Rafael Cansinos Asséns (November 24, 1882 – July 6, 1964) was a Spanish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

ist,

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

and translator.

Biography

Censinos was born in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

on November 24, 1882. Through his father's paternal line, he is related to the

Cansino Family The Cansino family is a prominent Sephardic Jewish family originally from Oran, Algeria. The family progenitor Jacob Cansino served as an interpreter at Oran, a Spanish colony in northwestern Africa, under Charles V, until 1556, when he was ...

and

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...

. Cansinos was a polyglot; he translated ''

The Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' into Spanish, as well as the works of

Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

, and the complete works of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

for the publisher Aguilar. He was among the contributors of the Madrid-based avant-garde magazine ''

Prometeo ''Prometeo'' (''Prometheus'') is an "opera" by Luigi Nono, written between 1981 and 1984 and revised in 1985. Here the word "opera" carries the generic Italian meaning of "works", as in work of art, and not its usual meaning. Indeed, Nono scornf ...

''. In the lectures he gave in 1967 at Harvard,

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

mentioned him as one of his masters, and expressed wonder to the fact that he has been forgotten.

Works

Essays

*''El candelabro de los siete brazos Psalmos'' ("The Seven Arm Candelabra: Psalmos"), 1914 *''El divino fracaso'' ("The divine failure"), 1918 *''España y los judíos españoles'' ("Spain and the Spanish Jews"), 1920 *''Salomé en la literatura'' ("Salomé in literature"), 1920 *''Ética y estética de los sexos'' ("Ethics and aesthetics of the sexes"), 1921 *''Los valores eróticos en las religiones: El amor en el Cantar de los Cantares''("Erotic Values in Religions: Love in the Song of Songs"), 1930 *''La Copla Andaluza'' ("La Copla Andaluza"), 1936 *''Mahoma y el Korán'' ("Muhammad and the Koran"),

Compilations

*''Antología de poetas persas'' ("Anthology of Persian poets"), *''Bellezas del Talmud'' ("Beauties of the Talmud"), 1919

Novels

*''La encantadora'' ("The lovely"), 1916 *''El eterno milagro'' ("The eternal miracle"), 1918 *''La madona del carrusel'' ("The Madonna of the Carousel"), 1920 *''En la tierra florida'' ("In the flowery land"), 1920 *''La huelga de los poetas''("The poets' strike"), 1921 *''Las luminarias de Hanukah''("The Hanukah Luminaries"), 1924

References

External links

* 1882 births 1964 deaths Spanish Jews Converts to Judaism Spanish literary critics Spanish essayists Spanish translators Arabic–Spanish translators German–Spanish translators French–Spanish translators English–Spanish translators Russian–Spanish translators Spanish male poets 20th-century Spanish poets 20th-century translators Male essayists 20th-century Spanish male writers 20th-century essayists Translators of One Thousand and One Nights Translators of Fyodor Dostoyevsky Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Translators of William Shakespeare Writers from Seville {{Andalusia-bio-stub