Juan Ruiz

Juan Ruiz (c. 1283 – c. 1350), known as the Archpriest of Hita (Arcipreste de Hita), was a medieval Castilian poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, El Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love).

• Quien matar quisier su can,
  achaque le levanta porque non le dé del pan.
  • Whoever wants to kill the dog he owns,
    Pretends that it's gone mad in order not to give it bones.
  • St. 93 (Tr. S. R. Daly, 1978), quoting a proverb

• Do son todas mugeres, nunca mengua renzilla.
  • Where there are only women, there is never a lull in the squabbling.
  • St. 757 (Tr. P. O. Gericke, 1992)

• Dictionary of Quotations: Spanish, edited by T. B. Harbottle and Martin Hume (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd., 1907), pp. 45, 98, 143, 162, 230, 273, 313, 323, 326, 327, 345
• The Penguin Book of Spanish Verse, edited by J. M. Cohen (rev. ed., 1960), pp. 11–18
• The Book of True Love, translated by Saralyn R. Daly, edited by Anthony N. Zahareas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978)
• Philip O. Gericke, "The Widow in Hispanic Balladry", in Upon My Husband's Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe, edited by Louise Mirrer (University of Michigan Press, 1992), p. 295