The Poetry Of Salvador Espriu: To Save The Words (monografias A)

Colección Támesis SERIE A: MONOGRAFÍAS, 228 THE POETRY OF SALVADOR ESPRIU TO SAVE THE WORDS This first book-length study in English of the poetry of Salvador Espriu (1913–85) examines the work from two standpoints. First, it explores the structural implications of symmetry and numerology, in a chronological rather than thematic survey of the poetry – a procedure that involves a consideration of how each book (what could be termed in most cases a macro-poem) attains its distinctive character while having common preoccuaptions and stylistic traits. This aspect of the study entails a critical evaluation of recent investigations by Maria Rosa Delor on Espriu and the Cabbala. Secondly, it examines the tension implicit in Espriu’s poetry between involvement and detachment or between the civic and the lyric. One issue addressed is why Espriu is perceived both as the symbol of moral resistance agains Francoism and as a hermetic, ‘difficult’ poet. By drawing on ideas broached in Seamus Heaney’s The Redress of Poetry, it investigates the relationship between Espriu’s private and public personae, notably the way in which his poetic integrity is not compromised by ideologico-political realities. Central to the study is an awareness of the precarious status of the Catalan language in the period when Espriu wrote most of his poetry, and of how his work represents, by dint of its linguistic character, an act of defiance and affirmation, in Delor’s view, a ‘metalinguistic literature’. D. GARETH WALTERS is Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Exeter. Tamesis Founding Editor J. E. Varey General Editor Stephen M. Hart Editorial Board Alan Deyermond Julian Weiss Charles Davis D. GARETH WALTERS THE POETRY OF SALVADOR ESPRIU TO SAVE THE WORDS TAMESIS © D. Gareth Walters 2006 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of D. Gareth Walters to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2006 by Tamesis, Woodbridge ISBN 1 85566 132 2 Tamesis is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This publication is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear CONTENTS Acknowledgements vi Part 1: DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS Salvador Espriu, the Poet of Catalonia Poetry and Politics Critical Approaches and Methodologies 1 9 19 Part 2: THE PALINDROMIC CYCLE Chronologies Cementiri de Sinera [Sinera Cemetery] Les hores [The Hours] Mrs. Death [Mrs. Death] El caminant i el mur [The Walker and the Wall] Final del laberint [End of the Labyrinth] 30 34 51 76 95 111 Part 3: THE LATER POETRY La pell de brau [The Bull Hide] Llibre de Sinera [Book of Sinera] Setmana Santa [Holy Week] Haikus and Homages 126 142 156 173 Part 4: SUMMATION AND CONCLUSION Les cançons d’Ariadna [The Songs of Ariadne] Conclusion 189 202 Bibliography Index 209 214 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Montserrat Caba of the Centre d’Estudis i Documentació Salvador Espriu at Arenys de Mar for her invaluable assistance in providing me with bibliographic materials on Espriu and for making the resources of the Centre so readily available to me. I have also been encouraged by her inte