MANENT, Marià 1898-1988

PERSONAL: Born 1898, in Barcelona, Spain; died 1988.

CAREER: Literary director for a publisher, poet, translator, and literary critic. Revista de Poesia, founder, 1925; Quaderns de Poesia, editorial committee member, from 1935.

AWARDS, HONORS: Lletra d'Or, 1968, for Com un núvol lleuger; Ensenya de Cavaller de l'Imperi Britànic, 1976, for superior translation of English poetry; Premi Josep Pla, 1974, for El vel de maia: dietari de la guerra civil (1936-39); Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes, 1985.

WRITINGS:

La branca, Poemes (1916-1918), Joan Sallent, (Sabadell, Spain), 1918.

La collita en la boira (1918-1920): elegies, poemes de primavera, odes, La Revista (Barcelona, Spain), 1920, reprinted, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1987.

Marian Manent, prologue by Tomàs Garcés, Lira (Barcelona, Spain), 1923.

L'ombra i altres poemes, Atenes Arts Gràfiques (Barcelona, Spain), 1931, reprinted, 1946.

Notes sobre literatura estrangera, La Revista (Barcelona, Spain), 1934, reprinted, Parcir Edicions Selectes (Manresa, Spain), 1992.

Montseny: Zodíac d'un paisatge, illustrated by Josep Fossas, Atenes Arts Gràfiques (Barcelona, Spain), 1948, published as Poemes, prologue by Miquel Desclot, Taller de Picasso (Barcelona, Spain), 1983.

(Selector and author of prologue) Kathleen Raine, Poemas, Ediciones Rialp (Madrid, Spain), 1951.

(Selector and author of prologue) La poesía irlandesa, José Janés (Barcelona, Spain), 1952.

(Selector and author of prologue) Llibre de l'Eucaristia, Editorial Selecta (Barcelona, Spain), 1952.

(Editor) Antología amorosa, Editorial Selecta (Barcelona, Spain), 1955.

Obra poètica, Editorial Selecta (Barcelona, Spain), 1956.

(Selector and author of prologue) La poesía inglesa, José Janés (Barcelona, Spain), 1958.

Maragall, 1860-1911, Editorial Franciscana (Barcelona, Spain), 1960.

La ciutat del temps: poemes, J. Pedreira (Barcelona, Spain), 1961.

Como nace el poema y otros ensayos y notas, Aguilar (Madrid, Spain), 1962.

A flor d'oblit, prologue by Joan Teixidor, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1968, reprinted, 1986.

Palabra y poesía, y otras notas críticas, Seminarios y Ediciones (Madrid, Spain), 1971.

Poesia, llenguatge, forma: dotze poetes catalans i altres notes critiques, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1973.

El vel de maia, dietari de la guerra civil (1936-39), Edicions Destino (Barcelona, Spain), 1975.

Antologia poètica: homentage al poeta en el seus vuitanta anys, prologue by Pere Gimferrer, Edicions Proa (Barcelona, Spain), 1978.

Notícies d'art, prologue by Albert Ràfols-Casamada, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1981.

L'aroma d'arc: dietari dispers (1919-1981), Edicions Laertes (Barcelona, Spain), 1982.

Llibres d'ara i d'antany, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1982.

A una dama i a tres noise: poemes, Filograf (Barcelona, Spain), 1982.

The Shade of Mist: Selected Poems/Color de boirada: poemas escollits (bilingual edition, English and Catalan), English translation by Sam Abrams, Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos (Barcelona, Spain), 1984.

La muntanya i l'ocell, with four sheets of plates by Gabriel and others, Les Edicions (Barcelona, Spain), 1984.

(Adaptator) Contes del Japó, Catalan translation by Jordi Janén, Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1985.

(Adaptor) Vell país natal, de Wang Wei, literal Catalan translation by Maria Dolors Folch, Edicions Empúries (Barcelona, Spain), 1986.

Poesia completa, 1916-1986, edited by Álex Susanna, Edicions Columna (Barcelona, Spain), 1986.

Las acacias salvajes (bilingual edition; Spanish and Catalan), Spanish translation by José Agustín Goytisolo, edited and with a prologue by Álex Susanna, Edicions del Mall (Barcelona, Spain), 1986.

Rellegint, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1987.

Eight Catalan Poems, translations by John Adlard, Perdix, 1988.

Poesia completa: de La brança, La collita en la boira, L'ombra i altres poemas, La ciutat del temps, El cant amagadís, Edicions Columna (Barcelona, Spain), 1989.

Marià Manent, PPU (Barcelona, Spain), 1989.

Notes de dietari, 1937-1939, Abadia de Montserrat (Barcelona, Spain), 1992.

Vuit cartes a Palau i Fabre, Vèrtex (Mataró, Spain), 1994.

Dietari dispers, 1918-1984, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1995.

(Adaptor) Cuentos del Japón, illustrated by Luis Filella, Editorial Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1997.

Els millors poemes, Edicions Proa (Barcelona, Spain), 1998.

Dietaris, edited by Sam Abrams, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1999.

Crítica, personatges, confidències: articles inèdits i dispersos, edited by Miquel Batalla, Edicions Columna (Barcelona, Spain), 1999.

Obres completes de Marià Manent, edited by Sam Abrams, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 2000.

Poesía catalana contemporánea: selección, con versions métricas en castellano, Edicions Pre-Textos (Madrid, Spain), 1999.

translator

Rudyard Kipling, El llibre de la jungla. Segon llibre de la jungla, Edicions Catalana, (Barcelona, Spain), 1923, reprinted, Edicions Selecta (Barcelona, Spain), 1981.

L'aire daurat: interpretacions de poesia xinesa, Atenes Arts Gràfiques (Barcelona, Spain), 1928, reprinted, Edicions Proa (Barcelona, Spain), 1986.

Versions de l'anglès (parallel text in Catalan and English), Edicions de la Residència d'Estudiants (Barcelona, Spain), 1938, published as El gran vent i les heures: "Versions de l'anglès," Editorial Laertes (Barcelona, Spain), 1983.

Jérôme and Jean Tharaud, Leyendas de la Virgen, illustrated by Mercedes Llimona, Ediciones Mediterráneas (Barcelona, Spain), 1942.

Kenneth Grahame, El viento en los sauces, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard, Editorial Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1945.

(And selector and author of prologue) La poesía inglesa de los primitivos a los neoclásicos, Ediciones Lauro (Barcelona, Spain), 1945.

(And selector and author of prologue) La poesía inglesa: románticos y victorianos, Ediciones Lauro (Barcelona, Spain), 1945.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Epipsychidion, Helikon (Barcelona, Spain), 1946.

(And selector and author of prologue) Los contemporáneous, Ediciones Lauro (Barcelona, Spain), 1948.

(And author of notes) Poesia anglesa i nordamericana, Edicions Alpha (Barcelona, Spain), 1955.

(And editor) Emily Dickinson, Poemas, Editorial Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1957, reprinted 1994, Catalan translation by Manent published as Poemes d'Emily Dickinson: selecció, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1979.

Com un núvol lleuger, Edicions Proa (Barcelona, Spain), 1967.

(With Josep Carner) Hans Christian Andersen, Rondalles de Hans Andersen, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, Editorial Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1969.

Dylan Thomas, Poemes de Dylan Thomas, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1974, reprinted, 2001.

William Blake, Llibres profètics, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1976.

Espígol blau: poemes anglesos per a infants, Edicions Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1980.

20 poemes xinesos, Miquel Plana (Olot, Spain), 1980.

Archibald MacLeish, Poemes, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, Spain), 1981.

S. T. Coleridge, Poema del vell mariner, Edicions del Mall (St. Boi de Llobregat, Spain), 1982.

Rudyard Kipling, Precisamente así: historias para los niños y para los que aman a los niños, illustrated by Ángel Domínguez, Juventud (Barcelona, Spain), 1998.

Randall Jarrell, Vol de nit, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, Antoni Bosch (Barcelona, Spain), 1999.

Also translator of the poetry of Keats and Rupert Brooke.

ADAPTATIONS: Manent's texts have been set to music by Alejandro Yagüe and Juan Manau Valor.

SIDELIGHTS: Marià Manent was a publisher, poet, translator, literary critic, and author of memoirs. His literary background is in the period of Noucentisme—a Catalan political and cultural movement founded by Eugenie d'Ors at the beginning of the twentieth century—from which his poetry moved towards symbolism and "pure poetry." He was influenced by Verdaguer, Carner, and Claudel, as well as by Chinese poets, whom he translated in such volumes as L'aire daurat: interpretacions de poesia xinesa and Com un núvol lleuger. He also translated the work of numerous English and American poets.

Sean Golden, writing in the Journal of Catalan Studies, suggested that "a close examination of the prefaces [Manent] wrote for each of his collections could provide us with an insight into his motivations. . . . in the aftermath of the [Spanish] Civil War, a large part of his motivation . . . was a result of his empathy for the plight of classical Chinese poets. Like them, he was in many ways a powerless individual confronted by a system of arbitrary and stifling authority." Golden later continued, "Chinese poets constantly lamented the state of affairs and sought consolation in the world of nature, without ever becoming rebels themselves, as did Manent." Manent's original poetry strived for the same serenity and equilibrium he intuited in Chinese poetry.

Manent's Dietari dispers, 1918-1984 is of particular interest to scholars, especially its best-known fragment El vel de maia: dietari de la guerra civil (1936-39), which corresponds to the period of the Spanish Civil War and which was awarded the 1974 Josep Pla Prize. Obres completes de Marià Manent is a complete collection of Manent's poetry. His literary and art criticism, published in reviews and newspapers before and after the Franco dictatorship, is collected in volumes like Notícies d'art and Rellegint. Manent strove to make each of the genres with which he worked compatible with the others, resulting in a highly homogenous body of literature.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Journal of Catalan Studies, 1998, Sean Golden, "Subversive Empathy: Marià Manent in Exile in the Land of Chinese Poetry."

Revista de Estudios Hispanicos, May, 1988, Enric Bou, "El poeta en el museo: pasajes y paisajes (A propósito de Pedro Salinas y Marià Manent)," pp. 63-79.

Revista de Occidente, July, 1996, Jose Munoz Millanes, "Los placers de los diarios: el caso de Marià Manent," pp. 136-146.*