Jaume Grau Casas

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Jaume Grau Casas (born December 2, 1896 in Barcelona , † November 8, 1950 in Valencia ) was a left-wing, Catalan nationalist writer and translator. He is considered the most important poet of the planned language Esperanto from Catalonia . His essays and diaries from his imprisonment in internment camps in the south of France are among the outstanding documents about the living conditions at the time.

Life

Grau Casas was born into simple circumstances as the son of the porter Sebastià Grau i Fageda. He worked as an accountant, translator, writer and secretary to the Magistrate of Sant Quintí de Mediona (Spanish: San Quintín de Mediona). He was involved in various social and political movements, especially those that were close to Catalan nationalism ( Catalanism ). In this context he was imprisoned for several months from the end of 1934 to 1935 in the wake of the “ Spanish October ” after the events of October 6th. In 1938 he got caught up in the power struggles in the republican, counter-Frankist camp and was sent to prison again. He processed the experiences made during these prison terms in Catalan in his “Records de la presó” (“Reports from the prison” 1934 and 1935) and “Nous records de la presó” (“New reports from the prison” 1938). Some of these texts were published in contemporary newspapers.

After the victory of the Frankists in the Spanish civil war , in February 1939 he fled via the Pyrenees to France before being arrested again , where he was held for five years in various internment camps: in Argelès , Bram , again Argelès, Récébedou , Nexon , Séreilhac and finally in Tombebouc . He was released from prison in Toulouse in 1944, and returned to Catalonia in 1948. His records from the camps remained unpublished except for the volume “Ulisses en el fang - Poemes de l'exili” (“Ulysses in the morass - poems from exile”, 1939–1942), but the manuscripts are in the archive of the Catalan Esperanto Obtained Bunds in Sabadell .

After his return to Barcelona, ​​he and his wife soon moved to Valencia, where acquaintances had found him a porter position. The now grown daughter and son stayed in Barcelona. After his “Kataluna Antologio” (“Catalan anthology”), a collection of Catalan literature in Esperanto translation, had already appeared in 1925 and was reissued in 1931, he devoted himself in Valencia in particular to work on a “Hispana Antologio” (“Spanish anthology “), Which has disappeared after his untimely death at the age of 53.

Esperanto

Grau Casas learned Esperanto in 1914 when he was eighteen. His brother and later father-in-law were also Esperantists. From 1920 to 1924 he was editor of the Kataluna Esperantisto (Catalan Esperantist) and for a long time president and secretary of the international competition of Esperanto literature "Internaciaj Floraj Ludoj" ("International Flower Games "). In 1919 and 1936 he himself won the main “Natura Floro” prize. From 1926 he was a member of the Lingva Komitato (language committee) and was temporarily vice-president of the Akademio de Esperanto (Academy of the Esperanto language, the highest body in linguistic questions). At the national level he was chairman of the Esperanto Society in Barcelona and secretary of the Catalan Esperanto Federation. He taught Esperanto at the Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular (AEP) and wrote two Esperanto textbooks in Catalan.

Works

Poetry collections in Esperanto

  • Amaj poemoj (love poems), 1924
  • Novaj amaj poemoj (New Love Poems), 1927
  • La lastaj poemoj (The Last Poems), 1936

Poems in Catalan

  • Cançó d'amor i melangia , 1932, participation in the Jocs Florals de Barcelona (Flower Games of Barcelona)
  • Somni d'uns dies de juny , 1936

Collection of poems in Spanish

  • El suplicio de tántalo , 1937

Translations

  • Kataluna Antologio , 1925 (editor and main translator)
  • La kataluna popolkanto (The Catalan Folk Song ), (with Joan Amades Gelats), 1925.
  • Barbaraj prozaĵoj (Barbarian prose pieces ), translation by Prudenci Bertrana , 1926

Textbooks

  • Llengua auxxiliar internacional esperanto Primer Manual , 1930
  • Curs complet de la llengua internacional [Gramatiko, ekzercaro kaj vortaro], 1934

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gray Casas, Jaume
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1950
Place of death Valencia