Synopsis
Gabriel Aresti (1933-1975) was the poetic voice of both resistance and renewal for a generation and beyond of Basques in the 1960s and until his untimely death at the age of forty-one. The collections included in the present work Downhill (1959, Maldan behera in Basque) and Rock & Core (1964, Harri eta herri in Basque) represent two distinct periods in his poetry: the former an epic dreamlike and visionary tale of descent and ascent, death and rebirth, a symbolist treatise on resurrection told through the voice of a superman an Ego. In a complete stylistic about-turn meanwhile the latter is a robust, gritty, and direct tract socially conscious poetry written in a clear, comprehensible form that plays on the metaphor of stone and rock as resistance, endurance. Amaia Gabantxo's stunning translation of these two seminal works from the original Basque, the first time they have been presented in English, brings the urgency and force of the originals to life and will take readers on an unforgettable journey deep into the rock, the core of Basque culture. It may be a bumpy ride at times, but the rewards will live long in the memory.
About the Author
Gabriel Aresti was born in Bilbao in 1933. He came from a Basque-speaking family that did not transmit the language to its children, obliging him to learn it for himself from scratch as a young adult. After studying commerce, he earned a modest living as an accountant, trying to support his wife and three daughters on fairly meager means. Outside his professional and domestic life, and alongside Euskara (the Basque language), his other lifelong obsession was poetry. He published his first poems at the age of twenty-one but really came to the fore in the 1960s with landmark works that revolutionized the genre in Euskara. His was a socially aware voice that believed passionately in the transformational capacity of poetry. A clearly urban poet, with the industrial city of Bilbao central to his work, he nevertheless frequently invoked predominantly rural Basque traditions, such as the significance of bertsolaritza (oral improvised poetry). In addition, he founded publishing houses and collaborated on both theater and music projects. He was one of the principal champions of establishing a standardized form of Basque in the face of significant opposition from predominantly traditionalist sectors in the world of Basque philology. And politically, he challenged both the conservative face of Basque nationalism and the brutal realities of the Franco dictatorship. He died prematurely in 1975, but his legacy runs deep in Basque culture to this day.
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