Friendship in Catalan literature
BarcelonaI read about a commotion Don't bother answering me (Empúries, 2026), the book that collects the letters that were sent Salvador Espriu and Joan VinyoliThey are not particularly poetic, political, or socially contextual letters. They are personal lettersThe messages exchanged between two friends to celebrate life's triumphs and lament its sorrows and disappointments. In total, they contain forty letters from Espriu to Vinyoli, eight from Espriu to Teresa Sastre (Vinyoli's wife), and only seven from Vinyoli to Espriu.
According to scholars Natàlia Juan and Georgina Torra, who edited the volume as members of the Joan Vinyoli Chair of Contemporary Poetry at the University of Girona, "both Vinyoli and Espriu were aware of the value that readers and researchers would place on their documents, but they decided to treat them." Vinyoli kept practically all the letters he received, even organizing and photocopying them, while Espriu destroyed those he had received, as well as the dedications written to him, so that he could never be judged by his personal life. He also asked friends and acquaintances to destroy the letters he had sent, but luckily, most ignored him.
Thus, in this volume, the person whose voice we read most is precisely Salvador Espriu. And, in fact, he sets the tone of the book, and it is a sea of sweetness. They both admired each other and, moreover, as Juan and Torra explain in the prologue, they shared a great fondness for a mutual friend, Baltasar Rosselló-Pòrcel, dear to both of them. What I liked most about these letters is the unwavering support Espriu gives Vinyoli. Even when he himself is ill, he encourages his companion, writes glowing praise for his work, and urges him to keep living and writing.
Unity is strength among poets
However, reading the letters, I surprised myself by being so surprised, if you'll pardon the redundancy, that two of our authors offered each other such unwavering and absolute support. A few months ago, I was speaking with a group of Catalan poets, and they told me that they share kind and healthy bonds that are difficult to find in other worlds of artists with greater public recognition, mainly because poets move in spaces so invisible to the rest of the population, and mostly so precarious, that unity ultimately creates strength. Mireia Calafell, Adrià Targa, Xavier Mas Craviotto, Eduard Olesti Gabriel Ventura and others are good examples.
Perhaps that's also what happened to Espriu and Vinyoli, who knew they were part of a small circle; although the former's success was widespread and evident during his lifetime. The latter suffered more. Vinyoli recounts this in the letters in this book. I'll choose a few phrases: "I have gone through and am going through a period full of problems of all kinds: work-related, very complex, health-related: depression, anxiety, apathy towards everything" (June 22, 1977). For a good part of his life, the poet felt undervalued by readers and critics, which translated into a loneliness that often weighed heavily on him, and which later was compounded by Teresa Sastre's depression, among other life experiences. In fact, the title of the collection, Don't bother answering meThis is already a demonstration of love: it's what Espriu would say in Vinyoli at the end of many letters in which he expressed his concern for him and encouraged his spirits without expecting anything in return.
I've included a few phrases that Espriu wrote in Vinyoli: "Remember this, I beg you: you have not passed through this world in vain" (April 9, 1963); "Your work is an enriching and splendid reality, and not a quarter of a century will pass before this truth is no longer valid and indisputable for everyone" (June 7, 1963); or "You have paid, you are paying, and you will pay a very high price for your unique gift, but do not doubt that it is worth it" (October 21, 2010). This other fragment also demonstrates the general affection Salvador Espriu felt for his companions: "Freed from the youthful fear of expressing my feelings, I want to repeat here that I love your poetry—and Rosa [Leveroni]'s, and Rosellón's, and Testridor's—as if it were my own (or even more so); to objectify it properly. I think the five of us have together done a work full of significance, at least in relation to our time and our language, and we have erected a edifice, whose proportions time will determine, but not entirely useless and absurd, and yet mysteriously unified. (May 1963).
Is there any such friendship in contemporary Catalan literature? I'd like some writer to tell me. I've always felt sorry for that saying that you can count your good friends on the fingers of one hand. But like all popular wisdom, it's surely true, and one must accept it. In any case, Espriu was a great friend to Vinyoli, and when one finishes the collection of letters, the only meaning one finds is to confirm the mutual affection they had for each other. As Vinyoli wrote in the dedication of his Poetic works, 1975-1979: "To Salvador Espriu, poet and much-loved and admired friend, who in my years of desert solitude never ceased to comfort and support me."