The Poetry of Salvador Espriu: Bare Crag into Song

Abstract

Although the poet's work is very different from that of many twentieth-century writers, it is undeniably modern. If Jorge Luis Borges had a social conscience, he might write like Salvador Espriu. An overriding concern with time and illusion, death and memory, unites the two artists. Fascinated by the image of the labyrinth, both draw upon a diverse array of erudite sources such as the Cabala in their writing. Of course this comparison has limits. Whereas Borges writes some books with a gauchoesque flavor (e.g., the Milongas) and others about chimeras and mazes, Espriu consistently fuses the local and metaphysical, injecting a note of contemporaneity and social criticism into even his most philosophical work. Furthermore, as initially stated, he continues to write not in Borges's Spanish but in his own native tongue. From the publication of his first book at the age of sixteen, Espriu has written in Catalan, even during that period in which its use was illegal.2 Bearer of a proud tradition dating from the thirteenth century, Espriu works the elements of everyday Catalan life (goat paths, fennel) into a profoundly tragic vision of history which remains both individual and communal.