Joseba Sarrionandia
Encyclopedia
Joseba Sarrionandia Uribelarrea (Iurreta
, Biscay
, April 13, 1958 – ) is a Basque
writer and member of the Basque separatist group ETA
. He has written many books of poetry and short stories as well as novels. In 1985 he escaped from prison after being convicted as an ETA member and since then has lived in secret as he continues writing.
PhD from the University of Deusto
, Bilbao
and started working as a Basque language teacher. He taught phonetics
in the Bergara
center of the UNED
and also in the Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea and wrote pieces for Zeruko Argia, Anaitasuna, Jakin and Oh Euzkadi magazines. He started the group Pott Banda along with Bernardo Atxaga
, Manu Ertzilla, Ruper Ordorika
, Jon Juaristi
and Joxemari Iturralde. He also created the Ibaizabal magazine. He worked with short narrations and also translated books, notably Samuel Taylor Coleridge
's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
.
In 1980, while member of ETA
he was arrested by Spanish
police and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Since then the realities of prison appeared in his writings. In 1985 San Fermin
day (July 7) he escaped from prison with Iñaki Pikabea as there was a concert in the jail with Basque singer Imanol Larzabal, they hid themselves inside a loudspeaker. The Basque radical rock group Kortatu
created the song Sarri, Sarri in honor of this. Since that day he lives in secret and the topic of banishment/exile is foremost in his writing. In his novel Lagun Izoztua (in Basque
The Frozen Friend) he writes about banishment. He has written books and poems which have been sung by different Basque singers as Jexuxmai Lopetegi, Mikel Laboa
, Ruper Ordorika
and Fermin Muguruza
. There is also an audio book called Hau da ene ondasun guzia with his voice reading poems and many songs performed by different singers.
, Constantine P. Cavafy
, T. S. Eliot
, Manuel Bandeira
and Fernando Pessoa
.
Translation source
Iurreta
Iurreta is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. Iurreta is home to Basque radio and television broadcaster Euskal Telebista....
, Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
, April 13, 1958 – ) is a Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
writer and member of the Basque separatist group ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
. He has written many books of poetry and short stories as well as novels. In 1985 he escaped from prison after being convicted as an ETA member and since then has lived in secret as he continues writing.
Biography
He earned a Basque PhilologyBasque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
PhD from the University of Deusto
University of Deusto
The University of Deusto is a Spanish Jesuit University, with campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastián, Spain.-History:The University of Deusto first opened in 1886, having been founded because of the Basque Country's desire to have its own university and the Society of Jesus's wish to move its School...
, Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
and started working as a Basque language teacher. He taught phonetics
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
in the Bergara
Bergara
Bergara is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, in the north of Spain.An Enlightened center of education operated by the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País , it was the place where Faustino Elhuyar discovered wolfram.During the Carlist...
center of the UNED
Uned
The Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia , is the only state-run Spanish distance-learning university, with headquarters in Madrid, Spain...
and also in the Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea and wrote pieces for Zeruko Argia, Anaitasuna, Jakin and Oh Euzkadi magazines. He started the group Pott Banda along with Bernardo Atxaga
Bernardo Atxaga
Bernardo Atxaga is a Basque writer and self-translator.-Biography:Atxaga was born in Asteasu, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country), in 1951. He received a diploma in economics from the University of Bilbao, and studied philosophy at the University of Barcelona...
, Manu Ertzilla, Ruper Ordorika
Ruper Ordorika
Ruper Ordorika, born at Oñati in 1956, is a Basque singer-songwriter. He is generally considered one of the greatest renewers of basque songwriting....
, Jon Juaristi
Jon Juaristi
Jon Juaristi Linacero is a Spanish poet, essayist and translator in Spanish and Basque, as well as a self-confessed former ETA militant...
and Joxemari Iturralde. He also created the Ibaizabal magazine. He worked with short narrations and also translated books, notably Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and was published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Modern editions use a later revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss...
.
In 1980, while member of ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
he was arrested by Spanish
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...
police and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Since then the realities of prison appeared in his writings. In 1985 San Fermin
San Fermín
The festival of San Fermín in the city of Pamplona , is a deeply rooted celebration held annually from 12:00, 6 July, when the opening of the fiesta is marked by setting off the pyrotechnic chupinazo, to midnight 14 July, with the singing of the Pobre de Mí...
day (July 7) he escaped from prison with Iñaki Pikabea as there was a concert in the jail with Basque singer Imanol Larzabal, they hid themselves inside a loudspeaker. The Basque radical rock group Kortatu
Kortatu
Kortatu was a ska punk band from the Basque Country formed in Irun in the summer of 1984.Kortatu was born in the context of the first democracy years in Spain since 1936. They had a big significance for left-wing basque nationalism as precursors of a new wave of music: Basque Radical Rock...
created the song Sarri, Sarri in honor of this. Since that day he lives in secret and the topic of banishment/exile is foremost in his writing. In his novel Lagun Izoztua (in Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
The Frozen Friend) he writes about banishment. He has written books and poems which have been sung by different Basque singers as Jexuxmai Lopetegi, Mikel Laboa
Mikel Laboa
Mikel Laboa Mancisidor was one of the Basque Country's most important singer-songwriters.Considered the patriarch of Basque music, his music has had an influence on younger generations...
, Ruper Ordorika
Ruper Ordorika
Ruper Ordorika, born at Oñati in 1956, is a Basque singer-songwriter. He is generally considered one of the greatest renewers of basque songwriting....
and Fermin Muguruza
Fermin Muguruza
Fermin Muguruza is a Basque rock musician, singer, songwriter, producer, record label manager, and co-founder for the ska punk band Kortatu, active from 1983 to 1988, and for the crossover group Negu Gorriak, active from 1990 to 1996.He is the brother of musicians Iñigo Muguruza and Jabier...
. There is also an audio book called Hau da ene ondasun guzia with his voice reading poems and many songs performed by different singers.
Works
- Izuen gordelekuetan barrena (1981)
- Narrazioak (1983)
- Intxaur azal baten barruan. Eguberri amarauna (1983)
- Alkohola poemak (1984)
- Ni ez naiz hemengoa (1985)
- Atabala eta euria (1986)
- Marinel zaharrak (1987)
- Marginalia (1988)
- Ez gara gure baitakoak (1989)
- Izeba Mariasunen ipuinak (1989)
- Ainhoari gutunak (1990)
- Ifar aldeko orduak (1990)
- Gartzelako poemak (1992)
- Han izanik hona naiz (1992)
- Hnuy illa nyha majah yahoo (1995)
- Miopeak, bizikletak eta beste langabetu batzuk (1995)
- Hitzen ondoeza (1997)
- Hau da nire ondasun guzia (1999). This book is published in Basque, English, German, French and Spanish.
- Zitroi ur komikiak: Joseba Sarrionandia komikitan (2000)
- Lagun izoztua (2001)
- XX. mendeko poesia kaierak: Joseba Sarrionandia (2002)
- Kolosala izango da (2003)
- Akordatzen (2004)
- Harrapatutako txorien hegalak (2005)
- Munduko zazpi herrialdetako ipuinak (2008)
- Gau ilunekoak (2008)
- Idazlea zeu zara, irakurtzen duzulako (2010)
- Moroak gara behelaino artean? (2010)
Translations
He has translated books by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, Constantine P. Cavafy
Constantine P. Cavafy
Constantine P. Cavafy, also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes was a renowned Greek poet who lived in Alexandria and worked as a journalist and civil servant...
, T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, Manuel Bandeira
Manuel Bandeira
Manuel Carneiro de Sousa Bandeira Filho was a poet, literary critic, and translator.Bandeira wrote over 20 books of poetry and prose. In 1904, he found out that he suffered from tuberculosis, which encouraged him to move from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, because of Rio's tropical beach weather...
and Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa, born Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa , was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.-Early years in Durban:On 13 July...
.
Prizes and recognition
- Ignacio Aldekoa Prize
- Resurreccion Maria Azkue Prize
- Bilbao City Council Prize
- Spanish Literature critics', Basque Narrative Prize
One of his poems
Esklabu erremintaria Sartaldeko oihanetan gatibaturik Erromara ekarri zinduten, esklabua, erremintari ofizioa eman zizuten eta kateak egiten dituzu. Labetik ateratzen duzun burdin goria nahieran molda zenezake, ezpatak egin ditzakezu zure herritarrek kateak hauts deitzaten, baina zuk, esklabu horrek, kateak egiten dituzu, kate gehiago. Joseba Sarrionandia |
The blacksmith slave Captive in the rainforests of the West they brought you to Rome, slave, they gave you the blacksmith work and you make chains. The red iron that you carry out the oven can be adapted as you want, you can make swords in order that your people could break the chains, but you, this slave, you make chains, more chains. Joseba Sarrionandia |
Translation source
External links
- Izuen gordelekuetan barrena, online poems.
- Gartzelako poemak, online poems.
- Project for translating a poem into as many languages as possible using wiki technology.
- Ez diren gauzak Poems sung by Jexuxmai Lopetegi