"The Student of Salamanca," translated by Robert M. Fedorchek

José de Espronceda y Delgado's The Student of Salamanca / El estudiante de Salamanca, Translated by Robert M. Fedorchek, Introduction by Michael Iarocci. What to say of the rebel who fears neither God nor the devil, and who would challenge the Almighty to a duel? Such a man is don Félix de Montemar, the Student of Salamanca, a “second don Juan Tenorio” and profligate descendant of the first don Juan Tenorio dramatized so memorably by Tirso de Molina in The Trickster of Seville (El burlador de Sevilla, 1630). We might say that he is the literary incarnation of José de Espronceda y Delgado (1808-42), the greatest of the Spanish Romantic poets, the champion of liberty who gave voice to dissidents and loners on the fringes of society. In rousing verses and stirring refrains Espronceda sings of the individual in “The Pirate’s Song” (La canción del pirata), “The Beggar” (El mendigo), “The Song of the Cossack” (El canto del cosaco), and “The Executioner” (El verdugo). And in his long unfinish