Augusto Ferrán y Forniés (7 July 1835 in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

– 2 April 1880 in Madrid) was a Spanish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

of the Postromantic period.

Biography

Ferrán was born in

on 7 July 1835 to well-to-do parents of Catalan and

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

ese descent. The family business was in manufacturing gilded moldings. His father went off to

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, passing through

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 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 an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

as well as Friedrich Schubert,

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

and

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

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

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

, ''El Sábado'', with the aim of disseminating German

lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, t ...

. 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 Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, 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'' ...

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

usurer Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in ex ...

s. He was forced to return to Madrid, and there Nombela introduced him to an acquaintance:

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida (17 February 1836 – 22 December 1870), better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (), was a Spanish Spanish Romance literature, Romantic poet and writer (mostly short stories), also a playwright, columni ...

. In late 1861 ''

El Museo Universal ''El Museo Universal'' (1857–1869) was a Spanish-language illustrated magazine produced by Gaspar y Roig in Madrid, Spain. It was a traditionalist magazine. In 1869 the magazine was absorbed into ''La Ilustración Española y Americana '' ...

'' 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

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s 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 Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...

, 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's ''Libro de los cantares'' (1852), fellow Heine translator Eulogio Florentino Sanz and friend

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 (''Armonías y cantares'', 1865), Aristides Pongilioni (''Ráfagas poéticas'', 1865), Melchor de Palau (''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. 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 Alcoy (; ; officially: / ) is an industrial and university city, region and municipality located in the Valencian Community, Spain. The Serpis river crosses the municipal boundary of Alcoy. The local authority reported a population of 61,135 r ...

, 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 In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

. 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 ''

soleá ''Soleares'' (plural of ''soleá'', ) is one of the most basic forms or '' palos'' of Flamenco music, probably originating among the Calé Romani people of Cádiz or Seville in Andalusia, the most southern region of Spain. It is usually acc ...

s'', ''

seguidilla The seguidilla (; ; plural in both English and Spanish ''seguidillas''; diminutive of ''seguida'', which means "sequence" and is the name of a dance). Accessed May 2008. is an old Crown of Castile, Castilian folksong and dance form in quick triple ...

s'', and ''seguidillas gitanas'' in addition to the previous forms. The themes of the book were basically similar, but

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

ran much more strongly in the second.

Juan Ramón Jiménez Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (; 23 December 1881 – 29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high ...

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

. In prose, Ferrán published German translations and several

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

s. His translations of Heine appeared in ''El Museo Universal'' (1861), in ''El Eco del País'' (1865), and in ''

La Ilustración Española y Americana ''La Ilustración Española y Americana'' was a weekly Spanish magazine that was published from 1869 to 1921 on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 30th of every month. It was also published biweekly. History The magazine was a continuation of ''El Museo U ...

'' (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 Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a village and hill station in Dang district, G ...

''. 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 A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

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