Mariano Melgar

Today , Peruvians remember with pride the great writer and patriot Lorenzo Mariano Melgar Arequipa Valdivieso , who gave his life to the cause of the Independence of Peru .

Born in Arequipa, the August 10, 1790 ,

Mariano Melgar had a brilliant mind , so

much so that at 3 years was literate , at 8 years

mastered Latin and before the age of 10 knew English and

French.

After receiving the minor orders in the

Seminary San Jerónimo , because I thought becoming a priest , he left the

priesthood when he falls for Manuelita Walls , who in his

verses called ' Melissa ' and for

whom he wrote his famous ' Sonnet to

Women

But then he wrote his famous yaravíes , a mestizo , sweet and sad poetic genre , and did inspired by Maria Santos Corrales, ' Silvia ' Mariano Melgar was clear that the independence of Peru , that would bring the people's freedom , was the mission of their life.

Melgar returned to Arequipa in 1814 ; Meanwhile , his beloved Silvia bowed to parental opposition and rejected the poet ; pain seriously affected his health. Probably this excellent translation of Ovid's Remedia amoris that left unpublished was due , and of course, the composition Letter Silvia .

Melgar joined shortly after the emancipatory rebellion Pumacahua Matthew , who served as judge advocate ; after the battle of Umachiri was arrested and subjected to court-martial ; the March 12, 1815 he was shot. Posthumously , in 1878 , the volume Poems of Don Mariano Melgar was published .

Despite his neoclassical training, work Melgar presents preromantic features : sentimentality , love of nature , freedom and worship patriotic fervor. Preromantic is also interest in the concerns of the people and their assimilation of a mixed form of widespread song in the Andes, the yaraví , where the language is Spanish but the music and the theme are Andean . Melgar yaravíes meant the triumph of the popular vein between urban and educated layers , especially in Arequipa , where a melgariano yaraví is considered an anthem of " homeland" .

The compositions are short yaravíes meters whose common theme is the loving lament ; They are sung with guitar accompaniment or " flute " .

From a strictly literary point of view, " yaravíes " Melgar are somewhat naive , and his verse is often flawed, but attain a singular drama with music and with singers aching accents .

The originally composed in Quechua , then yaraví wrote in Spanish ; rural in its infancy, the yaraví went to town, and the " flute " joined or replaced with the guitar.

The center of this transformation was Creole Arequipa, Melgar and the most excellent and most dramatic force poet.

En la edición póstuma de las Poesías de don Mariano Melgar (1878) aparecen sólo diez yaravíes, pero se le atribuyen muchos más, porque su nombre se ha convertido en un símbolo del género. Su poder de atracción es aún tan grande que sus yaravíes siguen cantándose y llorándose noche tras noche en Arequipa.