Goodbye to the deep, rigorous and exciting voice of Jaume Pont

BarcelonaFour of the pillars of the poetry of Jaume Pont i Ibáñez (Lleida, 1947-2026) have been love, madness, chance, and death. Having died this Thursday at the age of 79, Pont, who held a degree in philosophy and letters, made a name for himself with Límit(s) in 1976, published by the emblematic Llibres del Mall, and not long after he founded and directed the influential magazine Quaderns de Ponent (1979-1983), which helped to disseminate and critically value the work of creators from the Terres de Lleida such as Maria-Mercè Marçal,, Josep Maria Sala-Valldaura, and Pere Rovira.

In 1982, Pont won his first literary prize, the Vicent Andrés Estellés, with Divan (3i4). "The extreme lyricism of that book, with a radical economy of words, touching upon the Arabic sources of the verse, impressed me," recalls fellow poet and critic Jordi Llavina. "From then on, Jaume became an essential voice for me." Author of a dozen poetry collections and several essays, among which is La nova poesia catalana (Edicions 62, 1980), Pont was translated into more than a dozen languages and recognized with awards for published work such as the Serra d'Or for Vol de cendres (Empúries, 1997), for unpublished work such as Enlloc (Proa, 2007), winner of the Carles Riba prize, and for translated work, as was the case with the Mallarmé prize for the French version of Mirall de negra nit, published in 2023 by the publishing house L'Étoile des Limites. "In some verses of Enlloc he stated that love «winds the words in pure water»," continues Llavina. "And, in others from the same book, gathered within the anthology L'altra llum (Poemes, 1976-2011), he says this: «I say silence / and everything speaks to me». His silence —that of the man— will speak to us through a profound, relevant, memorable poetry that does not pass away".

The limits of the word

The poet and editor Àngels Marzo also has a glowing memory "of that professor who explained 20th-century Spanish poetry with passion" from the classrooms of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lleida. "Enlloc represented a moment of maturity and expressive refinement —states Marzo—. With a more essential and meditative writing style, the collection of poems delves into absence, silence, the passage of time, and the limits of language. Crossed from top to bottom by the consciousness of the transience of things, Enlloc suggests, already from the title, a paradoxical space between presence and disappearance, from where the poet questions the meaning of existence".

One of the hardest blows in the life of Jaume Pont was the death of his partner, the educator Maria Jesús Cabau, who inspired his last book, Mirall de negra nit (LaBreu, 2020). "From the black sun of melancholy comes the light of Mirall de negra nit —he explained then—.And his elegy remains scattered throughout the pages of the book, like footprints that I will never be able to erase completely". "Mirall de negra nit brings us closer to the depth of a poetry capable of giving voice to that which seems inexpressible", assured the LaBreu team in the public farewell they wanted to offer to a subtle and at the same time highly appreciated author.