José Antonio Ramos Sucre (
Cumaná, 9 June 1890 –
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, 13 June 1930) was a
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
n poet,
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
,
diplomat and
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
. He was a member of the
Sucre family of Venezuela and the great-great-nephew of
Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá (; 3 February 1795 – 4 June 1830), known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" ( en, "Grand Marshal of Ayacucho"), was a Venezuelan independence leader who served as the president of Peru and as the second p ...
. He was educated at the Colegio Nacional, and then at the
Universidad Central de Venezuela
The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in ...
where he studied Law, Letters and Languages (ancient and modern
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
).
Non Literary Career
Upon finishing his studies, and becoming proficient in Portuguese, Latin, Danish, English, French, German, Italian and Swedish, he worked as a translator and interpreter at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela and later as Consul to Geneva where he died in 1930. At the same time, Ramos Sucre served as a Professor of World History, World Geography, History & Geography of Venezuela, Latin and Greek. He also briefly worked as a Civil Court judge.
Poetry and Works
He is best remembered however for his work in poetry and literature, amongst them:
* ''Trizas de papel'' (1921)
* ''Sobre las huellas de Humboldt'' (1923)
* ''La torre de Timón'' (1925)
* ''Las formas del fuego'' (1929)
* ''El cielo de esmalte'' (1929)
In 1956, the Venezuelan Ministry of Education published his work in the collection ''Biblioteca Popular Venezolana'', and in the 1960s he would become to the new generations one of the most valid references for excellence. He is remembered as ''"the poet of pain, a poet who felt a hypnotic fascination for the obscure and the abyss, a poet that suffers in his loneliness"'', according to the Venezuelan poet and literary critic Francisco Pérez Perdomo.
Honors
To honor his memory, the
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is t ...
, created the José Antonio Ramos Sucre Professorship of Venezuelan Literature and in 1999, the Fondo de Cultura Económica de México published the book ''Obra Poética'', comprising his poetic works, with a prologue by his cousin
Guillermo Sucre. His collected writings are also available in ''Obra completa'', edited by José Ramón Medina (Caracas: Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989) and ''Obra poética: Edición crítica'', edited by Alba Rosa Hernández Bossio (Paris: UNESCO/Colección Archivos, 2001).
In 2006, Venezuelan novelist Rubi Guerra was awarded the Premio de Novela Corta Rufino Blanco Fombona for his novella based on Ramos Sucre's final months in Europe, ''La tarea del testigo'' (Caracas: Fundación Editorial El perro y la rana, 2007). A second edition of ''La tarea del testigo'' was published in 2012 by Lugar Común in Caracas.
An English translation of his poetry appeared in 2012 under the title ''José Antonio Ramos Sucre: Selected Works'', selected and translated by Guillermo Parra and published by the University of New Orleans Press.
Translations
English
*
José Antonio Ramos Sucre: Selected Works', translated by
Guillermo Parra (New Orleans, LA:
University of New Orleans
The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...
Press, 2012).
*
José Antonio Ramos Sucre. Selected Works: expanded edition', translated by
Guillermo Parra (Las Cruces, NM:
Noemi Press
Noemi Press is an Small press, independent, Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) publisher. Noemi Press was founded in 2002 to publish and promote the work of emerging and established writers, with a special emphasis on writers traditionall ...
, 2016).
* José Antonio Ramos Sucre, ''From the Livid Country'', translated by Guillermo Parra (San Francisco, CA
Auguste Press 2012).
Other languages
French
* José Antonio Ramos Sucre,
Le chant inquiet. El canto anhelante', tr. François Migeot, (Caracas, Venezuela: Monte Ávila Editores/Massif Jurassien, France: L’Atelier du Grand Tétras, 2009).
Portuguese
* ''As formas do fogo'', anthology, bilingual edition, selected and translated by José Bento, Eugenio Montejo, forewords. Venezuelan Embassy, Lisbon, Publicações Dom Quixote, 1992, oclc 768341268.
* ''O mensageiro/El mensajero'', Floriano Martins (trans.),
', nº 1 (set/2010), Fpolis/Brasil, ISSN 2177-5141
External links
*
Obra completa (Caracas: Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989) - Free PDF file of Complete Works of Ramos Sucre *
Ramos Sucre Portal at Cervantes Virtual*
El Insomne Visionario - Ramos Sucre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramos Sucre
People from Cumaná
Venezuelan male writers
1890 births
1930 suicides
Central University of Venezuela alumni
Central University of Venezuela faculty
20th-century poets
20th-century male writers
Suicides in Switzerland
Venezuelan people of Portuguese descent