FELIU FORMOSA (Sabadell, 1934)
Feliu Formosa is a poet, translator, playwright, essayist, actor and theatre director. He has translated and adapted many works in German by authors including Bertolt Brecht, Georg Trakl, Heinrich Heine, Thomas Mann, Joseph Roth, Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Frank Wedekind.
His poetic career, which began with Albes breus a les mans (Brief Dawns in Hand) and Llibre de meditacions (1973) (Book of Meditations), is brought together in the volume entitled Darrere el vidre. Poesia 1972-2002 (2004) (Behind the Glass. Poetry 1972-2002). He has been awarded many prizes for his poetry, translation and theatre, noteworthy among which are the National Translation Prize from the Ministry of Culture (1994), the National Culture Prize for Theatre (2002), and more recently, the Premi d’Honor de les Lletres Catalanes (2005). As an essayist, special mention should be afforded to his diaries, published in El present vulnerable. Diaris I (1973-1978) [The Vulnerable Present. Diaries I (1973- 1978)], Contratemps (2005 )(Off Beat) and El somriure de l’atzar (2005) (Random Smile).
As Feliu Formosa writes about his poetry “When I began to publish poetry, I was soon seen as an outsider and I still consider that I am that. I believe that my poetry has become increasingly stark and spare (clear, but not simple or facile, I hope). Someone has spoken of ‘intensive realism’. Someone else has mentioned ‘expressionism’. I have no choice but to move between Trakl’s daydreams and Brecht’s realities”.
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SELECTED WORKS
POETRY
· Albes breus a les mans
(Proa, 1973) [‘Brief Dawns in Hand’].
· Llibre de les meditacions
(edicions 62, 1973) [‘Book of Meditations’].
· Raval
(edicions 62, 1975).
· Cançoner
(Vosgos, 1976) [‘Songbook’].
· Per Puck
(Columna, 1992) [‘For Puck’].
· Impasse
(eumo / Cafè Central, 1992).
· Al llarg de tota una impaciència
(edicions 62, 1994) [‘Throughout A Whole Impatience’].
· Immediacions
(edicions 62 / empúries, 2000) [‘Vicinity’].
· Darrere el vidre. Poesia 1972-2002
(edicions 62 / empúries, 2004) [‘Behind the Glass. Poetry 1972-2002’].
· Centre de brevetat
(Meteora, 2006) [‘Brevity center’].
· Núvols d’acer
(edició d’autor, 2008) [‘Steel clouds’].
DIARIES
· El present vulnerable
(Laia, 1979) [‘Vulnerable Present’].
· A contratemps
(Perifèric, 2005) [‘Off Beat’].
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LATEST WORKS IN TRANSLATION
ENGLISH
· Light off water [Anthology], tr. Christopher Whyte. edinburgh: Scottish Poetry Library, 2007.
FRENCH
· Semblance [‘Semblança’], tr. D. Coste. Calaceite: Noesis, 1991.
PORTUGUESE
· Quinze poetas catalães [Anthology], tr. egito Gonçalves. Porto: Limiar, 1994.
RUSSIAN
· Tieny drugogo moria: sovremennaia katalonskaia poesia [Anthology], tr. elena Zernova. Sant Petersburg: university Press, 2000.
SLOVENIAN
· Katalonska lirika XX. stoletja [Anthology], tr. Niko Kosir & Janez Menart. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva Založba, 1982.
SPANISH
· Cançoner / Cancionero, tr. J. M. de la Pezuela. Terrassa: Mirall de Glaç, 1985.
· Hora en limpio, tr. F. Formosa. Barcelona: Lumen, 1990.
· Resonancias. Poesía catalana contemporánea, tr. Marta Noguer Ferrer & Carlos Guzmán Moncada. Mexico: uNAM, 2004.
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