Montserrat Abelló (Tarragona, 1918)
Montserrat Abelló is a poet and translator. In addition to her many volumes of poetry, an outstanding facet of her work is that of translator of English-speaking women poets, especially of Sylvia Plath. She has also translated into English texts by Salvador Espriu, Mercè Rodoreda and Maria-Mercè Marçal.
In 1998, she garnered the Creu de Sant Jordi (St. George’s Cross), an award conferred by the Government of Catalonia to distinguished figures in recognition of their contribution to Catalan culture. In 2002, her poetry was assembled in one volume entitled Al cor de les paraules (At the Heart of Words), which received several awards. Involved in feminist movements since the 1970s, she is the author of various anthologies of poetry by women poets, noteworthy among which is the bilingual edition Cares a la finestra: vint dones poetes de parla anglesa del segle XX (1993) (Faces in the Window: 20 English Women Poets of the 20th century). She has won several literary prizes both for her poetry and her translations, such as the Crítica Serra d’Or and the Premi d’Honor de les Lletres Catalanes.
Although, when Abelló began to write, she was influenced by socially committed poetry, her situation as a woman and mother after the birth of a mentally handicapped child pushed her into responding to her urge to write. Over the years, her poetic expression would become sparer and increasingly refined. Themes like love, loneliness, the passing of time and poetic creation acquire in her poetry an incisive and personal touch, recalling the best of the twentieth-century English-language women writers.
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SELECTED WORKS
· Vida diària (Joaquim Horta, 1963) [‘Everyday Life’].
· L’arrel de l’aigua (Ed. de la Guerra, 1995) [‘The Root of Water’].
· Són màscares que m’emprovo…(Café Central, 1995) [‘They Are Masks I Try On…’].
· Dins l’esfera del temps (Proa, 1998) [‘Within the Sphere of Time’].
· Al cor de les paraules. Obra poètica 1963 - 2002(Proa, 2002) [‘At the Heart of Words. Collected Poems 1963 – 2002’].
· Asseguda escrivint (MX Edicions, 2004) [‘Seated Writing’].
· Memòria de tu i de mi (Denes, 2006) [‘Memory of you and me’].
· El fred íntim del silenci (Denes, 2009) [‘Private cold of silence’].
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LATEST WORKS iN TRANSLATiON
BASQUE
· Galeusca [Anthology], tr. José Antonio Arrieta ugartetxea. Navarra: AELG, EIE, AELC, 2004.
ENGLISH
· Survivors: Abelló, Anglada, Arderiu, Ballester, Fuster, Leveroni, Marçal, Pessarrodona, Salvà [Anthology], tr. D. Sam Abrams. Barcelona: Institute of North American Studies, 1991.
· Asseguda escrivint / Seated Writing. Barcelona: MX Edicions, 2004.
· Light off water [Anthology], tr. Anna Crowe. Edinburgh: Scottish Poetry Library, 2007.
GALICIAN
· Galeusca [Anthology], tr. Lluïsa Soaz. Navarra:AELG, EIE, AELC, 2004.
ITALIAN
· Poeti spagnoli contemporanei [Anthology], tr. Coco Emilio. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2008.
RUSSIAN
· Nocturn corporal, tr. Nina Avrora. Moscow: Dmitrouski, 2001.
· Vremia vernikh zerkal. Dvadtsat katalonskih poetess XX stoletia [Anthology], tr. Elena Zernova. Sant Petersburg: universitét, 2001.
SPANISH
· Antología, tr. Neus Aguado Giménez. Barcelona: Libros de la Frontera, 2005.
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