In the 1960s the young Spanish poet Francisco Brines, one of the most important and intense authors of Spanish lyric poetry in the second half of the 20th century, reached Corfu coasts. He wrote seven profound collections of poems, then gathered in one volume evocatively called Ensayo de una despedida. Poesía completa (1960-1997) (Barcelona, Tusquets 1997 and 2006). Francisco Brines was born in Oliva (Valencia) in 1932 and belongs to the so-called “Generation of ‘50”. However, despite his unquestionable role within the group of poets that contributed to a fruitful and bright period in Spanish literature, his independent and original path within the generation canon is undeniable as well. The distinctive feature of Brines’ poetics is elegy. His poetry arises from a deep and steady feeling of loss. It concerns a glorious and past age, which echoes in the present only through the intense and emotional experience of memory. In this poetics of stoic resignation and invitation to enjoy every single moment, Greek and Latin imagination not only is an aesthetic theme or an interpretative and stylistic topos, but also becomes a real experience that, however isolated and enclosed in exact space and time categories, is mythicized or idealized in contact with poetry. Among the Greek places that appear in the Spanish poet’s lyric texts, Corfu island stands out. Corfu is a locus amoenus, the idealized but real setting of the love experience that marks Brines’ life and poetry indelibly (and will be represented in particular in the series of lyric poems dedicated to D. K.). Indeed, on the coasts of the mythical and epic island of the Phaeacians the young poet had enjoyed and finally recognized that happy and pure sharing experience which may justify an entire life, in the middle of repetitive, monotonous and debasing exposure “ai rapporti e ai commerci” (to quote Kavafis’ words, whose poetics recalls that of the Valencian poet in many respects, and whose verses started to circulate in Spain just in the 1960s translated by José Ángel Valente, a friend of Brines and a poet of the postwar second generation as well). In lyric poems as “Relato superviviente” and “Reminiscencias”, belonging respectively to the collections Palabras a la oscuridad (1966) and Aún no (1971), and in the poem “Los veranos”, included in the volume El otoño de las rosas (1986), Brines represents through poetry a fleeting and ineffable instant, which is inexorably headed towards nada (nothing, the only destination of human destiny according to the poet), but perfect. What is reflected “en la luna de Corfú” is a clear fragment of that lost paradise (Eden, Arcadia or simply youth) where love and memory find their ideal and brightest expression thanks to poetry: a place of sublime and eternal resistance to oblivion.
«En la luna de Corfú»: amore e memoria nella poesia di Francisco Brines
A. Federico;S. De Giorgi;S. Martelli;P. Laskaris
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2020-01-01
Abstract
In the 1960s the young Spanish poet Francisco Brines, one of the most important and intense authors of Spanish lyric poetry in the second half of the 20th century, reached Corfu coasts. He wrote seven profound collections of poems, then gathered in one volume evocatively called Ensayo de una despedida. Poesía completa (1960-1997) (Barcelona, Tusquets 1997 and 2006). Francisco Brines was born in Oliva (Valencia) in 1932 and belongs to the so-called “Generation of ‘50”. However, despite his unquestionable role within the group of poets that contributed to a fruitful and bright period in Spanish literature, his independent and original path within the generation canon is undeniable as well. The distinctive feature of Brines’ poetics is elegy. His poetry arises from a deep and steady feeling of loss. It concerns a glorious and past age, which echoes in the present only through the intense and emotional experience of memory. In this poetics of stoic resignation and invitation to enjoy every single moment, Greek and Latin imagination not only is an aesthetic theme or an interpretative and stylistic topos, but also becomes a real experience that, however isolated and enclosed in exact space and time categories, is mythicized or idealized in contact with poetry. Among the Greek places that appear in the Spanish poet’s lyric texts, Corfu island stands out. Corfu is a locus amoenus, the idealized but real setting of the love experience that marks Brines’ life and poetry indelibly (and will be represented in particular in the series of lyric poems dedicated to D. K.). Indeed, on the coasts of the mythical and epic island of the Phaeacians the young poet had enjoyed and finally recognized that happy and pure sharing experience which may justify an entire life, in the middle of repetitive, monotonous and debasing exposure “ai rapporti e ai commerci” (to quote Kavafis’ words, whose poetics recalls that of the Valencian poet in many respects, and whose verses started to circulate in Spain just in the 1960s translated by José Ángel Valente, a friend of Brines and a poet of the postwar second generation as well). In lyric poems as “Relato superviviente” and “Reminiscencias”, belonging respectively to the collections Palabras a la oscuridad (1966) and Aún no (1971), and in the poem “Los veranos”, included in the volume El otoño de las rosas (1986), Brines represents through poetry a fleeting and ineffable instant, which is inexorably headed towards nada (nothing, the only destination of human destiny according to the poet), but perfect. What is reflected “en la luna de Corfú” is a clear fragment of that lost paradise (Eden, Arcadia or simply youth) where love and memory find their ideal and brightest expression thanks to poetry: a place of sublime and eternal resistance to oblivion.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
