El Viaje Definitivo
Y yo me iré. Y se quedarán los pájaros cantando. Y se quedará mi huerto con su verde árbol, y con su pozo blanco. Todas las tardes el cielo será azul y plácido, y tocarán, como esta tarde están tocando, las campanas del campanario. Se morirán aquellos que me amaron y el pueblo se hará nuevo cada año; y en el rincón secreto de mi huerto florido y encalado, mi espíritu errará, nostáljico... Y yo me iré, y estaré solo, sin hogar, sin árbol verde, sin pozo blanco, sin cielo azul y plácido... Y se quedarán los pájaros cantando.
The Definitive Journey
Translation by Lila Robertson, 2002
...and I will be gone. And the birds will still be singing, and here will stay my field, with it’s tree so green and it’s white well. Every evening, the sky will blue and peaceful, and the bells will play, like they play this evening, together in the church tower. Those, the ones who loved me, will die, and the village will become new with each year, and in that corner of my flowered and whitewashed field my spirit will wander longingly... And I will be gone, and I’ll be alone, with no home, without any tree so green, without any a white well… without a blue and peaceful sky… And the birds will still be singing.
He was born in Moguer, Spain. He first wanted to be a painter, studied law at University of Seville but he never activated as a lawyer. He became a Professor of Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Puerto Rico and also taught at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and at the University of Maryland. His true vocation was poetry and he spent his entire life searching for it’s “purity”, lyricism and beauty. His poems are pantheistic, full of colors, symbols and emotions and search for truth and musicality. His prose work “Platero y yo” written in 1914 inspired Mario’s Castelnuovo-Tedesco classical guitar composition with the same name in 1960 and his poem “El viaje definitivo” (“The Last Journey”) was used in Carlos’ Castaneda novel “Journey to Ixtlan” in 1972. In 1956 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity".
If you want to learn more about Juan Ramón Jiménez visit his Wikipedia page.