Juan Ruiz

Juan Ruiz Poems

Juan Ruiz Biography

Juan Ruiz (ca. 1283 - ca. 1350), known as the Archpriest of Hita (Arcipreste de Hita), was a medieval Spanish poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love). The Book of Good Love Libro de Buen Amor (Book of Good Love) is a massive and episodic work that combines poems to Jesus and Mary; Ruiz's unrequited love , and fables. The poem itself is 1,728 stanzas long). The breadth of the writer's scope, and the exuberance of his style have caused some to term him "the Spanish Chaucer." Speculation regarding whether or not the book was actually an autobiography is incessant. His language is characterized by its richness and its sermon-like tendency to repeat the same concept in several different ways. Noted for being very creative and alive, his work utilizes colloquial, popular vocabulary. His natural gifts were supplemented by his varied culture; he clearly had a considerable knowledge of the colloquial (and perhaps also of literary) Arabic widely spoken in the Spain of his time; his classical reading was apparently not extensive, but he knew by heart the Disticha of Dionysius Cato, and admits his indebtedness to Ovid and to the De Amore ascribed to Pamphilus; his references to Blanchefleur, to Tristan and to Yseult, indicate an acquaintance with French literature, and he utilizes the fabliaux with remarkable deftness; lastly, he adapts fables and apologues from Aesop, from Pedro Alfonso's Disciplina clericalis, and from medieval bestiaries. All these heterogeneous materials are fused in the substance of his versified autobiography, into which he intercalates devout songs, parodies of epic or forensic formulae, and lyrical digressions on every aspect of life. He shows a profound knowledge of human emotion and is able to strike a balance between gentleness and brazenness in his shrewd and frequently ironic writing. Ruiz, in fact, offers a complete picture of picaresque society in the most complex and rich cultural geography of Europe during the first half of the 14th century, and his impartial irony lends a deeper tone to his rich coloring. He knows the weaknesses of both clergy and laity, and he dwells with equal complacency on the amorous adventures of great ladies, on the perverse intrigues arranged by demure nuns behind their convent walls, and on the simpler instinctive animalism of country lasses and Moorish dancing-girls. In addition to the faculty of genial observation Ruiz has the gift of creating characters and presenting types of human nature: from his Don Furón is derived the hungry gentleman in Lazarillo de Tormes, in Don Melón and Doña Endrina he anticipates Calisto and Melibea in the Celestina, and Celestina herself is developed from the Trotaconventos of Ruiz. Moreover, Ruiz was justly proud of his metrical innovations: the Libro de buen amor is mainly written in the cuaderna via modelled on the French alexandrine, but he imparts to the measure a variety and rapidity previously unknown in Spanish, and he experiments by introducing internal rhymes or by shortening the fourth line into an octosyllabic verse; or he boldly recasts the form of the stanza, extending it to six or seven lines with alternate verses of eight and five syllables. But his technical skill never sinks to triviality. All his writing bears the stamp of a unique personality, and, if he never attempts a sublime flight, he conveys with contagious force his enthusiasm for life under any conditions — in town, country, vagabondage or gaol. Johan Ruys (original spelling), arcipreste de la Hita, was imprisoned by the Inquisition for a few years due to his one-sided love affair with a lady of the nobility. In our modern society, he would have been charged with "harassment". He is said to have died 7 or 8 years after his release from the Inquisition's holding facility. There are today three manuscripts of the Libro de Buen Amor. The Salamanca version, denoted S, resides in Madrid's Biblioteca Real and is considered the best of the three codices. The other two are the Academia Española version, known as Gayoso (G), and the Toledo (T) manuscript.)

The Best Poem Of Juan Ruiz

De Las Propiedades Que Las Duenas Chicas Han

Quiero abreviarvos, señores, la mi predicación,
ca siempre me pagé de pequeño sermón
e de dueña pequeña e de breve rrasón:
ca lo poco e bien dicho finca en el coraçón.

Del que mucho fabla rríen, quien mucho rríe es loco,
tyene la dueña chica amor grand e non de poco:
dueñas dy grandes por chicas, por grandes chicas non troco;
mas las chicas por las grandes non se rrepiente del troco.

De las chicas, que bien diga, el amor me fiso rruego,
que diga de sus noblesas e quiérolas dezir luego:
direvos de dueñas chicas, que lo tenedes en juego.
Son frías como la nieve e arden más que'l fuego:

son frías de füera; en el amor ardientes,
en cama solaz, trebejo, plasenteras e rrientes.
En casa cuerdas, donosas, sosegadas, bienfasyentes;
muncho ál fallaredes, ado byen paredes mientes.

En pequeña girgonça yase grand rresplandor,
en açúcar muy poco yase mucho dulçor:
en la dueña pequeña yase muy grand amor:
pocas palabras cunple al buen entendedor.

Es pequeño el grano de la buena pimienta;
pero más que la nues conorta e más calyenta:
así dueña pequeña, sy todo amor consienta,
non ha plaser del mundo qu'en ella non se sienta.

Como en chica rrosa está mucha color,
e en oro muy poco grand preçio e grand valor,
como en poco bálsamo yase grand buen olor:
ansý en chica dueña yase muy grand amor.

Como rroby pequeño tyene muncha bondad,
color, vertud e precio, noblesa e claridad:
asý dueña pequeña tiene muncha beldad,
fermosura e donayre, amor e lealtad.

Chica es la calandria e chico el rroysyñor;
pero más dulçe canta, que otra ave mayor:
la muger, por ser chica, por eso non es pior;
con doñeo es más dulce, que açúcar nin flor.

Son aves pequeñuelas papagayo e orior;
pero cualquiera dellas es dulçe gritador,
adonada, fermosa, preçiada, cantador:
bien atal es la dueña pequeña con amor.

En la muger pequena non ha conparación:
terrenal paraýso es e consolaçión,
solás e alegría, plaser e bendiçión,
¡mijor es en la prueva qu'en la salutaçión!

Ssyempre quis' muger chica, más que grand' nin mayor:
¡non es desaguisado de grand mal ser foydor!
Del mal, tomar lo menos: díselo el sabidor:
¡ por end' de las mugeres la menor es mijor!

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