Page:Darío - Eleven Poems.djvu/15

 that the ideals of Spanish America were worthy of his poetry. And, as he upheld the ideals of Spanish America, and the traditions of the whole Spanish race; since he sang hymns to the Cid, founder of the old mother country, and to the master spirits of the new countries, like Mitre of Argentina, both Spain and Spanish America saw in him their representative poet.

Rubén Darío was born near León, in the Republic of Nicaragua, the 18th of January, 1867, and died in that city on the 6th of February, 1916. He received his education there, but went abroad in his twentieth year. He visited nearly all the countries of the Western Hemisphere and travelled extensively in Europe since 1892. He lived many years at Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Paris. At Madrid he was at one time the Minister of Nicaragua.

He visited the United States, in a short trip, in 1893, and again during the winter of 1914 and 1915. He was then honored by several literary bodies of New York, such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Authors' League. The Hispanic Society of America awarded him its honorary medal. Many of his poems, and some of his short stories and articles, have been translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German and the Scandinavian languages.

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