Rafael Pombo

"Rafael Pombo is one of the great poets of Colombia, and the best exponent of romanticism in the country". Great Encyclopedia of Colombia"

José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo was a Colombian poet born in Bogotá on November 7 1833. Trained as a mathematician and an engineer in a military school, Rafael Pombo served in the army and he traveled to the United States of America as Secretary of the Legation in Washington. After the termination of this diplomatic position, he was hired by D. Appleton & Company in New York to translate into Spanish nursery rhymes from the Anglo-Saxon oral tradition. The product of this work, more than a translation, was a transformative adaptation published in two books under the titles "Cuentos pintados para niños" and "Cuentos morales para niños formales". In spite of his extensive and diverse literary works, Rafael Pombo is mostly remembered for this contribution to children's literature. Among his most popular children's fables are"Michín", "Juan Chunguero", "Pastorcita", "La Pobre Viejecita", "Simón el Bobito", "El Gato Bandido", and "El Renacuajo paseador". After seventeen years in the United States of America, Rafael Pombo returned to Colombia, where he worked as a celebrated translator and journalist (founding several newspapers). On August 20 1905 he was crowned as Colombia's best poet - his "Poesías Completas" was published in 1957, from which the poem [http://www.niagarapoetry.ca/pombo_en_el.htm "En El Niágara"] was taken. Rafael Pombo remained in Colombia until his death on May 5 1912.

References

* [http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/biografias/pombrafa.htm Entry in the Online Library of Colombia's Central Bank (Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango)]
* [http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/ninos/relatoi/rela3.htm Shorter entry in the Online Library of Colombia's Central Bank (Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango)]
* [http://web.presidencia.gov.co/asiescolombia/cultura_escr_3.htm Short Biography in the official website of the Presidency of Colombia]
* [http://www.comunidadandina.org/bda/docs/CO-OC-0002.pdf#search=%22D.%20Appleton%20%26%20Co.%20Rafael%20Pombo%22 Entry in the Online Library of the Andes]