Carles Fages de Climent (1902 in

Figueres Figueres (; ) is the capital city of Alt Empordà county, in the Girona region, Catalonia, Spain. The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Dalí Theatre and Museum, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which att ...

– 1968) was a writer, poet and journalist from the

Empordà Empordà (; ) is a natural and historical region of Catalonia, Spain, divided since 1936 into two '' comarques'', Alt Empordà and Baix Empordà. The city of Figueres, an important urban and economic center of the Empordà, was designated th ...

, a historical region of Catalonia, Spain. He was born in Figueres on May 16, 1902. In Figueres' high school, he met

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

, starting a friendship that would last all their lives. Fages de Climent contributed to the literary mythification of his native region, taking the

, the northern wind, the tramuntana and its people as a thematic basis of a multiple literary production (poetry, prose, theater and journalism). Thus, he created literary characters like the Cobbler of Ordis – comparable, according to Eugenio d'Ors to

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

of Cervantes. He also contributed in a decisive way to conferring determinate attributions to certain villages of the Empordà like (

Llers Llers () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, Girona, Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of ...

, land of witches; or

Vila-sacra Vila-sacra () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, Girona, Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia ...

, capital of the world).

Fages and Dalí

He collaborated several times with his friend and schoolmate Salvador Dalí, who, in 1924, being still almost unknown painter, illustrated a book for the first time. It was Fages' poem, in Catalan language ''Les bruixes de Llers (The Witches of Llers)''. He illustrated as well another book of Fages de Climent, ''La balada del Sabater d'Ordis (The Balad of the Cobbler of Ordis)'' (1954), writing also the epilogue. They finally worked together at the occasion of the homage that the city of

paid, in 1961, to Salvador Dalí. They made an auca – a series of pictures with captions in rhyming couplets which tell a story – entitled in Catalan language
El triomf i el rodolí de la Gala i en Dalí
' (''The triumph and the couplet of Gala and Dalí''). Fages put the verses and Dalí the drawings. The text is a poetic biography of the painter and the ilustracions provide a brilliant synthesis of all the Dalinian symbology. Thus, the

soft watches ''The Persistence of Memory'' (, ) is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí and one of the most recognizable works of Surrealism. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, since 1934 the painting has been in the collection of the Museu ...

, the ants, the

Angelus FIle:Jean-François Millet (II) 001.jpg, ''The Angelus (painting), The Angelus'' (1857–1859) by Jean-François Millet The Angelus (; Latin for "angel") is a Catholic devotion commemorating the Incarnation (Christianity), Incarnation of Jesus ...

Millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

, the shoemaker of

Ordis Ordis () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, Girona, Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2 ...

, and some of the main Dalinian referents, like

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

or Gaudí. It is also worth mentioning Dalí's paintwork "Christ of the Tramontana", held in the

Dalí Theatre and Museum The Dalí Theatre and Museum (, ; ) is a museum dedicated to the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres, in Catalonia, Spain. Salvador Dalí lived there from 1984 to 1989, and is buried in a crypt below the stage. The museum received ...

– carried out by Salvador Dalí in homage to Fages de Climent on the occasion of his death, and that makes allusion to one of the most popular verses of Fages de Climent, "The Prayer to the Christ of the Tramuntana".

References

*This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Catalan-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of January 15, 2008.
Carles Fages de Climent

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fages de Climent, Carles 1902 births 1968 deaths Catalan-language poets Catalan-language writers 20th-century Spanish poets