The 19th century, and more specifically romanticism, revalued the baroque aesthetic. From that moment on, many authors and works of those times were read with interest and surprise, because neoclassical prejudices had been overcome, and the great literary quality contained in baroque excesses could be seen. The culterana beauty of gongorathe dazzling intelligence of Quevedoetc.
In this way, many works began to be published that aroused the interest of the reading public and that had been forgotten.
And so, at the end of the 19th century, a sonnet was published that would immediately become famous, not only in Spanish-speaking countries, but in many other nations interested in Hispanic culture. It was even translated into most learned languages with high praise. Since then it has enjoyed great prestige and is considered one of the most famous and valuable sonnets in the Spanish language.
UNKNOWN AUTHOR
From those already distant dates of the end of the 19th century, it was said that the author was unknown. However, some risked some authorship and it was attributed to San Juan de Ávila, San Francisco Xavier, Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Ignacio de Loyola, among others, in addition to other unknown characters.
But in the middle of the 20th century, Alfonso Méndez Plancarte, a great expert in New Spanish poetry, questioned these theories. In general, the reasons for which these attributions had been made were due to the fact that the previously mentioned writers had written poetry in the 16th century, a time in which mysticism was cultivated, a genre from which the sonnet clearly drinks. But there is no evidence to prove that it was written in that century.
“As for the famous sonnet ‘My God does not move me to love you’, which in many devotional books goes under the name of Saint Teresa, and in others under the name of Saint Francis Xavier (who pointed out a very similar idea in one of his Latin works) It is known that there is not the slightest foundation to attribute such a high origin to it; and despite its poetic beauty, and the fervent and delicate thought (which, misunderstood by the French quietists, served as a text for their theory of pure and disinterested love), we must resign ourselves to having it as the work of some obscure friar , whose name may be revealed to us by future investigations.”
The name of said dark friar was revealed thirty-four years later.
DISCOVERY OF CARREÑO
Cover of Literary jewels of the seventeenth century, found in Mexico by Alberto María Carreño, 1915.
Carreño found these verses in a manuscript entitled Doctrinal art and general way to learn the Matlalzinga language, dated 1638. Its author is the friar of the Order of San Agustín Miguel de Guevarawho lived at the end of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th.
This is how Carreño describes his discovery of the poem and who its author was:
“Among the extremely valuable manuscripts that the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics possesses (…) there is one that has this cover:
‘Doctrinal Art and mode Gl. To learn the Matlaltzinga language, To administer the holy sacraments so To confess, cassar i Preach it with the Difiniscion of sacramentis And other necessary cossas To Clear it i understand it By the most ordinary And common versed manner i Glmte. To not Obscure in his intelligence.
Made And ordained By Father Fray Miguel de Gueuara Minister Preacher i Euangelico Operator in the three Languages q Glmente run Mexican Tharasca and Matlatzinga in this Prouincia of Michhuacan. Present Prior Of the conuent of St. James Athatzithaquaro. Year of 1638′.
I was preparing to study it in order to write the respective prologue before giving it to the press, as I have done with the other manuscripts I have published, when I found on page 8 the famous sonnet: ‘My God, I am not moved to love you’” .
At first, the discovery went unnoticed by Carreño. With the passing of the days and a subsequent reflection, he understood the ultimate meaning of such a finding.
AUTHORSHIP CONCLUSIONS
In more than three hundred pages, the Mexican scholar organizes his exposition until he reaches the conclusion that the author of the famous poem cannot be other than the same writer of the manuscript: Fray Miguel de Guevara.
There are plenty of arguments to argue that said poem included in the manuscript cannot be from another author, but from the person who transcribed it. Carreño summarized his position and defense stating that his hypothesis is supported by seven statements, which are: Only one codex is known, the one owned by the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics, original by Fray Miguel de Guevara, and dated 1638. Before there is no trace or news of the sonnet. It has been shown that it was not written by any of the saints to whom it has been improperly attributed, nor is there any basis for judging it to be a work of the 16th century; and everything indicates that it should be taken as corresponding to the 17th century. Guevara’s compositions accredit him as a skillful versifier, deep thinker and poet. His book contains compositions among which is the sonnet and which, without a doubt, are by Guevara himself. The invoice of all the other compositions reveals that they are the same product as the sonnet, with which they are consonant in substance and form. The general culture of the men of letters in New Spain and especially of the Augustinian friars at the time Guevara wrote his book fully justifies his ability to compose the sonnet. Guevara gives the sonnet as his own work and, on the contrary, he had clearly expressed what works in his book did not come from his pen.
For Carreño there was no irrefutable proof that Guevara was the author of the sonnet. But no one could present better paternity rights to the poem than the friar, since “none of the compositions protected under the name of Fr. Miguel de Guevara, and which accompany the sonnet ‘Do not move me, my God, to love you’ has been published by another diverse writer, and that since the author of the Doctrinal Art also declares himself the author of those poetic compositions, we must take them as his”.
THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST
For those who do not know him or do not remember him well, here we transcribe the sonnet:
It does not move me, my God, to love you,
the heaven you have promised me;
nor does hell move me so feared
to stop offending you for that.
You move me, Lord; move me to see you
nailed to a cross and mocked;
It moves me to see your body so hurt;
I’m moved by your affronts and your death.
Move me, finally, your love, in such a way
that even if there was no heaven, I would love you,
and even if there were no hell, I feared you.
You don’t have to give me because I love you;
because although what I hope will not wait,
the same as I love you I would like you.
2023-08-22 11:14:01
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