The ARA receives a mysterious satirical book about Josep Carner

Barcelona"The omnipotent Jaume Coll Llinàs, / professor emeritus of the UB, / executor of a legacy rotting in the open, / has created the Carner Chair for us, / where, as the perspicacious introducer that he is, / of ecdotic science to the homeland, / he teaches fear to the plant text." Thus begins one of the satirical poems written "in the manner" of the poet Josep Carner (1884-1970) and focused on criticizing the current dissemination of the work of the so-called Prince of Poets. It was written by a certain Norbert Planagumà i Mieres in One and double, the mysterious unpublished work that the ARA recently received. "Norbert Planagumà is a pseudonym that covers four individuals who refuse to show their faces," can be read in the prologue, which is entitled Instruction sheet–. Whether this is a boring act of cowardice is left to the discretion of each reader, who is undoubtedly more impartial than we are. Whether you believe us or not, if we remain anonymous it is more for reasons of convenience, because for the moment we prefer to live in bad company than reside in a prison. Neither can certain truths be proclaimed with impunity, nor do we have the vocation to go down in history as heroes.

Consisting of more than thirty satirical poems that occupy a hundred pages, One and double charges against the current executor of the legacy of the author ofThe tasty fruits weeks before the second volume of the critical edition of Carner's work, which will bring together almost a thousand little-known or unknown poems by the Barcelona-born writer written between 1896 and 1924. "It's a project that has occupied me for decades," says Jaume Coll Llinàs, who is retiring this fall from the University of Barcelona, where he was currently an emeritus professor. "To compile this volume, which runs to over 1,400 pages and is a kind of public lyrical diary, I sifted through more than 500 publications, including newspapers, magazines, and literary competitions, where Carner appeared. There are also many poems sent to friends that have never been published before. Carner is not only our greatest poet. He is also a poet of all time," explains Coll Llinàs.

The philosopher who is concerned about the possibility of repeating Norbert Planagumà's pseudonym: "I had no idea of this libel and I have no suspicions about who could have written it. I am surprised that people are throwing themselves at it, because I have dedicated my entire life to Carner, and if I am going to try to release the first volume of the critical edition it is because I have to devise a whole editorial system to publish it in the best possible way. Perhaps I have proceeded at a slower pace than some would like, but the most important thing is that the work is as good as possible." Coll Llinàs recalls that Carner continually revised his work, and that there are different versions of many of the poems: often, they first appeared in a periodical publication, then were included in one of his books and continued to be modified until they reached the definitive edition to volume Poetry from 1957.

Having Carner's work "dead"

One and double It is divided into two parts. The first imitates the style of the first Carner. "They are [...] a part of the total that we have found so far," Planagumà ironizes. "As we are discovering, sometimes where we would least suspect, we have postponed the publication date of the TUNECÓIC (Single Volume of Our Edition of Carner's Incomplete Works) to November 2025." There is one, for example, dedicated to a certain Herminia who, according to Planagumà, has been "bought by the owner from a scrap metal dealer": "Herminia, lips of a mini, / more beautiful than the brother, / only under your dominion / (or more all tone patronage) / can I live. I accept your scrutiny." There are also past versions of turns of Brown carnation and others starring the popular Patufet, which Planagumà turns into a "sympathetic vaylet" who decides to "sell himself."

The authors ofOne and double they charge against the professor Jaume Coll Llinàs In the second part of the book, which ends up becoming a stark and unforgiving pamphlet in the style of The flowers of the mallet, a work by Carlos Bau de Laire that shook the Catalan literary system in the 1980s. In Domestic palestra They criticize him for working too "slowly" –the first volume of the critical edition of Carner's work, which included poetry books written between 1904 and 1924, hit bookstores in 2016 – and that "Carner's work is dead." The text ends with angry words, branding the executor of the author's estate asThe tasty fruits "owner", "buldogo" and "macarro" from his work.

The four authors who go by the pseudonym Norbert Planagumà join others who are demanding that, beyond the critical and deluxe edition of Carner's complete works (the first volume costs 60 euros; the second will cost 70 euros), readers can once again access the volume. Poetry (1957) at an affordable price, as stated in Carner Project (Barcino, 2023), a volume of essays in which around twenty authors participated, including Pere Ballart, Enric Casasses, Maria Sevilla and PerejaumeThe last edition was published in 1992 by Quaderns Crema, and has been unavailable for years, which has made it difficult for readers to access the author's entire career, rewritten and revised by Carner himself in 1957. "A few years ago, an author even threatened to put a pin on me Poetry in a pocket edition – Coll recalls in relation to an interview with the poet Martí Sales published in the ARA in 2017–. Receiving these kinds of attacks makes me think that Carner is more interesting than it might seem."

A stubborn and ambitious project

The project for a critical edition of Carner's work is expected to include at least seven more volumes, each containing the rest of his verse work, the prose—fiction and journalism, part of which is being handled by the doctor of Catalan philology and university professor Marcel Ortín—and the translations. "To be published, the critical edition of Carner's work has had to overcome many obstacles," commented Jordi Cornudella on the occasion of the appearance of the first volume. "Business, philological, and typographical obstacles. If all this has been possible, it is because Coll, in addition to being an extremely rigorous philologist, is also one of them." The project was due to be completed in 2026., but there are still six volumes to be published, some of which could be divided into two volumes, like the first one. unpublished".

Coll still has another good news regarding the work of Josep Carner: "A popular edition of the volume will be published at the end of 2025 Poetry (1957). Since the last edition I made for Quaderns Crema, new material has been appearing," he comments. "There will be important modifications in some of the 896 poems in the volume, which can be read without critical apparatus, but which will include an identifier to locate the text in the author's various versions."