Such a day as today, 28th March, 75 years ago Miguel Hernández died, one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. Born in Orihuela in 1910, this author belongs to a generation after the famous Generation of 27, although he is often included in this group due to his aesthetic affinity with other poets and because of the friendly relationship he had with some of they.
Belonging to the Generation of 36
Although not much has been said about her, there was a call 36 Generation. It was made up mainly of authors born around the year 1910, as was the case of Miguel Hernández, and they were the poets formed during the time of the Republic.
Something in common in all of them is that they participated in a rehumanizing trend, marked above all by the figure of Pablo Neruda, which his predecessors had begun around 1930. Along with Miguel Hernández, this generation includes poets such as Juan Gil-Albert , Luis Rosales, Juan Panero, Felipe Vivanco, Jose Antonio Muñoz Rojas, Leopoldo Panero or Carmen Conde.
One of the reasons why it has been difficult to recognize this literary generation is the very disparate differences between its authors in terms of literary trajectory.
Life and work of Miguel Hernández
In his first literary works he was quite influenced by the presence of Góngora, very present in the Generation of 27 and also in his first work, "Expert in moons" (1933). Years later he would publish "The lightning that never stops" (1936), where he used classical metric structures, such as the sonnet or chained triplets, the metric basis of his famous composition known as «Elegy to Ramón Sijé». It is in this work where the "Rehumanization" of the poetry of 27, of which we spoke before: love as the main theme of his verses.
Also notable works were "Wind of the people" (1937) and "El hombre stalking" (1939), where he talks about the misery that the Spanish Civil War brought with it. His last book was "Songbook and ballads of absences" (1938-1940), which includes many compositions that were written by the author from his own jail, where he died in Alicante in 1942.
Quotes and phrases by Miguel Hernández
- «Painted, not empty: painted is my house the color of great passions and misfortunes».
- «Although my loving body is under the earth, write to the earth, that I will write to you».
- «Don't look out the window, there is nothing in this house. Look into my soul ».
- "Laugh so much that my soul to hear you beat the space."
- "Many drinks is life and one drink is death."