Selected Writings (Dario, Ruben) (62 page)

However, I would also appreciate some benevolent words from you regarding my cultural efforts. I would not say that you have been taken seriously at any point in your human career, because those who are born to be national leaders are always, to their great misfortune, victims of something even more serious: the influence of the life that surrounds them. And then, I am one of the few who have seen the poet in you. It doesn’t surprise me when people speak of your wisdom or your work as a professor. Your role in the university makes one a believer of these ideas, and one should never scorn the truly convincing power of science. But who, besides the poets, would see the gift of poetry in this kind of man? And in terms of how this relates to me, a consecration of a life such as mine deserves some regard.

The independence and severity of your way of being announce you as a man of justice. Sober and isolated in your family happiness, you should try to understand those who do not have such advantages.

You are a spiritual director. Your concerns about eternal and final matters oblige you to seek justice and kindness. Please, then, be just and good.

RUBÉN DARÍO

 

To Santiago Argüello
Madrid, January 12, 1909

 

My Dear Santiago:

Thanks for your letter of December 31. I’m glad that
La Torre de Marfil
is being published again, protected now by the Government. I will see about getting friends to contribute, and I will send you what I can. For now, I’m sending you some poems that I published in the
Heraldo
about the catastrophe in Italy.

I really appreciate your good conversations with the General. Others might have had bad ones. In any case, you will understand that, with my character and nerves, it’s not very comfortable to live trying to keep my balance perpetually on a tightrope.

I know the person who, with good reason, you call a “boiling pot of intrigues in the circle of our Government.” But you’re wrong when you speak of my “trusting illusion of a poet’s soul and a good man.” To believe that I am lost in the clouds is a general mistake, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to contradict this too much.
Homo sum.
And, besides, if you take a close look, I’m a little bourgeois. So, don’t think that anything that could happen would surprise me. After all, you’ve seen how I live and what life is like in Madrid. For everything, they give me 1,000 pesetas, and the new Minister of Relations tells me that from that sum official cablegrams must be paid. . . . You might ask, “But why don’t you resign?” The answer: So I don’t give satisfaction to those you graphically call reptiles. You’re no doubt aware that Medina is the person who pays my salary. Well, for the last four months, I haven’t received a cent! All this time I’ve had to use my scarce resources, that barely cover me as Rubén Darío, to maintain the decorum of the Ministry of Nicaragua before his Royal Catholic Majesty. And what if I were to tell you that I had to sell (at a terribly low price) a copy of
Páginas escogidas
and my piano in order to make do in this situation? Despite the dignity of the position and the official treatment, this is all hardly enviable, as you can see. I’ve stopped asking and I don’t complain, but I am keeping records of my expenses in case something happens later.

On to an urgent matter. My book entitled
El viaje a Nicaragua,
which, for a long time, has been appearing in
La Nación
in Buenos Aires, will soon appear [in Spanish and] simultaneously in London. I’m talking about everything. Naturally, in the sections on intellectuals, I write a great deal about you. For the English edition, which will be illustrated, I need you to send to me, as soon as possible, photographs of landscapes, monuments, and national personalities. I have a good portrait of you. But I don’t have any of the President, or Luis, or other people. I also need some portraits of beautiful women. So, please send me one of doña Blanca and others, of course, beginning the list with your house. This is a rush job since I have already signed a contract with the editor.

I also urge you, as my friend, to send me
La isla de oro,
which remained with you and from which you published a chapter.

I haven’t heard anything from Luis. I sent him an urgent cable, which he answered, promising a letter. I hope to God that his silence doesn’t have anything to do with some family sickness.

Wishing you happiness, and with cordial greetings to your family, I remain fraternally yours,

RUBÉN DARÍO

 

Madrid, June 11, 1908

 

Dr. D. Rodolfo Espinosa
Minister of Foreign Relations, Managua

 

I have the honor of communicating to Your Excellency that, after a short stay in Paris, I moved to Madrid and took up provisional residence in the Gran Hotel de Paris.

On the day following my arrival, I made the indispensable calls to the Secretary of State and to the Introducer of Embassadors, both of whom returned them immediately. On June 2, the day indicated by his Royal Majesty the King, according to communications I received through the office of the Secretary of State, on the 1st of the current month, at 7:45 P.M., I was received in a solemn Audience for the presentation of my Credentials as Resident Minister of the Republic of Nicaragua in this Court. From the Royal Palace, two coaches were sent, in keeping with standard protocol—one of half-gala, which corresponds to my position as Resident Minister, and another out of respect. Immediately, the committee was organized in the Hotel de Paris, and I went in the first coach, accompanied by the Introducer of Embassadors and the Head Stableman. I returned to my residence, where I showed them the honors that put an end to the ceremony.

Afterwards, I made the usual call to the Secretary of State, who greeted me with deference.

I requested Audiences from the Secretary of State to greet the princes for an appropriate time in the future. I will not be able to do this until the autumn since they are currently away from Madrid. Upon their return, they will be here only a short time, whereupon they will leave to spend the summer months on the beaches in the north.

I would also like to inform you that the Legation has been installed at Calle Serrano, 27.

Hoping, Mr. Minister, that the first act of my mission meets with the approval of our Supreme Government, I have the honor of submitting this to Your Excellency.

Sincerely,

R. D.

 

(September, 1910)

 

My Dear Manuel Ugarte:

You have an up-to-date knowledge of the events that were provoked in Mexico due to my arrival as a diplomatic representative of Nicaragua at the celebration of the Mexican Centennial as well as the commentaries about this that appeared in
The Times
of London and the press in the U.S.A.

The new government of Nicaragua, in its violent organization, has not had time yet to send me my letter of resignation as Minister before the Spanish Court. I doubt that Nicaragua will be a dependent of the United States. And I say this despite what the newspapers maintain and what the origins of the Nicaraguan revolution that the new government has put in place would lead one to believe. Since I have no desire to be a Yankee, and since the Republic of Argentina has been, for me, my intellectual motherland, and since when I published my
Canto a la Argentina
the press of that beloved country clamored that I be given Argentine
citizenship,
I want to do this, should do it and can indeed become an Argentine citizen.

Since you, my dear friend, have done so much for our Latin America, I am communicating to you my determination to do this.

You know how much I have loved the Río de la Plata and I know that, there, everyone will approve of my preference for the Sun of the South over the Stars of the North.

RUBÉN DARÍO

 

To Rodolfo Espinosa

 

Legation of Nicaragua
Confidential
29-12-1911

 

Your Excellency:

Despite the confidential communications of June 22 and the 11th of the current month, in which I requested that the President of the Republic officially declare my current diplomatic status as representative of our Republic before His Majesty the King of Spain, neither I nor the Spanish Government has received any announcement regarding my resignation. For this reason, I feel obliged to directly inform Your Excellency that this irregular situation has produced consequences that our Government cannot ignore. I cannot remain indifferent either, since this is really about the good name and the credit of the Republic.

However painful it may be, I find myself obliged to break the silence that I had been determined to keep in terms of how this affects me personally, limiting myself to point out, respectfully and as an individual, the disdainful role played by our country[. . .]concerning the aforementioned lack of official documentation regarding my resignation.

But there is still something more, Mr. Minister.

When I carried out the mission that the previous Government of Nicaragua requested of me in Mexico, I was forced, due to the anomalous circumstances, to compromise my personal credit to the sum of 20,000 pesetas, money that was used to pay my salary as Minister. I mention this especially since the Government of General Zelaya already owed me three months of wages. From that time to this very day, I have received as an allotment for my trip to Mexico only 5,000 francs that the ex-Minister in Paris, Don Crisanto Medina gave me.

If I had the money to cover this debt to individuals, some of whom are foreigners, I would gladly sacrifice it for the good name of the Republic. But, unfortunately, this is not the case, and my creditors threaten to take the matter to court.

If this were to happen, I would have no choice but to transfer to them my credit with this republic, which, officially speaking, currently owes me twenty-nine months of salary that I have not received. I reiterate that neither I nor the Spanish Government has yet received any communication regarding my resignation.

In this sense, allow me to direct Your Excellency’s attention to this matter, assuring you once again that only the extreme urgency of the situation forces me to take this step, which I sincerely would have preferred to avoid for the convenience of the republic and the tranquility of our Government.

This is also why I have given this note a confidential classification.

I hope that Your Excellency understands this letter and accepts the major concerns I have in keeping with the honor I have of serving you.

Sincerely,

R. D.

 

To Francisca Sánchez (in Barcelona)
Guatemala, August 12, 1915

 

My dear Francisca:

I have not written to you sooner because, once again, I have been at death’s door. I look like a skeleton and I can barely walk. There have been complications with my illness here. It requires a great deal of care and I’m not supposed to work. I went to confession. I live on what the President gives me. For months, I haven’t earned a thing, and if I can send you money, it’s thanks to the nobleness of that woman whom you call my wife,
¹¹⁵
who came when I was about to die upon the advice of the Archbishop of Nicaragua. She is the first one to tell me that my top priority should be taking care of you and our son, and she has lent me money to send you. I have taken the necessary steps to request that the President give me sufficient funds so that you receive a pension each month. If I live, I will always watch over you and Güichín, and if I die, his education will be assured.

You’ve never had confidence in me. I forgive you. The actions will speak for themselves, whether or not I return to Europe.

Rubén Darío Trigueros
¹¹⁶
was here. He left. He’s a scoundrel. I didn’t receive the First Communion portrait of Güichín. Tell him that I am going to write and send him more postcards. Be strong. Eat well. Buy some hens. I always remember you and I pray to God for both of you. I will also write to my excellent friend Mr. Terán. But this will be all for today. I embrace you and I will never forget you,

TATAY

 

P.S. Go to confession and take communion. Now you will be able to do it. Soon I will get more money to send you.

 

Managua, first week of January, 1916

 

Mr. Emilio Mitre y Vedia
Director of
La Nación
Buenos Aires

 

I find myself in my motherland, sick.

The doctors are all wrong: some think I have tuberculosis, others think it is dropsy, and some even think I’m half-crazy. . . . I really want to get a little better so that I can go to the countryside, enjoy the solitude and some good food and ride a burro like Sileno to the sun and feel the breeze in the hills. Or, if I can’t recover, I’ll opt for the Epicurean life—until I explode! I get exhausted thinking about the situation of my son in Europe, in misery, abandoned. And Francisca! Ah, this is terrible!

I want to thank you for the opportune check you sent, which reached me in New York at a dramatic moment. I will never forget
La Nación
or, you, my noble friend. It makes me cry when I think about never seeing Argentina again! I ask you to watch over my son, alone now. He will be my only heir. I say good-bye to you with the appreciation that I owe you for all your care and attention. I have served
La Nación
with all my thought and also you with my most devoted respect.

RUBÉN DARÍO

GLOSSARY

Rubén Darío’s esthetic constellation extends in every direction: into philosophy, European and Latin American history and politics, the Bible, ancient mythology, geography, academia, literature and the arts. The effort has been made to note significant references that were current in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: