Rapsodia is a single free verse poem separated into seventeen sections. The whole is a perfect example of a rhapsody, defined as an “enthusiastic and extravagant declaration or composition in an elevated tone; emotional or irregular musical piece”. The text encompasses several different themes: a reflection on the nature of poetry, an examination of the passing of time, the tension between language and experience, the relationship between love and artistic expression and more generally between the visible world and writing and the poetic word as a manifestation and unique expression of an autonomous universe.
“He is the best living Spanish poet.” IVÁN TUBAU, El Mundo
“Some of his poetry is amongst the best being written in both Spain and the Americas.” OCTAVIO PAZ
You can read a translated piece in English here:
http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/bilingual/from-rhapsody
Pere Gimferrer is an extremely prestigious author, one of the most important living poets in contemporary Spanish literature.
This new extended poem has love as its central theme but also offers the reader much more including reflections on subjects such as the passing of time, art and writing.
“He has a deep and first hand knowledge of the great European cultural tradition as any of our writers but is also the one to have gone furthest in introducing the healthy, brazen irreverence of pop.” ANTONIO MUÑOZ MOLINA
