Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1956, Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez was popular as the creator of ‘pure poetry’.
His famous works are La soledad sonora (Revista de Archivos, 1911), Platero y yo (Ediciones de la Lectura, 1914), Diario de un poeta recién casado (Casa Editorial Calleja, 1917), Canción (Editorial Signo, 1935), and Animal de fondo (Editorial Pleamar, 1949).
In the poem “I Am Not I”, Juan Ramon Jimenez writes about how there is a real self as well as an illusory self. The idea here is to identify that we humans can have more than one face according to our situations and to the people we meet and interact everyday. Some faces can be real, some are fake. Jimenez writes about the self who he really is. He goes on and explains how he is truly one and not the other self.
I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
the one who remains silent while I talk,
the one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
the one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
the one who will remain standing when I die.
by Juan Ramón Jiménez
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