.

LA SOLEDAD PRIMERA

VERSOS 182 - 211

"in which the omniscient narrator

 is the reader of nature's rich text"

 

 

Some of the most imaginative imagery written (in 1612) by don Luis emerges from the succeeding verses. The poet demonstrates that language may not only be created by a sequence of letters and signs, but also by a river which recreates itself eternally in a scenery of incessant magnitude.

 

          Agradecido, pues, el peregrino

          deja el albergue y sale acompañado

          de quién lo lleva donde levantado,

          distante pocos pasos del camino,

          imperïoso mira la campaña

          un escollo, apacible galería

          que festivo teatro fue algún día

          de cuantos pisan faunos la montaña.

          Llegó y, a vista tanta

          obediciendo la dudosa planta,

          inmóvil se quedó sobre un lentisco,(1)

          verde balcón del agradable risco.

          Si mucho poco mapa le(2) despliega,

          mucho es más lo que  - nieblas desatando -

          confunde el Sol y la distancia niega. 

          Muda la admiración habla callando

          y ciega un río sigue, que, luciente

               de aquellos montes hijo,

          con torcido discurso, aunque prolijo,

          tiraniza los campos útilmente:

          orladas sus orillas de frutales,

          quiere la Copia que su cuerno sea,

          si al animal armaron de Amaltea

               diáfanos cristales;

          engazando edificios en su plata,

               de muros se corona,

          rocas abraza, islas aprisiona,

          de la alta gruta donde se desata

          hasta los jaspes líquidos adonde

          su orgullo pierde y su memoria esconde.

 

          

CLAVE

The shipwrecked pilgrim leaves the shelter, where he spent the night with a group of goatherds, accompanied by the one who found him on a hill near the beach. Overlooking the landscape from another high point (a green balcony) he is impressed by the view: scenery that was once a theatrical festivity of the genii (genios romanos) who inhabited it. Careful as he is, the pilgrim holds his steps (llegó) out of respect for la dudosa planta, and continues to oversee the landscape.

If what the pilgrim (Lat: peregrinus, stranger) imagines to be a large map, divided into segments, even more is hidden in the distance by confused sunlight and fog. Overwhelmed by admiration the astonished onlooker is lost for words: his eyes sense the current of a river (which curls down the mountains) like a blind man would.(3) The fruit trees that surround this enormous, tyrannical river are obliged to produce a Macedonia of fruit.(4)

So much fruit is produced that even Abundance (also named Cornucopia) would like to have them adorning its horns. This is unlikely because Abundance was created from one of the horns of the goat Amaltea who was not armed with translucent crystals.(5)

The large, crowned river of silver, adorned with necklaces,(6) cuddles rocks and secludes islands. From the high cave (grotto) where it belongs (hijo), it ritually dissolves itself in the liquid jewels of the ocean, where (adonde) it surrenders its glory to conceal what was written.(7)

N.B. From line 202 onward Góngora wrote a different text (ten lines), censured by Pedro de Valencia.

 

NOTES

 

(1) Pistacia lentiscus, a small tree which grows around the Mediterranean Sea.

(2) Alonso and Carreira state "les" in line 194. A lyrical play with le ... despliega, lo ... nieblas and la ... niega (in lines 194 - 96) may also be considered.

(3) The adverb aunque in line 200 should not be interpreted as although. The significance of desatar in line 195 may not easily be comprehended.

(4) Prolijo: large, prolonged. The omniscient narrator is the reader of what emerges from the admiration of a dumb, deaf pilgrim: nature's text, written in a scenery of indefinite profoundness by a perpetuous river which indulges in an abundance of fruit trees. 

(5) Góngora writes down: "If the goat who breastfed Jupiter was armed with horns made from translucent crystals." (See: Carreira. Antología poética).

(6) Engazar = to string. Pellicer suggests water mills. Several water mills (as well as the old city wall) still stand in and along the Guadalquivir river as it passes through Córdoba, connected by narrow, winding walkways. Although Góngora lived nearby - in the Pedroche Valley - this does not imply that (parts of) the Soledades were located in this area. N.B. There are signs near where Góngora lived saying: "Stay Away! Danger!" The visitor may only notice friendly sheep and goats, and not be aware of the presence of rattlesnakes.

A water mill in the Guadalquivir River. Picture taken in Autumn.

(7) In the short verse engazando edificios en su plata the reader encounters the clave to comprehend this section of the poem. The presence of the Cultism prolijo, accompanied by torcido and tiraniza, is deliberate, not just for rhyming ("i") purposes.

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

ALONSO, Dámaso. Obras completas. Vols. V-VII. Madrid: Gredos, 1978-82.

..... (ed.) Soledades de Góngora. Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1927. 

DȀLLENBACH, Lucien. Le récit spéculaire. Essai sur la mise en abyme, Paris, Seuil, 1977.

DE PAZ, Amelia. "La huerta de don Marcos". In: Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica. LX, no 1. pp. 181-98. (Also in www.researchgate).   

GONGORA Y ARGOTE, Luis de. Obras de don Luis de Góngora. [Manuscrito Chacón]. Edición de José Lara Garrido. Tomos 1-3. Ronda: Real Academia Española, 1991.

..... Antología poética. Edición de Antonio Carreira. Barcelona: Castalia, 1986.

GROOT, Jack de.  "¿Existía una relación intertextual entre Lorca y Góngora?" In: Actas del Congreso Internacional Federico García Lorca, Clásico Moderno, 1898 - 1998. Granada: Diputación de Granada, 2000, pp. 312-16.

..... Intertextuality Through Obscurity. The Poetry of Federico García Lorca and Luis de Góngora. New Orleans: University Press of the South, 2003. 

..... Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Chronicle of Love. New Orleans: University Press of the South, 2007.

PELLICER DE SALAS Y TOVAR, José de.  Lecciones solemnes de las obras de don Luis de Góngora. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1971.

ROSES LOZANO, Joaquín. Soledades habitadas. Málaga: Universidad de Malaga, 2007.

..... Una poética de la oscuridad. London: Tamesis, 1994. 

SALCEDO CORONEL, José García de. Soledades de D. Luis de Góngora comentadas por don García Salzedo Coronel. Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1636.

SANCHEZ ROBAYNA, Andrés. "Góngora y el texto del mundo." In: Tres estudios sobre Góngora. Barcelona: Ediciones del Mall, 1983. 

SARDUY, Severo. "Sobre Góngora: la metáfora al cuadrado." In: Escrito sobre un cuerpo. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1969.

 

N.B. My interpretation is mine only. Other readers will come to other interpretations. This article was written between January and October 2021, some of it close to the Plaza de la Trinidad in Córdoba (below) where Góngora died in 1627. A lot of magnificent investigations have been published since 1627; many more will surely be done.

 

.

 LA SOLEDAD SEGUNDA

 VERSOS 1 - 16

"metaphors metamorphosed"

Éntrase el mar por un arroyo breve

que a recebillo con sediento paso(1)

de su roca natal se precipita,

y mucha sal no solo en poco vaso,

     más su ruína bebe,(2)

y su fin - cristalina mariposa,

     no alada, sino undosa -

en el farol de Tetis solicita.

Muros desmantelando, pues, de arena,(3)

centauro ya espumoso el Océano,

     medio mar, medio ría,

dos veces huella la campaña al día,(4)

escalar pretendiendo el monte en vano,

     de quien es dulce vena

     el tarde ya torrente

arrepentido y aun retrocedente. 

CLAVE

 

Rivers and creeks often flow to an ocean or a sea. In the opening lines of his Soledad segunda Góngora explores the opposite: a sea arm approaches a creek and conquers it.

The thirsty creek, to be metamorphosed into a wingless butterfly, a cristalina mariposa, reaches the final of its existence after taking on a substantial quantity of salty water.(5)

The butterfly (no alada, sino undosa), which normally encounters death while flying into the sunlight, now finds itself overpowered by an arm of the mighty, cruel sea: the lighthouse of Goddess Tetis.(6)

The sea arm, metamorphosed into a foamy centaur: half sea/half creek, destroys the muros de arena created by the freshwater creek (dulce vena). Although this sea arm successfully invades the riverside twice daily, it fails to ascend the mountain from which the creek originates.(7)

The defeated centaur (el tarde ya torrente) returns to the ocean to be dissolved.(8)

 

NOTES

 

(1) This verse originates from the Spanish dar de beber al sediento. It implies love, hospitality, care: to share a drink with someone who is thirsty. 

(2) Vaso sanguíneo. Here Góngora may also refer to a crystal glass filled with salty water.

(3) Desmantelar: to disarm. Góngora deliberately includes pues (in line 9) to stress the normality of the act. In line 10 he deliberately inserts ya.

(4) Hollar la campaña: to execute an act of war. Two times a day the countryside is attacked: by mar and by ría (arrepentido and retrocedente).

(5) Solicitar (in line 8): to announce, to expect? It should not necessarily be translated as: to ask for.

(6) Tetis, la diosa marina, hija de la Tierra y esposa del Océano. (D. Alonso)

(7) Lope de Vega wrote a sonnet titled "A la muerte de don Luis de Góngora", in which he (fénix) revels in the use of palabras cultas used as clichés. Lope may well have referred to the second Solitude (repite soledades).

Despierta, O Betis, la dormida plata
y, coronado de ciprés, inunda
la docta patria, en Sénecas fecunda,
todo el cristal en lágrimas desata;

repite soledades, y dilata
por campos de dolor vena profunda,
única luz, que no dejó segunda;
al polifemo ingenio Atropos mata.

Góngora ya la parte restituye
mortal al tiempo, ya la culta lira
en cláusula final la voz incluye.

Ya muere y vive, que esta sacra pira
tan inmortal honor le constituye
que nace fénix donde cisne expira.

Quevedo may have been a cruel person, not Lope.

 

(8) Góngora's message to the reader: The Earth possesses an abundance of salty water (cruel ocean); fresh water is scarce (fragile creeks). Carelessness provokes consequences.

N.B. The clave is based on my personal interpretations. (It was written in Spain between September and November 2021)

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

ALONSO, Dámaso. Obras completas. Vols. V-VII. Madrid: Gredos, 1978-82.

..... (ed.) Soledades de Góngora. Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1927. 

DȀLLENBACH, Lucien. Le récit spéculaire. Essai sur la mise en abyme, Paris, Seuil, 1977.

DE PAZ, Amelia. "La huerta de don Marcos". In: Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica. LX, no 1. pp. 181-98. (Also in www.researchgate).   

GONGORA Y ARGOTE, Luis de. Obras de don Luis de Góngora. [Manuscrito Chacón]. Edición de José Lara Garrido. Tomos 1-3. Ronda: Real Academia Española, 1991.

..... Antología poética. Edición de Antonio Carreira. Barcelona: Castalia, 1986.

GROOT, Jack de.  "¿Existía una relación intertextual entre Lorca y Góngora?" In: Actas del Congreso Internacional Federico García Lorca, Clásico Moderno, 1898 - 1998. Granada: Diputación de Granada, 2000, pp. 312-16.

..... Intertextuality Through Obscurity. The Poetry of Federico García Lorca and Luis de Góngora. New Orleans: University Press of the South, 2003. 

..... Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Chronicle of Love. New Orleans: University Press of the South, 2007.

PELLICER DE SALAS Y TOVAR, José de.  Lecciones solemnes de las obras de don Luis de Góngora. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1971.

ROSES LOZANO, Joaquín. Soledades habitadas. Málaga: Universidad de Malaga, 2007.

..... Una poética de la oscuridad. London: Tamesis, 1994. 

SALCEDO CORONEL, José García de. Soledades de D. Luis de Góngora comentadas por don García Salzedo Coronel. Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1636.

SANCHEZ ROBAYNA, Andrés. "Góngora y el texto del mundo." In: Tres estudios sobre Góngora. Barcelona: Ediciones del Mall, 1983. 

SARDUY, Severo. "Sobre Góngora: la metáfora al cuadrado." In: Escrito sobre un cuerpo. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1969.

 

.

ECHOES, WAVES AND MIRRORS

(Góngora's universe reversed)

LA SOLEDAD PRIMERA, 669 -76

La gaita al baile solicita el gusto,

a la voz el salterio;

cruza el Trión más fijo el hemisferio,

y el tronco mayor danza en la ribera;

el eco, voz ya entera, (1)

no hay silencio a que pronto no responda;

fanal es del arroyo cada onda, (2)

luz el reflejo, la agua vidrïera.

Trión refers to Polaris, the most stable star of the Oso Minor, represented on earth by the semaphors which surround an Oso Mayor down by the river, activated by the light of Trión (in space) to perform a dance during a wedding (on earth). The entire hemisphere is stabalised around Trión (a fixed cross in the Oso Minor constellation), while on earth the Big Bear moves through light, semaphors and glass. Here Góngora plays with super natural powers: the lights of two starsigns combatting each other in and around a creek. The comma which succeeds Trión is significant; the text could also be read as: "cruza el Trión (más fijo el hemisferio)" or: "el Trión más fijo cruza (4) el hemisferio".

     Why la agua vidrïera? Answer: don Luis wanted the verse to rhyme with entera, and avoid a Greek accusative. The glass enables, the semaphors guide, the light delivers.

     The verse may be read as: luz el reflejo, la vidrïera agua. Or: luz el reflejo, el agua vidrïero. Or: luz el reflejo, vidrïera el agua. 
     Don Luis took the best option. A monotonous repetition of el would not have been right: el eco, el arroyo, el reflejo, el agua, el vidriero. He did not even reiterate la voz, but chose ya to maintain the ever present "a" in this fragment.(3)

      The event is surrounded by the shapes and sounds of nature (with some mysticism) impregnated by the music of Northern Spain, composed by the poet in the satisfying scale of A Major.(4)

1) Góngora should have written "en" here, but instead wrote down (by candle light) a comma. The same occurs a few lines later.  

Quite a dominant voice (double / two-way): the echo. Even with the sounds produced by the gaita and psalterio completely gone the echo still produces this music perfectly. Without the music the eco would not have existed at all: only reiterated silence.

"No" appears twice: a complex echo which neutrolizes every silence.

Góngora could have written "always" here, but wrote no ... no  instead, in order to terminate responder in "a".  This "no ... no" construction is difficult to imagine let alone translate. It derives from the Greek literature: here repetition creates contradiction.

2) Alonso, in his interpretation (1927), states: el agua de vidriera. Carreira (Antología Poética, 2009) writes: el verso 676 es quiásmico. Pellicer interpretes Góngora's visualization of the creek in detail. 

Initially Góngora wrote a cada onda in line 675. (See text below).

3) & 4) In the Dedication Góngora played with the a, u, o and e.

(4) The verb "cruzar" should not be translated as "to surf".

(*)  Jammes published in 1984 (in Criticón no. 27, University Le Mirail, Toulouse) a handwritten copy of a Góngora manuscript (dated 17th century) obtained by Prof. Antonio Rodriguez-Moñino. It contains 779 lines of the first Soledad, in a very early construction. Góngora's early texts often contain spelling errors. (Here: "frio", "fijo", the comma in line 671). Trión is the North Star Polaris, the most stable one of the "Oso Minor". After that Góngora writes "más frío, el emisferio" (the cold spotlight of Trión) in combination with a "tronco maior" mirrored by the moving lighthouses of a creek. Góngora might have read the studies of Ptolomeo, and study the stars while staying overnight in the fields of Spain. "Trión" refers to: evening, night. "Gaita", "psalterio": Galicia.

     Of course the "Rodríguez Manuscript" is an early version of the first Solitude, and Góngora might have altered the text later on. (In the text below he leaves out "gaita". "Emisferio" features in order to rhyme with "psalterio" to musically describe the wedding. After that the visual part emerges). We could translate "mas" (in line 671) as but, and interprete the line as: from a cold hemisphere the star (the handle of the "Oso Minor" (in the shape of a ladle) descends to the warmer ambience of the creek. 

* Trión also refers to an Italian card game. 

* Fanal derives from the Greek phanárion.

* The Soledades mainly originate from the Greek language, translated by Valencia to Latin, by Góngora to old Spanish and by us to modern Spanish. 

       

The Psaletrio (13th Century).

N.B. It would take 10 - 15 years to interpret Las Soledades while consulting the texts of Alonso, Jammes, Salcedo Coronel, Pellicer, Carreira, Roses, Diego, Guillén, Alberti, Lorca, Jones, Pabst, Orozco, Arroyo, Séneca, Mena, Foulché-Delbosc, McGow, Millé, Spitzer, Rodríguez-Moñino, Malkiel, Valencia, Crysostom.

   Góngora's Soledades will be read in Spanish, accompanied by up-to-date,(1) academic interpretations. Understanding the texts written by the genius from Córdoba will take time, but the persistent reader will be awarded with text of incredible beauty, written by one of Spain's most prominent poets.

     

(1). The interpretations published in the 1600s by Pellicer and Salcedo Coronel are very useful indeed. However, since the revival of Góngora's poetry in the late 1800s more scholars have ventilated their interpretations and opinions, to be read by us. What students will ask Annum 2026: "Where do I get my information/books from? Where can I study?" (To get started: Visit the website of the University of Córdoba. Wikipedia. Internet bookstores. Etc.) (Góngora's books are not widely available in shops outside Andalucía. I found one in the bookshop behind the Corte Inglés in Bilbao, near Abando). A translation provides the story, but not the lyrical aspects nor the conceptual contents of the poetry. 

Federico García Lorca stated in the 1920s: "Góngora will not be understood in one reading". 

This website: gongora.blospot.com was occupied earlier on. When it became available I decided to do the best I can to present the most uptodate information possible. People from around the world visit this site now! I do not want to discourage anyone, but your knowledge will come one day at the time. It will take time.

.

"No se han de dar las piedras preciosas a animales de cerda" 

"The battle of day versus night"

(in which the night wins: in line 687)

La soledad primera: 677 - 86

Términos (1) le da el sueño al regocijo,

más al cansancio no, que el movimiento

verdugo de las fuerzas es prolijo.

Los fuegos - cuyas lenguas, ciento a ciento,

desmintieron la noche algunas horas,

cuyas luces, del Sol competidoras,

fingieron día en la tiniebla obscura -

murieron, y en sí mismos sepultados

sus miembros, en cenizas desatados,

piedras son de su mismo sepultura.

The party comes to an end, succeeded by dreams in which tiredness domimates, caused by the conflictive, lasting forces (of) Trión and Earth and perhaps animated a liitle by the earlier mentioned regocijo: the music and dance. (Ruido in line 688).

     Gradually tongues of flames derive the nightly starlite from a few hours of obscure darkness to produce fictive sunlight. (In the Dedication the adjective mentido features; also términos disformes)

    However in the "Rodríguez Manuscript" Góngora writes el cansancio. not the al cansancio which features in later versions. This changed the meaning considerably. Versos 682 - 86 contain one lengthy statement. (Lines 682 - 86 do not contain any obscurity.)

Jammes published in 1984 an early version of the first 779 verses of the Soledad primera. This document was discovered by Prof. Antonio Rodríguez - Moñino.(2)

termino [...] da el sueño al regusijo (3)

mas el cansancio no, que el movimiento

verdugo de las fuerzas es prolijo.(4)

Los fuegos ciento a ciento,

(que quanto mas freneticos mas sanos

amenazaban aun los aires vanos)

condenandolos van a muerte obscura

las remisiones de su calentura

[...]

(1) Términos (nouns: limits, ends) refer to recocijo ánd to el cansancio which does not end: another gongoresque contradiction. (In an earlier version he states termino.)  Verdugo is a very agressive bird used in the hunt. Tiniebla obscura is gongoresque humor: the "a" sound.

(2) A handwritten copy was published in Criticón no. 27, 1984.

Toulouse Le Mirail: University of Toulouse.

(3) The noun is difficult to decipher in the handwritten manuscript. A photo would have been better, but the códice which contained the text may have been complex to handle.

(4) Prolijo = Culteranism.  Like armies the tongues of flames compete with the Sun to create fake daylight. The fires end up creating their own graves.

(4) Should el prolijo movimiento verdugo de las fuerzas be interpreted as a sleepless night caused by music and dance?

 LA SOLEDAD PRIMERA:

VERSOS 687 - 700

 

"in which trees intend to read each other's love letters"

 

Vence la noche al fin, y triunfa mudo

el silencio, aunque breve, del rüido:

       sólo gime ofendido

el sagrado laurel del hierro agudo;

deja de su esplendor, deja desnudo

de su frondosa pompa al verde aliso

       el golpe no remiso

       del villano membrudo;

       el que resistir pudo

al animoso Austro, al Euro ronco,

chopo gallardo --cuyo liso tronco

papel fue de pastores, aunque rudo--

a revelar secretos va a la aldea,

que impide Amor que aun otro chopo lea.(1)

 

 

The fragment above does not contain any obscurity. Any reader will understand what Góngora wrote down. The text is so good; it should not be interpreted at all.

(1) The "Rodríguez - Moñino" manuscript is similar except in the following lines.

692: De su frondosa pompa el verde aliso.

696: al animoso austro, al auro ronco

697: al chopo gallardo cuio liso tronco

698: papel fue de pastores, y no rudo

 

 

 

The Dedication

Góngora wrote the Dedication (to honour his sponsor) after he had finalized a consirable part of the Soledades. Some critics interprete the first line as follows:

Pasos de un peregrino son errante

The footsteps of a wandering pilgrim sound

I do not agree with this interpretation. Góngora could have written Pasos de un peregrino son errantes, but this would have been too predictable. (Did he mean son errante or peregrino errante?) From his travels on mule he would have known that pilgrims do not produce any sounds at all.  What becomes clear in the Dedication is that he only transmits the versos, not the pasos.(1) (The pilgrim in the main part is not the same pilgrim as the one in the Dedication).

N.B. Góngora does produce sound in his poetry, in particular with the vowels.

(1) Perdidos unos, otros inspirados: the steps and the verses.

.

The Duke's Palace (Béjar, Castile).

Góngora was sponsored by the sixth Duke of Béjar to write his Soledades. Most of the castle still exists but is not open to the public (except a camara-oscura exhibition in the right tower, which does not offer any view of the castle inside).

On my third visit I managed to get into the Palace, helped by a local person.

The Patio.

Fountain.

Béjar today.

The people of Béjar seem to pronounce the town as Bejar (with the accent on the a). It is very likely that Góngora entered the town from the other side of the castle (not restored). The gates were there, on the road to Baños de Montemayor, Plasencia and Trujillo.

Picture taken in Béjar by Jack de Groot

The other side of the castle.

Pictures of Góngora are published on the Internet. Only three or four are real. Why the Palace remains closed is not clear. The town has little more to offer. Maybe the underground part of the Palace is too dangerous to enter. A lot more research could be done, but: by whom? It seems that a "Requiem por un campesino mentality" still dominates this part of Spain, also in Salamanca. People call this area "The Forgotten Spain".  N.B. The medical services of Castilla y León have always been good, in particular to the pilgrims! (Ponferrada, Villafranca del Bierzo, Cacabelos, Carrión de los Condes, Frómista). 

Students ask me to translate the Solitudes to English. This will be difficult because Góngora wrote lyrical poetry larded with concept. Consider the fact that academics worldwide have studied Góngora's poetry for 400 years, and still continue.  How many years would be required to translate a part of it? And: at what cost?(1) 

    

(1) In the first Solitude (lines 680 - 86) Góngora describes a campfire as follows: a beautiful text to be read in Spanish. (Dámaso Alonso states that some parts of the Soledades might never be completely understood.)

Los fuegos - cuyas lenguas, ciento a ciento,

desmintieron la noche algunas horas,

cuyas luces, del Sol competidoras,

fingieron día en la tiniebla obscura -

murieron, y en sí mismos sepultados

sus miembros, en cenizas desatados,

piedras son de su mismo sepultura.

(*) Good articles:

McGow, John R., "Review of Intertextuality through Obscurity in the Poetry of Federico García Lorca and Luis de Góngora. Author: Jack de Groot." In: Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. University of Washington, Tomo XXXVIII, número 3, October 2004. pp. 595 - 96. (Review written at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee). Unlike other critics Prof. McGow read and understood the entire text.

McGrady, Donald, "Otra vez el soneto <<descaminado, enfermo, peregrino>> de Góngora." In: AISO, Actas II, 1990 Centro Virtual Cervantes. Written at the University of Virginia.