten he began to write his first verses.
After the training he received from his mother, Pombo continued his learning process at the seminary in his hometown. There he obtained knowledge in Latin, which allowed him to translate the great classics of literature during his professional life..
After that, the writer studied humanities at the Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora del Rosario and graduated as an engineer from the Military College in 1848.
Although Pombo did not dedicate himself fully to practicing engineering, as a recent graduate he participated in several projects for the beautification of Bogotá. At that stage he joined the Philotemic Society.
Also at that time the writer also collaborated in the newspapers The Day, The Herald, America, The New Era Y The Philotemic. In the last printed medium he published his first poems signed with the pseudonym "Firatelio".
Pombo went to Popayán to spend some time at one of the family's properties. There he invested time in reading and writing. It was that period in which he developed two of his most famous poems: My love Y The wine glass, both writings signed with the pseudonym "Edda".
The writer created the post The NAP in 1852 in the company of his intellectual friends José María Vergara y Vergara and José Eusebio Caro. The newspaper had literary content and the romanticist current prevailed.
Rafael Pombo began his diplomatic career in 1855, the year he was appointed secretary of the Colombian Foreign Ministry in New York. Along with his political work, the writer developed his literary work. He spent stints in Philadelphia and Washington as consul.
At that time, Pombo was hired by a company to translate children's songs from English into Spanish. The final product was the works Painted stories for children Y Moral tales for formal children between 1867 and 1869. The intellectual lived seventeen years in the United States and it was his most productive stage.
The Colombian writer returned to his country in 1872 and quickly joined the literary and journalistic events of the time. He worked as a translator, worked and founded several newspapers. Pombo's print media that stood out the most were The center Y Cartridge.
A year after settling in Bogotá, the intellectual proposed and succeeded in approving the establishment of the General Institute of Fine Arts. At that same time he started working at the newspaper The Normal School, which was dependent on the Public Instruction body.
Pombo's talent for poetry encompassed the religious theme. So in 1877 the publication December 8th, a brochure with religious verses that was previously approved by the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Bogotá. In this work he ratified his linguistic quality and his expressive force.
Rafael Pombo was seriously affected by an ulcer in 1879, for this reason he remained in bed for a long time. However, the writer tried hard enough to carry out the translation of The odes by Horacio.
The state of health in which he was immersed made him look for solutions in homeopathic medicine. After several years in bed, in 1883 the doctor Gabriel Ujueta managed to heal him and that motivated him to join the Homeopathic Society of Colombia. Around that time he dedicated himself to writing about homeopathy and suffered the loss of his mother.
Rafael Pombo's literary work was one of the most outstanding in his country and that earned him recognition from academia, critics and the public. This is how he was appointed a member of the Academy of History in 1902.
He was later recognized with the National Poet Award after a tribute that was paid to him on August 20, 1905 at the Colón Theater in Bogotá..
Pombo's life was dedicated to literary and journalistic work. Although he was one of the most notable poets in Colombia, his best-known work was that of children's content. His last years were dedicated to writing stories and fables.
On February 6, 1912, the writer entered the Colombian Academy of Language. At that time, the intellectual's health began to decline. Rafael Pombo died on May 5, 1912 in the city where he was born, he was seventy-eight years old. His body was buried in the Central Cemetery of the Colombian capital.
Rafael Pombo's literary style was framed within romanticism. The writer used in his poems and stories a cultured, clear, precise and expressive language. In his works there was a strong presence of subjectivity, reflection and sentimentality.
The main influences of this Colombian writer were Víctor Hugo, José Zorrilla, Byron and the Latin classics.
Pombo's poetic work was characterized by the use of a clear and expressive language, developed within the ranks of the romantic current. In his lyrics, the extensive knowledge he had of language and its forms was evidenced.
Pombo's deep management of linguistic resources allowed him to write sonnets, odes, songs, hymns and epigrams..
The poet had the ability to handle and apply all the types of metrics that were used in the nineteenth century, that gave his work a stamp of creativity and dynamism. The most common themes in Rafael Pombo's verses were: love, women, God, nature, mysticism and loneliness.
Pombo's children's stories stood out and continue to be valid for their fantastic, surprising and original content. The writer used a cultured, clear and entertaining language to attract children to reading. In his narrations, he reflected his thought of awakening the child's curiosity through imagination.
The content of Rafael Pombo's stories was focused on teaching infants about aspects of life from the educational, recreational and dynamic aspects. Grace, creativity and imagination were predominant features in the narrative work of this distinguished Colombian writer.
Rafael Pombo's work was developed in three stages related to circumstances of his life. The first corresponded to his first years of youth in the city of Bogotá, time in which he published in some printed media several loose poems and his acquaintance The hours of darkness in 1855.
The second stage of Pombo's literary life occurred in the United States during his diplomatic missions between 1855 and 1872.
Finally, the third was held again in the city where he was born, it was from 1872 until the end of his life. Here are some of the books published by the writer and a list of his most popular stories.
- Poetic Exabruptos by Rafael Pombo.
- The hour of darkness (1855).
- Painted stories for children (1867).
- Moral tales for formal children (1869).
- Complete work (1916, posthumous edition).
- Alphabet string.
- To the newborn.
- To a teacher.
- Patriotic bamboo.
- Beauty and love.
- Cloak and hammock.
- Illustrated primer I. God sees us.
- Illustrated primer IV. To the Holy Virgin.
- Illustrated primer VIII. Homeland.
- Illustrated primer XII. Home.
- Illustrated primer XVI. The geography.
- Illustrated primer XX. Order of life.
- Pig.
- Cutufato and his cat.
- God and soul.
- Doña Pánfaga.
- Water and soap.
- The chess.
- The soul and the child.
- The stream.
- Federico's donkey.
- The horse and the sparrow.
- The alligator and the flies.
- The ambitious hunter.
- The gazebo.
- Corset.
- Body and soul.
- The daguerreotype.
- The guardian cat.
- The schoolboy and the caterpillar.
- The bandit cat.
- The liar cat.
- The balloon and the hen.
- The grain and the pearl.
- The hawk and the hen.
- The Hunchback.
- The reader and the bug.
- The Liberator.
- The hero wolf.
- The wolf and the shepherd.
- The alphabetical model.
- The monkey applauded.
- The mount and the squirrel.
- The weeping mosquito.
- The big boy.
- The poor boy.
- The golden bird.
- The boy and the lamb.
- Enrique's dog.
- The finch and the magpie.
- The colt without brake.
- The pointer and the clock.
- The envy mouse.
- The sermon and the alligator.
- The little soldier.
- The wicked man's dream.
- The steam train.
- The broken violin.
- The fox and the leopard.
- Fuño and furan.
- Hymn to the morning.
- Juan Matachin.
- The critical spider.
- The Counselor Crab.
- The chicken and the pig.
- Water's drop.
- The ant and the fly.
- Emma's doll.
- The curious girl.
- The caterpillar and the lady.
- Ada's little sheep.
- Dove.
- The dove and the child.
- The epicurean flea.
- The dove and the bee.
- The poor old lady.
- The epicurean flea.
- The rose and the tulip.
- The charitable serpent.
- Revenge of the Bee.
- The mare and the skirt.
- The fox and the monkey.
- The frogs and the torch.
- The seven lives of the cat.
- The crybabies and the mole.
- The three oxen.
- Mirringa mirronga.
- Little shepherd.
- Zaquituerto parakeet.
- Simón the bobito.
- Aunt Pasitrote.
- December night.
- Elvira tracy.
- Al niagara.
- full moon.
- Spring prelude.
- Valley.
- Melancholia.
- We said yesterday.
- Original sin.
- At night.
- Forever.
- Mary.
- The priest's house.
- May cross.
- My love.
- Whirlwind.
- The bambuco.
- My kind.
- The human couple.
It was one of Rafael Pombo's best-known poems, and he developed it when he was twenty-two years old. This work consisted of sixty-one tenths in which it reflected feelings of hopelessness and anguish due to a health condition that suffered for a long time.
The poem was produced within the lines of romanticism and used a cultured and expressive language, typical of his literary style.
"Oh, what a dreadful mystery
is this of existence!
Reveal me some conscience!
Speak to me, mighty God!
There is I do not know how terrifying
in the being of our being.
Why did I come to be born?
Who to suffer forces me?
Who gave that enemy law
to be to suffer?
If I was in nothing,
Why did i come out of nowhere
to execrate the reduced hour
in which my life began?
And once it was fulfilled
it is a dismal prodigy,
Why the same one who has imposed it
he does not come to free me?
And of having to load
a good against which I protest?
... Why am I where I am
with this life that I have
without knowing where I come from
not knowing where I'm going ...? ... ".
This poem was produced by the Colombian writer during the period he lived in the United States. Pombo, in addition to exalting the natural landscape of Niagara, made comparisons in relation to aspects of life.
In this work the writer spoke of the essence of nature itself with the artificial and superficial. That gave it a content of philosophical reflection.
"There you are again ... The same spell
that years ago I knew, monster of grace,
white, fascinating, huge, augustus,
sultan of torrents.
Dock and serene in your unparalleled strength.
There you are always the Niagara! Perennial
in your static trance, in that vertigo
of tremendous will, without getting tired
never from you, nor the man to admire you.
… Could God fatigue? Ah! as far as
there is lethal charm, sad beginning
Of inertia, hostile to God, germ of death,
gangrene of kidnapped souls
of its vivifying stream ...
In you it seems that the world begins
letting go of the Eternal's hands
to undertake its everlasting course
through the deep ether.
You are the sky that will cover the earth
you descend, and veiled in white clouds
the majesty of God comes down with you ... ".
This poetic work by Pombo was about love and eternalized innocence. The writer with a language full of emotions expressed his feelings towards the young woman who gave the poem its title and whose life ended when she was barely fifteen years old..
It was an elegy for love, for women, but above all for a feeling that left without being fully consummated. Rafael Pombo placed the woman in a high place, almost divine. To him it was the totality of creation and an irrepressible attractive force.
"Here is the most beautiful year
day,
worthy of paradise! It's the early
greeting that autumn sends us;
are the goodbyes that summer gives us!
Waves of pure light shine
the white bedroom of sweet Elvira;
the loving birds sing,
the scented zephyr sighs.
Here is her dressing table: I still know
shudders
which of its virgin shape to the touch
soft.
Behold the mother of Jesus: it seems
be listening to your prayers.
A coffin in the center, a cloth,
a Christ!
A corpse! Great God!… Elvira!…
It's her!
I have seen her happily beautiful yesterday.
And today? ... hela there ... only
pretty!… ".
It was one of Rafael Pombo's best-known works, it was aimed at children and is currently very valid. It was a narrative in verses about the life of an old woman, who although she had few years of life left, she had plenty of food.
The text was written in a simple and easily understood language. It was loaded with humor and irony, because the content contradicted the title given by the author.
"Once upon a little old woman
with nothing to eat
but meats, fruits, sweets,
cakes, eggs, bread and fish.
Drank broth, chocolate,
milk, wine, tea and coffee,
and the poor thing could not find
what to eat or what to drink.
... appetite never had
finishing eating,
nor did he enjoy full health
when he was not well.
He died of bad wrinkles,
already hunched like a three,
and never complained again
neither from hunger nor thirst.
And this poor old lady
when he died he left no more
what ounces, jewels, land, houses,
eight cats and a turpial.
Sleep in peace, and God permit
that we can enjoy
the poverties of this poor
and die of the same evil ".
“Simón the bobito called the pastry chef:
Let's see the cakes, I want to try them!
-Yes, the other replied, but first I want to
see that pint with which you have to pay.
He searched his pockets for good Simoncito
and said: you will see! I do not have a single.
Simón the bobito likes fish
and he wants to become a fisherman too,
and spend the hours sitting
fishing in Mama Leonor's bucket.
Simoncito made a snow cake
and to roast on the embers hungry
threw out,
but the cupcake fell apart shortly,
and put out the embers and ate nothing ... ".
"Mirringa mirronga, the cat candonga
going to give a treat playing hide and seek,
and he wants all the cats and cats
do not eat mice or dine with
rats.
'Let's see my glasses, and pen and inkwell,
and we are putting the cards first.
Let the Fuñas and the
Fanfare,
and Ñoño and Marroño and Tompo and their
girls.
Now let's see how about the cupboard.
There is chicken and fish, the thing is
good!'
… The flowers, the table, the soup!… Tilín!
People are coming. Jesus, what a bustle!
They arrived by car late at night
gentlemen and ladies, with many zalemas,
large uniform, tail and glove,
with very stiff collars and elegant tailcoats ... ".
- “It is the traveling old age of the night; and as the earth is hidden from you, open, my friend, the sky to your gaze ".
- "And from the rumor of other people's joys only melancholic echoes reach me".
- “God made it that way. The complaints, the reproach are blindness. Happy is he who consults oracles higher than his mourning! ".
- "Mother ... I am going to follow you ... you see ahead that, giving me the example, I will do it instantly".
- “It was a lake like those made by clouds, with its silver edges, with its cherubs, with its swaying; deep white midnight lake; as between heaven and earth, as in the world, and outside of it ... ".
- “The child is an aspirational bomb, not of reasoning that tires him, but of images; it is essentially curious, practical and material; wants to be taught objectively ".
- "I, for today free and vacant, would vote for a brunette, slender but full, with a correct and spicy face".
- “I loved you as great nature loves the morning embrace of the sun; As the orphan the name of her father, as the virtue the blessing of God ".
- “You were everything to me, the sky, the world, the dreams, the beliefs, the home. Missing you, living was impossible; with you beloved, inconceivable evil ".
- "If this is love, oh young man! I love you, and if this is gratitude, I bless you; I my beloved, my lord I call you, that others give you the title of friend ".
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