Description
Book SynopsisJoan Margarit (1938-2021) was one of Spain’s major modern writers. He worked as an architect and first published his work in Spanish, but over the past four decades became known for his mastery of the Catalan language, and was Spain’s most widely acclaimed contemporary poet. The melancholy and candour of his poetry show his affinity with Thomas Hardy, whose work he translated. He was awarded both the 2019 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honour, and the Reina Sofía Prize for Ibero-American Poetry 2019, the most important poetry award for Spain, Portugal and Latin America. In the much praised Tugs in the Fog: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2006), Joan Margarit evoked the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, the harshness of life in Barcelona under Franco, and grief at the death of a beloved handicapped daughter, reminding us that it is not death we have to understand but life. Five of his later collections were translated by Anna Crowe and published by Bloodaxe in two compilations, Strangely Happy (2011) and Love Is a Place (2016). Wild Creature brings together the poems of his final two collections, Un hivern fascinant (An amazing winter, 2017) and Animal de bosc (Wild creature, 2020). The two books that make up this final collection in English show us a poet writing at the end of his life, and facing up to his approaching death with courage, humility and even humour. Confronting loss is one of Margarit’s enduring themes, and many of these poems do just that but – continuing the theme of his previous collection, Love Is a Place – there are even more that celebrate love and everyday domesticity, and he reminds us that love needs to be worked at. These are poems that arise naturally out of an examined life, and although he does not spare himself or the folly of our times, there is great tenderness in the way he reaches out to embrace life, love, and the pain of the past. A solitary, Margarit pays tribute to other writers and artists of that ilk, to the rural poverty of his childhood, and to the wild creature deep in each one of us whom we ignore at our peril.
Trade ReviewI love these poems for many reasons. When I first read Joan Margarit, I heard a powerfully distinctive voice, a spirit of great freedom and energy, humaneness, mischief, and depth. In these naked, subtle, clear poems, surprise and wisdom are often right next to each other… Each of Margarit’s poems is its own being, like a living creature with its own body-shape and voice, its own breath and heart-beat. His poems live and breathe in their natural habitat. They are elegant and shapely. And sometimes they seem almost overheard, as if they are singing in the voice the mind uses when talking with itself or with its close close other. It is common enough speech, and it is brilliant, too, sensually beautiful (but not too beautiful) and with a genuine, just-conceived feeling. -- Sharon Olds * on Love Is a Place *
His work is time-haunted and death-haunted, but the poems also have a wonderful, clear, intelligent light in them. Margarit is perhaps firstly a love poet, and, readers can be assured, his loves are more often flesh and blood than steel. -- Carol Rumens * Guardian.com (Poem of the Week) *
He deploys his central themes – the prospect of death and rediscovery of love – with a compelling freshness, wisdom, dignity and enveloping tenderness. Time and again I find myself gasping in admiration, or fighting back tears. And the cover image must be one of the most beautiful of the year. -- Stewart Conn * The Herald (Books of the Year) *
Table of ContentsAN AMAZING WINTER (2017) 12 An amazing winter 13 Atocha Hill 14 The mysterious island 15 Works of love 16 Woman about to do her hands 17 Building a destiny 18 Verdaguer 19 Familiarities 20 Goyescas 21 On insults 22 Memory’s punishment 23 North wind 24 Our time 25 Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? 26 All-in wrestling 27 Stroke 28 Future 29 The albatross 30 Road 31 Through pain 32 What enlightens me 33 More than a song 34 Thermopylae 35 Life 36 Golden Age 37 Rides 38 Photograph of a girl 39 De senectute 40 Jorge Manrique 41 If you read this book 42 Time’s lyric 43 Courage 44 Final performances 45 Known cruelty 46 Purposes 47 Behind the glass 48 Instants 49 Mythology 50 The solitude of the sea 51 No other beginning 53 Epilogue to An amazing winter WILD CREATURE (2020) 58 The two snowfalls 59 The kitchen 60 Museums 61 Silent woman 62 Ángel González, a memory 63 Don’t talk about this with anybody 64 From poverty 65 Clear and difficult 66 Seductions, after so much time 67 Lost village 68 Wild creature 69 Beloved time with her 70 Iliad 71 Note on truth 72 Silence and survival 73 First lesson 74 Orpheus 75 The calm of coming back 76 The poem and the wall 77 The depths of poverty 78 Morning in Sant Just 79 Family lunch 80 A simple farewell 81 The final intimacy 82 The beginning of everything 83 Protections, consolations 84 Rachid Boujedra 85 Faraway smiles 86 Seagulls 87 A price 88 Chamber music 89 Love and fear 90 The long ending 91 In the early morning 92 What is approaching? 93 The picture of Santes Creus monastery 94 Autumn in Elizondo 95 Final pause 96 Murmur of rain 97 The house 98 Consolations 99 Building 100 Nightfall for old lovers 101 The only loyalty 102 Coming out of a concert 103 Dark Night of the Soul 104 Deep paradox 105 Two encounters 106 A poignant indifference 107 Everything is going quiet 108 Mistakes and sewers 109 Inspiration 110 Gratitude 111 Reasons and ways 112 Betrayal is no longer possible 113 Walking through a forest at night 114 A joyous prudence 115 Building work 116 Under a deep blue sky 117 Sick old man 118 About Babel 119 Josep Maria Subirachs 120 A daughter 121 Vincent Van Gogh 122 With you 123 The forgotten dream 124 Attempt at conclusions 125 Courtyard song 126 The past, so difficult at times 127 Another happy world 128 You, me and music 129 Memory of a field 130 Fear of what we are 131 Our dead, Raquel 132 One winter morning, 2020 133 The highest mountain 135 Epilogue
