Platero y yo/ Platero and I

In this series of autobiographical prose poems, Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez playfully and lovingly paints an evocative picture of early-20th century life in rural Andalucia. Through his conversations and adventures with his donkey Platero, Jimenez shares with readers details of his young life in the village of Moguer, but with this early publication, Jimenez also asserts the strength and character of the poetic voice he would develop over the next 44 years of his career. As the Nobel committee stated when awarding Jimenez the prize in 1956, "His later style, decisive, formally ascetic, and dominated by white, emerges in the poetic prose of his delicate PLATERO Y YO." Resonating with the work of Cervantes, this is a classic of modern Spanish literature.