Jacint Verdaguer

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Jacint Verdaguer
Monument to Verdaguer at the pilgrimage church Mare de Déu del Mont near Albanyà

Jacint Verdaguer i Santaló (born May 17, 1845 in Folgueroles near Vic ; † June 10, 1902 in Barcelona ) is a poet from Catalonia , who was considered the most important of the movement to revive the Catalan language and culture in the 19th century, the Renaixença , applies. He is also known under the names Mossèn Cinto ("Pater Cinto") and Jacinto . In addition to several monumental epics , his work also includes numerous religiously inspired ballads and folk songs, which are still extremely popular today.

biography

Verdaguer was born on May 17, 1845, the son of a poor stone knocker. Poverty accompanied him all his life, but could not prevent him from maturing into a cheerful, inwardly highly developed poet.

At the age of 11, Jacint Verdaguer began studying at the Vic seminary. At the age of 18 he took a job as a teacher, but continued his studies at the same time.

In 1865 he took part in the Jocs Florals (a traditional poetry contest) in Barcelona, ​​where he immediately won four prizes. The following year he won two more awards.

In 1870 he was ordained a priest and first preached in Vic and the surrounding area, in 1874 he accepted a position as a ship chaplain with the Compañia Transaltántica Española for the route Cádiz - Havana . The Atlantic voyages inspired him to write his epic L'Atlàntida . In 1877 he received the extraordinary price of the Deputation of Barcelona for this work. Also in 1877, Verdaguer accepted a position as a priest in the service of the Count of Comillas in Barcelona.

The impressions of his travels on the emigrant ships flowed into his 1890 poem L'Emigrant , which was set to music by Amadeu Vives in 1893 .

In 1878 he traveled to Rome , where Pope Leo XIII. granted an audience.

After another prize at the Jocs Florals in 1880, he received the honorary title Mestre en Gai Saber ("Master of cheerful knowledge"), which is awarded to authors who have been awarded in at least three different years. In the same year he wrote the text for the song of praise to the Black Madonna of Montserrat , the Virolai , which was widespread throughout Catalonia . This is still sung daily in Montserrat Monastery by the Escolania , the monastery boys' choir.

His work Oda a Barcelona ("Ode to Barcelona"), published in 1883, was published by the city council with a circulation of 100,000.

In 1884 he traveled through France, Switzerland, Germany and Russia.

After a trip through the Rosselló in 1886, his epic from the time of the Reconquista Canigó (named after the Pyrenees peak Canigó ) was published in 1886 .

In 1886 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land .

In 1893 he gave up his job with the Count of Comillas and first settled in the Santurari de la Gleva in Osona , and later in Vallvidrera, Barcelona.

Jacint Verdaguer died on June 10, 1902. His funeral on the Cementiri de Montjuïc was attended by one of the largest gatherings in the history of Barcelona.

Street sign in Canet de Mar

Its special significance up to the present day can be seen in the fact that no more streets and squares in Catalonia are named after any personality than after Jacint Verdaguer. His portrait was also featured on the 500 pesetas banknote .

L'Atlàntida

Verdaguer's epic L'Atlàntida is closely linked to Catalan modernism, the resurgence of the long-suppressed Catalan language and culture in the late 19th century. It includes ten chants. It has been translated from Catalan into several languages ​​(including German). The Provencal poet and Nobel Prize winner for literature, Frédéric Mistral, was an ardent admirer of this work, which represents a unique synthesis of Christianity, and the Celtic and Greek prehistory of Catalonia and Spain. Plato's rousing description of the downfall of Atlantis was, according to the poet's own words, the occasion for his work: “And Atlantis, this real drawbridge, was shattered by the hand of God because he wanted to separate the worlds at the time of corruption, to them in later centuries to be brought together again more beautifully through the giant arms of Columbus. ”In his epic, Verdaguer describes the fall of Atlantis and lets the geographical shape of Spain, the new Atlantis, with its cities, rivers and mountains emerge from mythical battles. An example here is the founding myth of the Catalan capital Barcelona :

During his wandering through the world, Heracles saw the Pyrenees in flames, which the terrible dragon Geryon had set on fire. He saw the beautiful young Pyrene, the rightful Queen of Spain, who had just escaped the flames. The dragon dethroned her and, since she was able to escape it, set the Pyrenees on fire. Pyrene (pyr dt .: fire) eventually dies in the liquid iron leaking from the burning Pyrenees. Heracles vows to avenge them. He pulls down the Mediterranean coast and kneels before the altar of Jupiter on Montjuïc :

“And he sees a boat on the waves
Glide through cliffs like the white foam.
And Hercules promises on his return
To found the city by the barge name,
To make them big like the tall cedar.
Whoever sees them should exclaim with astonishment:
This is the giant daughter of Alciden!
For her sake he demands the trident
From the god of the sea, from Jupiter the lightning.
The hero's request was heard from heaven:
O beautiful Barcelona, ​​your law
Conquered the ocean in his power;
Lightning flashed lightning bolt from your rocks
Down to a proud victory on the battlefield. "

The renaissance of Catalan culture began long before L'Atlàntida was published in 1877, but it was only this work that fully exploited the great poetic possibilities of the Catalan language by - similar to Frédéric Mistral's Mirèio (1859) for Occitan - resorted to the medieval literary form of Catalan.

Works (selection)

Verdaguer , from Ramon Casas ( MNAC ).
  • L'Atlàntida (1876)
    • Translation: Atlantis . German by C (lara) Commer, Freiburg im Breisgau 1897
    • Translation: Atlantis . German by Clara Commer, Freiburg im Breisgau 1911 2. – 3. improve Edition
  • Idil lis i cants místics (1879)
  • Oda a Barcelona (1883)
  • Canigó (1886)
  • Montserrat (1889)
  • The sailor of Sant Pau , story in Catalan narrators , Zurich, Manesse Verlag 1978, new edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-7175-1558-6

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Oriol Pi de Cabanyes: A punta d'espasa: noves glosses d'escriptors . L'Abadia de Montserrat, 2005, ISBN 978-84-8415-707-6 , p. 64
  2. ↑ a b c based on: Diether Rudloff: Romanesque Catalonia, Culture - Art - Spiritual History . Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-87838-273-1 , pp. 35-39: The Verdaguer-Strofe in German is quoted from D. Rudloff, p. 39, who uses the German translation by Clara Commer.
  3. ↑ to: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon . Volume 17, p. 44 f., Article: Jacint Verdaguer, Atlàntida, ISBN 3-463-43200-5

Web links

Commons : Jacint Verdaguer  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Verdaguer, Jacint
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Verdaguer i Santaló, Jacint; Mossèn Cinto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish poet
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Folgueroles at Vic
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1902
Place of death Barcelona