Miquel Martí i Pol (; 19 March 1929 – 11 November 2003) was one of the most popular and widely-read Catalan poets of the twentieth century, publishing more than 1,500 poems.

Biography

At the age of 14, Martí i Pol started work in the office of a textile factory. He published his first poetry when he was only 15. Based on his experience in the factory, he wrote in 1959 a collection of poems called ''La fàbrica'' (the Factory). However, they were to remain unpublished until 1970 as his family were afraid that their publication might cause him to lose his job. He worked at the factory until 1973, when at the age of 43 the

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he had contracted forced him to quit. Martí i Pol spent his whole life in the town of his birth,

Roda de Ter Roda de Ter () is a municipality in the comarca of Osona, province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, near Vic, on the Ter River above the Sau Reservoir. Population: 5,435 (2004), area: 2.18 km2. Its church is dedicated to St. Peter. Main monu ...

. He was committed to the people of the town and factory and also to the social class to which they belonged. He wrote: “I want to speak of them/in speaking of people today/ I want to speak of them. Without them, I do not exist.” However, in his best-selling collection of poems (over 100,000 copies sold) entitled ''Estimada Marta'' (Dear Marta), he showed that he could also poeticize an amorous and erotic relationship between a man and woman. In his later work, he explored the recurring themes of love, desire and death. Martí i Pol was married twice and had two children from his first marriage.

Main works

Some of his main works are: *1954: ''Paraules al vent'' *1966: ''El poble'' *1972: ''La fàbrica'' *1972: ''Vint-i-set poemes en tres temps'' *1975: ''L'arrel i l'escorça'' *1976: ''El llarg viatge'' *1977: ''Amb vidres a la sang'' *1978: ''Estimada Marta'' *1991: ''Suite de Parlavà'' *2002: ''Després de tot''

Translator

Apart from writing poetry, Martí i Pol also translated over 20 books, mainly from French. Among the authors he translated are Saint-Exupéry,

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she ...

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, Lévi-Strauss and Zola.

Politics

Martí i Pol was an active member of the PSUC (Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia) under the last years of the

Franco dictatorship Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

. He joined in 1968 and left in 1982, following a comment by

Santiago Carrillo Santiago José Carrillo Solares (18 January 1915 – 18 September 2012) was a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (main), Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from 1960 to 1982. He was exiled during ...

, long-time leader of the

Spanish Communist Party The Spanish Communist Party (in ), was the first communist party in Spain, formed out of the Federación de Juventudes Socialistas (Federation of Socialist Youth, youth wing of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). The founders of the party, that ...

, that the PSUC was "too Catalan and little Spanish".

References

External links

*
Martí i Pol at the AELC
(Association of Writers in Catalan Language), in Catalan, English and Spanish.
Miquel Martí i Pol at lletrA, Catalan Literature Online (Open University of Catalunya)
*

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Catalans, Catalan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player from Spain who has been the manager of club Manchester City F.C., Ma ...

reads
Ara mateix
' (Right Now) by Martí i Pol {{DEFAULTSORT:Marti I Pol, Miquel Catalan-language poets Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes winners 1929 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Spanish poets