20 Comments

Thank you for bringing this to my attention; I really enjoyed these aphorisms. I am excited to learn more about the man.

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Someone really needs to publish all his Escolios in English. Will take me a long time to work through translating them myself, but if noone has by time I'm done, maybe I shall.

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I've never read Dávila, I appreciate the tip. I've taught both El Cid and Don Quixote in my Spanish lit classes, they need to be held in higher esteem by anglophones.

As far as recommendations, you've been talking to the wrong people! (Although Neruda does delight me.) You want Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Octavio Paz. Especially Borges, if you love Tolkien.

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Thank you!

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Borges collected poetry is fantastic, Penguin has great bilingual editions of his poems and another of his short stories. He's known for his short stories. I like Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, and The Library of Babel. For Mario Vargas Llosa, Conversation in the Cathedral. For Paz, Libertad bajo palabra.

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Thank you, you've given me much to read.

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You're welcome. By the way, Borges was a scholar of anglo-saxon. He has much to say about Tolkien, anglo-saxon, and English. Audio too, you can find some on YouTube.

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Nice, I have actually seen a quote by him about what he liked about the English language.

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Do you have any specific works from those authors that you could point me at?

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Sep 14Liked by Cody Ilardo

Wow, thank you for the recommendation. I used to love Neruda, but reading this I am realizing that I haven’t revisited him since my conversion a few years ago. Perhaps the taste would be different to me now.

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Absolutely, I think I saw a few aphorisms in Davila about fashion and beauty that would be in line with your work. Yeah, I’ll have to check Neruda out more intentionally at some point.

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Sep 13Liked by Cody Ilardo

Neruda's love poems are very beautiful. I don't read him for his philosophy. That being the case, thanks for introducing me to Davila.

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Any specific ones you’d recommend?

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Sep 13Liked by Cody Ilardo

"Here I love you" and "Tonight I can write the saddest lines" are my favorite.

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Thank you for the recommendations, I’ll have to check them out

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Sep 14Liked by Cody Ilardo

I agree, such beautiful poems

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The Ascent of Mount Carmel is an ambitious climb.

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Haha ya I’m reading the translation, the 500 year old Spanish may be a later endeavor

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The Librarian sent me.

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Great post!

"But these small aphorisms are like the tips of icebergs."

Yes, which is why I believe that aphorisms are excellent language learning resources.

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