Rafael Pombo: Biography


Poet, journalist, translator and Colombian engineer. He was born on November 7, 1833, in Santafe de Bogota, and died there himself on May 5, 1912. He entered the Seminary of Bogotá, where he studied Latin, and then at the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, where he studied humanities. He received the degree of mathematics and engineering at the military college. He traveled to the United States, where he remained for seventeen years and then returned to their homeland. Due to lack of vocation, he left engineer career to engage in diplomacy and then to politics. In 1872 he was appointed Perpetual Secretary of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua. He translated poems from the Greek, latin, English, French and Italian.

As a journalist, Pombo founded various national newspapers, such as El Cartucho and El Centro; He directed the Thomist and collaborated in La Siesta, El Heraldo, El Obrero, the new age and the Chronicles. Pombo is recognized as the best exponent of romanticism in his country. The central themes of his poetry were God, nature and women. He cultivated all lyrical genres from high Ode to the tiny Epigram, and has passed to the history of the Colombian literature as "the poet of the children". In 1905 put it the honor of being declared the poet of Colombia.De his numerous works include the following: Fables and truths (1916), painted tales, prelude to spring, time of darkness, at Niagara, tales for formal children, love and marriage, military Vademecum, accounting Spanish libretto, new method of reading, the alphabet, Doña Pánfaga (poetic play with esdrújulas words).


 



What did I learn from Rafael?