Ausiàs March

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Monument to Ausiàs March in Gandia , created by José Rausell

Mossèn Ausiàs March (* around 1397 in Gandia , Valencia province , † March 3, 1459 in Valencia ) was a Valencian writer and knight of the late Middle Ages . He is considered one of the most important poets in the Catalan language .

Life

Ausiàs March was probably born in Gandia (other sources name Valencia) around 1397 as the son of the poet and knight Pere March and Lionor Ripoll into a wealthy family who had risen from the bourgeoisie to the knighthood. In 1415, two years after his father's death, he went to the Valencian royal court, where he was knighted in 1419 . From 1420 to 1424 he took part in the campaigns that Alfonso V of Aragón undertook in the Mediterranean, including to Corsica and North Africa. The king thanked him for his services by making him lord of the towns that his father had once administered. He also appointed him master falconer of the Valencian royal court, a position that meant further privileges. March 1437 married for the first time. His wife was Isabell Martorell, sister of Joanot Martorell , the author of Tirant lo Blanc . Shortly after her death, he married Joana Escorna in 1443. She died in 1454. Both women are buried in the monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba . Both marriages remained childless, but March's will shows that he had at least five children out of wedlock. Ausiàs March died in Valencia on March 3, 1459.

plant

March's work consists of 128 poems with a total of over 10,000 verses, which are divided into thematic cycles by literary studies . These cycles are

  • Els cants d'amor (The songs of love)
  • Els cants de mort (The songs of death)
  • El cant espiritual (The Spiritual Song)

language

While the poets of his time orientated themselves on the trobadord poetry and wrote their works in the language of this poetry, the Altoczitan , March was the first poet ever to use his native Catalan.

style

In terms of style, however, March remained stuck with trobadord poetry. He mainly used cross rhymes in eight-verse stanzas with a notch after the fourth verse. But the embracing rhyme (ABBACDDC EFFEGHHG) also occurs more frequently.

Subject

Thematically, March distanced himself more clearly from trobadord poetry, which he viewed as aloof and unworldly. His poetry is a constant exploration of the human condition, and a large part of his work revolves around his own life and personal experiences. This becomes clear in the "Els cants de mort", which were written shortly after the death of his second wife.

March also lacks the idealization of a woman typical of troubadour poets, as expressed in courtly love . For him, women are human beings with strengths and weaknesses, virtues and vices. Accordingly, the description of a beloved woman in his poetry is not exhausted in praise of her beauty, but also addresses her character traits.

meaning

Ausiàs March's poetry overcame the then applicable norms of trobadord poetry and appeared to many contemporaries to be more sincere, more realistic, and less detached than these. This made him a much-respected poet during his lifetime, although his work first appeared in print in 1539. He influenced numerous important writers on the Iberian Peninsula , including Garcilaso de la Vega and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza . According to some literary scholars, sixteenth-century Catalan literature consists essentially of attempts to imitate Ausiàs March's poetry.

literature

  • Ausiàs March: Poems (Old Catalan and German), translated from Old Catalan, edited and provided with an introduction and a glossary by Hans-Ingo Radatz, Frankfurt: Domus Editoria Europaea, 1993, ISBN 3-927884-43-X (Catalan poetry; 2), 184 pp.
  • Ferraté, Joan. Llegir Ausiàs March . Barcelona: Assaig, 1992. ISBN 8477270929 Collection of annotated poems in Catalan.
  • Saddle, Sabine. Ausiàs March: Catalan Poetry in the 15th Century . Frankfurt: Domus Editoria Europaea, 1993. ISBN 3927884294

Web links

Commons : Ausiàs March  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) / Auzias_March  - Sources and full texts (English)
personal data
SURNAME March, Ausiàs
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Valencian writer and knight
DATE OF BIRTH around 1397
PLACE OF BIRTH Gandia , Valencia Province
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1459
Place of death Valencia