- Carles Riba
Carles Riba i Bracons (
23 September 1893 - 1959) was a Catalan poet, writer and translator.He was born in
Barcelona and studied Law and Philosophy at theUniversity of Barcelona . In 1916 he married the poet Clementina Arderiu. He worked for a time in the School of Librarianship.In 1922 he travelled to
Munich to study underKarl Vossler . He completed his classical education by travelling to Italy and Greece in the 1920s. Around this time he collaborated withPompeu Fabra on the General Dictionary of the Catalan Language ("Diccionari General de la Llengua Catalana").Later he worked in the Bernat Metge Foundation ("Fundació Bernat Metge"), specializing in
classical studies , and became lecturer in Greek at theIndependent University of Barcelona in 1934.Because of his association with
Republicanism andCatalan nationalism , he was compelled to flee toMontpellier , France, after the victory ofFrancoist forces at the end of theSpanish Civil War in 1939. In 1943 he returned to Barcelona, working on translations from classical authors for the Fundació Bernat Metge, of which he eventually became director.He wrote poetic works including "Estances" (1919 and 1930), "Les Elegies de Bierville" (1943), "Salvatge Cor" (1952), "Del joc i del foc" (1947), and "Esbós per a tres oratoris" (1957), as well as translations of
Constantine Cavafy ,Friedrich Hölderlin ,Edgar Allan Poe ,Rainer Maria Rilke andFranz Kafka , and classical works includingHomer ´s "Odyssey ",Plutarch ´s "Parallel Lives ", and dramas bySophocles andEuripides into Catalan.Riba's work has been translated into English by
Joan Gili andPearse Hutchinson .The famous American critic
Harold Bloom included Riba's poetry in his selection of theWestern canon .External links
* [http://www.lletra.net/noms/criba/index.html Webpage devoted to Carles Riba (lletrA (UOC), Catalan Literature Online)] en_icon
* [http://www.uoc.edu/lletra/noms/criba/index.html Carles Riba at Lletra, espai virtual de literatura catalana] ca_icon
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