In the presence of the famous novelist Homeland signing books that everyone knows, as well as stories, essays and translations, Fernando Aramburyou were a poet. A young vate with curly hair, a libertarian spirit and a love of surrealism, belonging to one of the groups that flourished in the Transitional Period between culture and activism, called in his case. CLOC. According to the author, CLOC members (if the acronym was not disclosed) wanted: “Take literature off the table and onto the streets” and so one day they broadcast a radio soap opera from Radio Popular in San Sebastián, another day they published obituary pamphlets during an election campaign, and another day they came second in a literary competition thanks to other people’s poems; Neruda. Although humor and a certain provocation have survived in some of his works, Aramburu has little to do with the serious expression and professorial attitude we are accustomed to.
The poems he wrote at that time, starting from 1977, and continued to be published in small provincial publishing houses until the first two thousand, have now been collected in this book. body symphonyThe anthology volume, part of the respected poetry collection published by Tusquets new scriptures. “This aspect, to which I have devoted years, intensity and hours, is unknown compared to my aspect as a storyteller.“, said this Monday morning, during the presentation of the book in Madrid, the San Sebastian author said that in his case, “poetry is a profession, the novel is a job that requires a set of skills and knowledge”.
And the editor of Tusquets, Juan CerezoThe author explains that the idea of publishing this book came not from them, but from another poet. Francisco Javier IrazokiJoining an old friendship with Aramburu. “This book is a dream of Irazoki, who wanted my poetry to be published in this Tusquets collection,” the writer said. Homeland. “He dedicated himself to transferring my poems to the computer without telling me anything, because there was no Word version of the poems, only on paper. But my friend not only transcribed them, but with his great love for my poems, he came up with the cover art, wrote the afterword and corrected and revised… I don’t know a better antidote to spelling mistakes than that,” he joked. Irazoki said, “just to make me happy. “He took care of everything with the desire to not only make potential readers happy, but also make them happy,” he continued.
Even the title corresponding to one of the titles in this volume, containing the verse work he wrote between 1981 and 1983, was suggested by the Navarrese poet and, according to Aramburu, this expresses very well the tone and intention of the book. book. . “Symphony is more or less a search for a musical style. It takes into account the poetic features of the language. And corporal, because my poetry is actually physical: In it we often talk about physical love, eroticism, and also its opposite, bodily collapse, wear and tear, death….” “I am whole and real,” declared Aramburu in this book, “in a novel I may have written about subjects that interest me, but without leaving my small, modest personal truth there. I am not here, I am here. And here I am. In fact, I was afraid of being a little embarrassed in saving the old texts, but that was not the case.” .”
Prose writer etc. poet
Regarding the difference between his past as a poet and his present, which is basically a novelist, the author said: “He does not come out of being a poet unscathed. I I had to spend a year depoetizing myself”. To release, to escape the tyranny of rhymes, metaphors and the obsessive care of the word. However, despite this process, he admits: “I never actually gave up poetry. Thanks to these years of dedication I’ve developed a poetic sensibility that allows me to find him wherever he is.. For example, in the work of others. “I continued to read poems assiduously, and in fact it was the last thing I did every day: read two or three poems by an old or current author.” It’s his daily dose of “harmony, beauty and intensity of thought,” he says. It is an impulse that he defines as the basic need of man and, as can be understood from its titles, is very clearly present in those who follow it. Homeland, Self-portrait without meA book of “poetic prose,” it “contains more poems than I understand, but there are no poems in it.”
As for republishing a book of this nature without nuances, Aramburu said he believes he will do so, albeit after a long time. “If nothing goes wrong and I manage to survive ten or twenty years, I would be very pleased if the last word I wrote was poetic.”. This could be a final project that “won’t have to be released in his lifetime.”
Cerezo says that the writer who has recently brought the greatest joy to the publishing house decided at some point in his life to switch to prose, but “he could have been a poet with an excellent future. “The books show that he was full of talent and was composing extraordinary compositions from the age of 18.” These books, published in his youth, the editor added: “they fantastically illuminate, clarify, and dialogue with his usual themes with those that readers of his novels and stories recognize in him.”: An interest in the social environment and period in which the Basque Country lived, but also the relationship with the father and mother, moments of melancholy fullness, things like the tone of many poems, very autumnal and very rainy… Then that magnificent thing, love, and its beautiful verses celebration”.
When asked about more current issues that concern him personally or the future of today’s world, Aramburu expressed concern about the progress of Europe, which after decades of prosperity and prosperity now faces tangible dangers. “You only have to watch the news to understand that we are surrounded by fires,” he said. He clarified his position on the issue Controversies surrounding the documentary about Josu Ternera, said he was not opposed to it existing or being seen, but instead insisted that it be presented “at an international event without any moral basis put before it.” And as for the latest film adaptation of one of his books, ambitious claimstransformed by the director Jaime Chavarri in the movie golden applehe was blunt: “better things have been done.”