TWO VOICES: Poet and Translator Cyrus Cassells on Catalan Poet Francesc Parcerisas

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Two Voices Events



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Pulitzer-nominated poet Cyrus Cassells and Franscec Parcerisas first struck up a friendship in 1983, when the former was in Barcelona exploring the charming city that has been home to so many artists and writers. Twenty years later the two men met again in Barcelona, and it was then that Cassells made the snap decision to become Parcerisas’ English-language voice. As Cassells tells it, it was a moment of great serendipity and much drama: "In his living room he recited, movingly, in Catalan, the poem "Objects,' which prompted an almost lightning-quick decision on my part to become his translator."

Cassells read a number of Parcerisas' poems to a rapt Two Voices audience, switching with ease from English to Catalan and back.

As Cassells related in the event, he first became interested in Catalan poetery with the work of Salvador Espriu, a frequent Nobel candidate and a poet whom Harold Bloom called "an extraordinary poet by any international standard" before declaring "The Nobel committee is guilty of many errors, and one of those was not to have given the prize to Salvador Espriu."

Cassells went to Barcelona to translate Espriu and discovered Parcerisas. He now translates both.

In between reading poems by Parcerisas, Cassells explained how the language Parcerisas wrote in was banned by the Fascist government in Spain. He also explained how, somewhat uncommonly, Catalan is not Parcerisas' mother tongue but a language he acquired later in life.

Cassells also discussed Parcerisas' role as a famous translator into Catalan, having translating an extensive list of books and authors, among them Joyce Carol Oates, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Susan Sontag, and even The Lord of the Rings. As Cassells explained, so few people translate into Catalan that each translator must work extensively.

Lastly, readers should have a look at this write-up of the event at The Blue Elephant, with photos of Cassells reading and futher information on his translations.

image credit: James McColley Eilers