Antonio Martínez Sarrión
Encyclopedia
Antonio Martínez Sarrión, poet
and translator
, born in Albacete
(Spain
) in 1939.
and licensed in Law in the Universidad de Murcia
in 1961. In 1963 he moved to Madrid
, where he works as a government employee in the Central Administration. Between 1974 and 1976 he codirected, with Jesús Munárriz and José Esteban, La Ilustración Poética Española e Iberoamericana, poetry magazine from which 12 numbers got published.
Figured in the famous anthology of the critic José María Castellet Nueve novísimos poetas españoles, which confirmed his status as an important poet.
Inside the common antirealistic unrestlessness of the Novísimos
group, Martínez Sarrión stands out for his sixtyeightist rebellion which made him admire the beat
poetry and for assuming very early, many of the culturalist, irrationalist, surrealist and mythical references (literature
, cinema
, jazz
) that his partners would later adopt.
In his poetry everything is mixed into one poem: the quote of the poet, a conversation, a digression, a memory, a jazz song, all that in a magnificent linking that he achieves to build by means of the break-up of the syntactical
forms.
The technique of his poetic work has always been compared to surrealism
, even though it is different because "the accumulation of images, apparently unconnected, comes from will (...) of expressing the chaos as it is lived. There is no, work about "free associations", but conscious disintegration of "logical associations", (...)". (Jenaro Talens in his foreword to El centro inaccessible...).
Another side of his work is occupied by memorialism- He published a couple of diaries and a trilogy of memories, that fills his childhood years (Infancia y corrupciones, 1993) (Childhood and corruptions); his university days (Una juventud, 1996) (A youth) and his rise to literary life (Jazz y días de lluvia, 2002) (Jazz and rainy days).
Martínez Sarrión is a gifted translator of french
too. He made one of the best versions in Spanish
of Les Fleurs du Mal (The flowers of evil) by Charles Baudelaire
, and translated Victor Hugo
too Lo que dice la boca de sombra y otros poemas (What the shadow mouth says and other poems), Stendhal Translating Award in 1990. Other authors translated by him into Spanish are Jean Genet
, Michel Leiris
, Alfred de Musset
, Chamfort, Jacottet and Arthur Rimbaud
.
He participated in several occasions as a collaborator in the Spanish TV show Qué grande es el cine (How great cinema is), moderated by José Luis Garci
.
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, born in Albacete
Albacete
Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the province of Albacete in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The municipality had a population of c. 169,700 in 2009....
(Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) in 1939.
Biography
Studied bachelor in AlbaceteAlbacete
Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the province of Albacete in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The municipality had a population of c. 169,700 in 2009....
and licensed in Law in the Universidad de Murcia
University of Murcia
The University of Murcia is the main university in Murcia, Spain. With 38,000 students, it is the largest university in the Región de Murcia.-History:...
in 1961. In 1963 he moved to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, where he works as a government employee in the Central Administration. Between 1974 and 1976 he codirected, with Jesús Munárriz and José Esteban, La Ilustración Poética Española e Iberoamericana, poetry magazine from which 12 numbers got published.
Figured in the famous anthology of the critic José María Castellet Nueve novísimos poetas españoles, which confirmed his status as an important poet.
Inside the common antirealistic unrestlessness of the Novísimos
Novísimos
The Novísimos were a poetic group in Spain who took their name from an anthology in which the Catalan critic José María Castellet gathered the work of the majority of the youngest and most experimental poets in the decade of the 1970s: Nueve novísimos poetas españoles , Barcelona, 1970...
group, Martínez Sarrión stands out for his sixtyeightist rebellion which made him admire the beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
poetry and for assuming very early, many of the culturalist, irrationalist, surrealist and mythical references (literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
) that his partners would later adopt.
In his poetry everything is mixed into one poem: the quote of the poet, a conversation, a digression, a memory, a jazz song, all that in a magnificent linking that he achieves to build by means of the break-up of the syntactical
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
forms.
The technique of his poetic work has always been compared to surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, even though it is different because "the accumulation of images, apparently unconnected, comes from will (...) of expressing the chaos as it is lived. There is no, work about "free associations", but conscious disintegration of "logical associations", (...)". (Jenaro Talens in his foreword to El centro inaccessible...).
Another side of his work is occupied by memorialism- He published a couple of diaries and a trilogy of memories, that fills his childhood years (Infancia y corrupciones, 1993) (Childhood and corruptions); his university days (Una juventud, 1996) (A youth) and his rise to literary life (Jazz y días de lluvia, 2002) (Jazz and rainy days).
Martínez Sarrión is a gifted translator of french
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
too. He made one of the best versions in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
of Les Fleurs du Mal (The flowers of evil) by Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
, and translated Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
too Lo que dice la boca de sombra y otros poemas (What the shadow mouth says and other poems), Stendhal Translating Award in 1990. Other authors translated by him into Spanish are Jean Genet
Jean Genet
Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
, Michel Leiris
Michel Leiris
Julien Michel Leiris was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer.-Biography:...
, Alfred de Musset
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
, Chamfort, Jacottet and Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
.
He participated in several occasions as a collaborator in the Spanish TV show Qué grande es el cine (How great cinema is), moderated by José Luis Garci
José Luis Garci
José Luis Garci is a producer, critic, TV presenter, writer, screenwriter and film director in Spanish cinema. He earned worldwide acclaim and his country's first Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Begin the Beguine...
.
Poetry
- Teatro de operaciones (Operations theatre), Carboneras de GuadazaónCarboneras de GuadazaónCarboneras de Guadazaón is a municipality in Cuenca, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a population of 958....
, El toro de barro, 1967. - Pautas para conjurados (Guidelines for the conspirated), B., Col. El Bardo, 1970.
- «Ocho elegías con pie en versos antiguos», (Eight elegies with foot in ancient verses) Papeles Son Armadans, 64, 190 (1972), pp. 71–76.
- Una tromba mortal para los balleneros (Deadly downpour for the whale hunters), B., Lumen, 1975.
- «Canción triste para una parva de heterodoxos», (Sad song for a heterodoxical group) Papeles de Son Armadans, 81, 242 (1976), pp. 157–162.
- El centro inaccessible. Poesía 1967-1980 (The unaccesible centre: Poetry 1967-1980), M., Hiperión, 1981 (with prologue of Jenaro Talens. Contains all his previous poetry books plus the unreleased El centro inaccessible).
- Horizonte desde la rada (Horizon from the stadium), M., Trieste, 1983.
- Sequías, (Dryness) M., Cuadernillos de Madrid, 1983.
- De acedía, (Of dab) M., Hiperión, 1986.
- Ejercicio sobre Rilke, (Exercise over Rilke) Pamplona, Pamiela, 1988.
- Antología poética, (Poetic anthology) ed. Juan Carlos Gea, Albacete, Diputación, 1994.
- Cantil, Granada, Comares, 1995; Murcia, Nausíkaä, 2005.
- Cordura, (Sanity) B., Tusquets, 1999.
- Poeta en diwan, (Poet in diwan) Barcelona, Tusquets, 2004.
- Última fe (Antología poética 1965-1999) (Last faith: Poetic anthology 1965-1999), ed. Ángel L. Prieto de Paula, Madrid, Cátedra, 2005.
Other genres
- Diario austral, (Austral diary) Madrid, Hiperión, 1987.
- La cera que arde, (The burning wax) Albacete, Diputación, 1990.
- Infancia y corrupciones: Memorias I, (Childhood and corruptions: Memories I) Madrid, Alfaguara, 1993.
- Cargar la suerte - Diarios 1968-1992), (Load Luck - Diaries 1968-1992) Madrid, Alfaguara, 1994.
- Una juventud - Memorias II), (A youth - Memories II) Madrid, Alfaguara, 1996.
- Murcia: un perfil, (Murcia: a profile) Cuenca, Ediciones Artesanas, 1999.
- Esquirlas - Dietario 1993-1999, (Fragments - Engagement book 1993-1999) Madrid, Alfaguara, 2000.
- Jazz y días de lluvia - Memorias III), (Jazz and rainy days - Memories III) Madrid, Alfaguara, 2002.