Augusto Ferrán y Forniés (7 July 1835 in Madrid – 2 April 1880 in Madrid) was a Spanish poet of the Postromantic period.

Biography

Ferrán was born in Madrid on 7 July 1835 to well-to-do parents of Catalan and

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

ese descent. The family business was in manufacturing gilded moldings. His father went off to Havana to seek his fortune and Augusto began studying at the ''Instituto del Noviciado''. He travelled to Germany, passing through Paris, and there came in contact with the poetry of

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

as well as

Friedrich Schubert Friedrich "Fritz" Schubert ( el, Φριτς Σούμπερτ; 21 February 1897, Dortmund – 22 October 1947, Heptapyrgion) was a Greek-speaking German NCO Oberfeldwebel (Sergeant) of the Nazi Wehrmacht. As head of the ''Jagdkommando Schubert'' ...

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

and

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

. His mother died in 1859 and he returned to Madrid. Back at home, he founded a

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

, ''El Sábado'', with the aim of disseminating German lyric poetry. The magazine did not last long, but his labors allowed him to meet and befriend Julio Nombela, a

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...

eer. Together they founded another short-lived magazine, ''Las Artes y las Letras''. In 1860 he travelled to Paris with Nombela, but his economic difficulties and prodigal tendencies landed him in the hands of usurers. He was forced to return to Madrid, and there Nombela introduced him to an acquaintance: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. In late 1861 '' El Museo Universal'' published his ''Traducciones e imitaciones del poeta alemán Enrique Heine'' (Translations and Imitations of the German Poet Heinrich Heine), and several of his other works appeared in ''Almanaque'' in 1863. He obtained an editorial post at ''El Semanario Popular'', and this finally positioned him to spread Heine's work to Spain. By 1861 his book ''La soledad'' had appeared in print. The first part of the book reproduced several popular songs of traditional lyricism, and the second part featured original work that imitate their style and inspiration. Recurring themes are a search for solitude in which to flee from a hostile world, the struggle between rich and poor, the passage of time, existentialism, and love. The book received enthusiastic support from Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, and his words were added as a prologue in subsequent editions. He helped create a popular genre of song-based poetry that owed much to Heine; around the same time as

Antonio de Trueba Antonio de Trueba (24 December 181910 March 1889) was a Spanish poet, novelist, and folklorist. Life He was born in Galdames (at the quarter of Montellano), Biscay, in 1821 (some sources say 1819), where he was privately educated. In 1835 he ...

's ''Libro de los cantares'' (1852), fellow Heine translator Eulogio Florentino Sanz and friend Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer were producing very similar work. Other examples of authors moved by the same ''Volkgeist'' include Terencio Thos y Codina (''Semanario Popular'', 1862-1863), Rosalía de Castro (''Cantares gallegos'', 1863),

Ventura Ruiz Aguilera Ventura Ruiz Aguilera (1820–1881) was a Spanish lyric poet, called "the Spanish Béranger.” Biography He was born in 1820 at Salamanca, where he graduated in medicine. He moved to Madrid in 1844, where he engaged in political journalism an ...

(''Armonías y cantares'', 1865), Aristides Pongilioni (''Ráfagas poéticas'', 1865),

Melchor de Palau Melchor may refer to: * Melchor (name) * Melchor Island in Chile *Melchor Ocampo, Nuevo León, a municipality in Mexico * Melchor Ocampo, State of Mexico, a town and municipality in Mexico * Villa de Tututepec de Melchor Ocampo, a town and municipal ...

(''Cantares'', 1866), and José Puig y Pérez (''Coplas y quejas'', 1869). This genre would ultimately lead to the Neopopularist school of the

Generation of 27 The Generation of '27 ( es, Generación del 27) was an influential group of poets that arose in Spain, Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and p ...

. Ferrán spent part of 1863 in the Veruela monastery, after having visited there on several previous occasions. At some point he also resided in Alcoy, where he directed the ''Diario de Alcoy'' (1865-1866), but he eventually returned to the capital city. He may have returned to collaborate on ''La Ilustración de Madrid'' that Bécquer would direct in 1868 during the revolution. When Bécquer died, Ferrán worked on the posthumous edition of his ''Obras'' (1871) alongside Rodríguez Correa and Narciso Campillo. In that same year he produced his second book of verse, ''La pereza'', that revisited his previous work and included various newspaper-style articles. The book's content had a popular meter much like the first, but it possessed much more variety in that it featured '' soleás'', '' seguidillas'', and ''seguidillas gitanas'' in addition to the previous forms. The themes of the book were basically similar, but folklore ran much more strongly in the second. Juan Ramón Jiménez often recited his favorite poem from this book, reproduced below: ::::::::::Eso que estás esperando ::::::::::día y noche, y nunca viene; ::::::::::eso que siempre te falta ::::::::::mientras vives, es la muerte. In 1872 or 1873 he emigrated to Chile where he supposedly married (according to Nombela). Soon after his return in 1878, he was admitted to the Manicomio de Carabanchel in Madrid where he died on 2 April 1880.

Legacy

Ferrán's poetry assumes a break with the traditional tone that is reminiscent of Quintana. His verse is closely related to spoken language, and his sparse words are directed toward a variety of intimate and openly sentimental content that is bettered by being brief and confident. The same tradition was followed by many other important poets like Bécquer,

Antonio Machado Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (26 July 1875 – 22 February 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation ...

, and Juan Ramón Jiménez. In prose, Ferrán published German translations and several legends. His translations of Heine appeared in ''El Museo Universal'' (1861), in ''El Eco del País'' (1865), and in '' La Ilustración Española y Americana'' (1873). His translations often employed the same combinations of seven-syllable and eleven-syllable verses common to Bécquer's work. He also translated heine's famous preface to '' Don Quijote''. Concerning the legends, "Una inspiración alemana" (A German Inspiration) describes the successive unrequited love affairs of a poet who withdraws into his own memory and commits suicide. "El puñal" recounts the mythical foundation of the Veruela monastery, and in "La fuente de Montal" a fountain miraculously helps solve a crime.

Works

Poetry

*''La soledad'' (1861) *''La pereza'' (1871)

Prose

*"Una inspiración alemana", in ''Revista de España'', (March 1872). *"El puñal", a legend published in ''El Museo Universal'' (1863). *"La fuente de Montal" (1866) *E l sapo concho(1868)

External links