On Pessoa's The Student of Salamanca

Fernando Pessoa’s version of José de Espronceda’s El estudiante de Salamanca [The Student of Salamanca] is a curious singularity among Pessoa’s works. As far as we know, this is the only Pessoan translation of a Spanish original into English. This article tries to acknowledge such singularity by pointing out links between Pessoa’s archive and his private library, and also by studying the meter and rhythm of Pessoa’s version—now available in full thanks to Nicolás Barbosa’s transcription and edition, published in this issue of Pessoa Plural—a version that renders with taste and wit the metrical qualities of Espronceda’s original.