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Friday, January 14, 2011

The Road Less Traveled...





"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads.  
Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it."
                                                                                                     
                                                                                                     Rosalia de Castro

Rosalia de Castro was a poet in Spain in the mid 1800's.  She was a native of Santiago de Compostela in the Galician region of Northwest Spain.  She was the illegitimate daughter of a priest and a bourgeois woman at a time when the disgrace of being illegitimate was second only to being the "sacrilegious" child of a priest.  She was highly educated, yet chose to write most in her native  Galician.  At the time, her writing was discredited in Castilian society as the Galician dialect was considered  a dialect "fit only for the illiterate and the churlish".   Outside of Castilian society she was celebrated for reviving Galician literature and the day that she published Cantares Gallegos (Galician Songs) is celebrated in Spain as Dia das Letras Galegas...Galician Literature Day.  Her renown came after her life as it often does with great artists who "push the envelope" and she lived in relative poverty and sadness.  She was a staunch supporter of women's rights and opposed the abuse of authority.  She was a contemporary of Emily Dickinson. 

If you would like to read more about Rosalia, click here, here or here.  

Now, while I would like to take credit for knowing about her before I found her quote in ThinkExist.com, I'd never heard of her before.  So, of course, I googled her.  I rather liked what I read about her and thought it made the quote fit that much more.  Can't say I'll ever read her works, as (dare I say it?)...I'm not much of a poetry reader... 
                                 

6 comments:

  1. K, love your photo and the quote fits perfectly... I do not know how I ever existed before "research on the internet" was available. So glad you checked her out and gave us the links.

    Hope that your sister continues to improve... glad to see you back.

    Bises,
    Genie

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  2. I have just written her "wisdom" and name in my diary.
    Very nice photo and text. Thanks for sharing!:)
    Have a nice weekend!

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  3. Thank you Genie and Gunn! I picked this quote because I relate our "Grand Adventure" up here in Mammoth as a road that we've been inspired to travel, but don't know where it's going to lead...

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  4. Oh, how interesting. I'll visit the links.

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  5. That's a perfect quote and a stunning photo. And Rosalia de Castro - even her name is poetic.

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