LITERATURE

JOSEP CARNER

AMONGSTHIS EXTENSIVE POETIC PRODUCTION, "ELSFRUITS SABOROSOS" (1906) STANDS OUT IN HIS EARLY PERIOD. THE CRITICS' UNANIMOUS OPINION IS THAT IT IS A LANDMARK IN THE '6N~~~~~~~~~~wMOVEMENT. IT IS A WORK IN WHICH, UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF A. SAMAIN,THE WRITER SINGS THE HARMONY OF A CLASSICAL PARADISE WHERE, HOWEVER, DISTURBING QUESTIONS REGARDING LIFE AND DESTINY CROP UP ALL TOO FREQUENTLY.

Si fossin el meu fat les terres estrangeres, lf foreign countries were to be my destiny, m'agradaria fer-me ve11 en un país my wish would be to grow old in a land on es filtrés la Ilum, grisa i groga, en somnk, where the Iight came filtering in, al1 grey and yellow, smilin i hi hagués prades arnb ulls d'aigua i arnb voreres where there were meadows set amongst springs and with Pootpaths guarnides dárqos, dóms i de pereres; lined with hawthorn, elms and pear-trees; viure quiet, no mai assenyalat, to live in peace, without being ever noticed, en una nació de bones gents plegades, in a nation were good folk were gathered, com cor vora de cor ciutat vora ciutat, heart beside heart and city beside city, and the streets and i carren i fanals avanqant per les prades. lamps marchin across the meadows. 1 cel i núvol, manyacs o cruels, And sky and c%ud, gentle or cruel, restarien ca tius en canals d'aigua tremula, would lie forever captive in streams of trembling water tota desig Bemmira~~areIs estels. that wanted only to reflect the stars. M'agradaria fer-me ve11 dins una My wish would be to grow old in a ciutat arnb uns soldats no gaire de debo, ci with soldien that weren't so very real, on tothom s'entendrís de música i pintures wX ere everyone was moved by music and by painting o del be11 arbre iapones quan treu la flor, or by the beauty of the Japanese tree in flower, on I'infant i Ióbrer no fessin mai tristesa, where neither child nor workman were ever cause for sorrow, on veiéssiu uns dintres de casa aquilotats where you could see the insides of houses stained de pipes, de paraules i d'hospitalitats, by pipe-smoke, words and hospitality, amb flon ardents, magnífica sorpresa, with blazing flowers, ma nificent surprise, hsen el; dies més gebrats. even on the frostiest of Bays. 1 tot sovint, vora un portal dés Iésia, And frequently, beside the doorway of a church, hi hauria, acolorit, un mercat Be renom, they'd hold a bustling market, full of colour, arnb botí de la mar, arnb present de la terra, with the s oils of the sea, with the gifis of the land, arnb molt de tot per a tothom. with muclof everythng for all. Una ciutat on va aria A cify where there would be time de veure, per amor $'e la malenconia to look, with that love of melancholy o per desig de novetat dringant, or that thint for shining novelty, cases antigues arnb un parc on nien ombres at ancient houses with a park where shadows nestle i moltes cases noves arnb iardinets davant. and many new ones set in little gardens. Hom trobaria savis de moltes de maneres; One would find wise men of every different shade; i cent paraigües eminents a hundred eminent umbrellas farien -a{ badats- oficials rengleres would -opened, alas- form the oficial rows en la inau uració dels monuments. at the unveilings of monuments. 1 tot de so %te, al caire de llargues avingudes, And al1 at once, linin the edges of long avenves, would be hi hauria les fagedes, les clapes dels estanys the beechwoods anzthe scattered lakes pera I'amor, la joia, la solitud i els planys. reserved for love, for ioy, for solitude and laments. De molt, desert, de molt, dejú, So empty and unfed viuria enmig dels altres, un poc en cadascú. I'd live amongst the people, a little bit in each. Pero ningú But no-one no se'n podria témer en fent sa via. could be afraid as they went on their way. Hom, per atzar, un ve11 ¡ardí coneixeria, And b chance one would discover an old garden, ben a recer, de brollador ben clac well-sX eltered, with a crystal-clear fountain, arnb peixos dór que hi fan més alegria. with olden fish to make it merrier. Demi dirien nens arnb molles a la ma: ~hilcfenwith handfuls of crumbs would sa of me, -Es el senyor de cada dia. "It's that same man who comes by every Jay". Josep Calner LITERATURE

he importante of twentieth centu- stayed in Brussels, but soon afterwards, ry Catalan poetry is as great or fearing Nazi reprisals, he emigrated to greater than that of the plastic Mexico, where he lectured at the universi- arts. But whereas Miró, Dalí or Tapies re- ty and where he married Emilie Nouñet, ceive the international projection they de- who became his second wife. serve and, even more important, adually Amongst his extensive poetic production, take part in the contest of universal art, Els fhts saborosos (1 906) stands out in our poets have to be more modest and his early period. The critics' unanimous accept that their growth and development opinion is that it is a landmark in the is limited almost exclusively to a Catalan Noucentista movement. It is a work in readership. which, under the influence of A. Samain, So far this century, the Paijos Catalans the writer sings the harmony of a classical have produced great poets as well as a paradise where, however, disturbing considerable number of good poets. questions regarding life and destiny crop Everyone agrees on the four obiectively up al1 too frequently. With Verger de les most important of them -important as galanies (191 1), he creates a new style of authon whose work is consistent and amorous poetry that seems to connect solid, the product of a life-time, handed both with the transparency of Petrarch, down to us as a compad mass with barely Ronsard and Keats, and with the gravity a crack in it and overflowing with energy of Leopardi or Baudelaire. Auques i of one form or another-: Josep Carner, ventalls (1914) is a spirited book, J.V. Foix, Carles Riba and Salvador Espriu, brimming with "civic" and social humour al1 of them worthy of a place amongst the aimed at a particular part of Barcelona greatest poets of Anglo-Saxon, German, society. French, Greek, ltalian or Spanish litera- it was a readion meant, in art, an ideal of All the same, when Carner was away ture. First place must be given to Josep objectivity". In Classical works, "the artist from Catalonia, first because of his diplo- Camer (b. Barcelona, 1884, d. Brussels, is out of the picture". In Romantic works, matic work and later because of the Civil 1970), who has contributed more than "the writer is either his own hero, or War, his poetry seemed to lose that "civic" anybody to the consolidation of a lan- unmistakably identified with his hero, and irony and take refuge in profoundly emo- guage that is poetically valid to his con- the penonality and emotions of the writer tive reflections on the destiny of man, and temporaries and that retneved al1 of are presented as the principal subject of in constant evocation of his native land. Catalan's expressive potential after more interest". Carner would therefore be a In his following books, El cor quiet (1 925), than two centuries of absolute decadence llClassi~ll in a "Romantic" age. In the critic El veire encantat (1933) and La pn- (the period of political and cultural dec- Joan Ferratet's excellent analysis, this mavera al poblet (1935), Carner, in a adence that basically covers the seven- backward leap places him in the main- constant transfiguration of the language, teenth and eighteenth centuries). How- stream of the western tradition of poetry, perpetuates his already classical world, ever, his is also an exceptional case for which started with Theocrites and Calli- steeped in an everydayness crowded with other reasons: ever since the age of Ro- machus (c. 300 B.C.) and came to an end a wide range of feelings and al1 sorts of manticism, perhaps no other poet has in the eighteenth century with the appea- small objects. In time, his metaphysical been so closely identified with the society rance of Blake and the fint of the German preocupations also increased, culminating of his day, or has worked with such pas- Romantics. However, Carner was prob- in Nabí (1 941), undoubtedly one of the sionate enthusiasm to poetize the many ably never fully aware of this and, in ord- greatest poetical works of the century. It is aspeds of its life. Indeed, with the infallible er to take the step which was to situate a long lyrical-narrative poem, which can example of his poetry, he fights the deep- him in the mainstream of the richest and be assigned to what has been called the rooted subjectivism which was the basis of most fertile European poetry, was prob- "interior epic", and which is based on the the predominant aesthetics of his day (in ably content simply to break free from an Biblical story of Jona. al1 fields of art) or, to put it another way, aesthetic mould which he rejected but After the war, Josep Carner dedicated his work is based on a denial of al1 ro- which was the one his age had to offer. himself exclusively to revising his work, a manticism and it is precisely this that ena- Josep Carner graduated in Law (1902) process of purging and stylization that bles him to resolve the problem posed by and in Philosophy (1 904) at the University culminated in 1957 with the publication his unhesitating acceptance of the repre- of Barcelona. From then until he started of the volume Poesia, in which he presen- sentative function as the main obiedive of his diplomatic carreer, he collaborated ted his work arranged thematically and his poetic task. In this respect, the distinc- actively with magazines, newspapen and with substantial stylistic modifications. This tion between Classicism and Romanticism publishing houses. As a member of the book, which immediately became a that Edmund Wilson makes in Axel's diplomatic corps, he held posts in Genoa, classic, has been a constant fascination for Castle is a perfect illustration of what I San José de Costa Rica, Le Havre, Hen- his many readers, as well as an eterna1 mean: "Romanticism" was a revolt of the daye, Beirut, Brussels and Paris. During the lesson for al1 the Catalan poets of the individual. The "Classicism" against which Civil War, he supported the Republic and century.