Name Maria Marcal Nationality Spanish | ||
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Notable awards Prudenci Bertrana Prize1995 La passio segons Renee Vivien Spouse Ramon Pinyol Balasch (m. 1972–1976) Books Cau de llunes, Bruixa de dol Awards Girona Literary Award: Prudenci Bertrana Prize | ||
Maria Mercè Marçal 1
Miquel Martí Pol, Maria Mercè Marçal: la poesia com a compromís
Maria Mercè Marçal i Serra (November 13, 1952 – July 5, 1998) was a Catalan poet, professor, writer and translator.
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She spent her childhood in Ivars d'Urgell (Pla d'Urgell). She went to high-school in Lleida and studied Literature at the University of Barcelona. In 1972 she was driven by circumstances to marry the poet Ramon Pinyol Balasch. They separated some time afterwards.
She translated into Catalan books by Colette, Marguerite Yourcenar, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Baudelaire and Leonor Fini.
Marina Rossell, Teresa Rebull, Ramon Muntaner, Txiqui Berraondo, Maria del Mar Bonet, Celdoni Fonoll and Gisela Bellsolà sing her poems. She died of cancer aged 45.
Books
Her first book of poems Cau de llunes (Carles Riba Prize 1976), introduced by a splendid sestina penned by Joan Brossa, includes the poem "Divisa," which is like a manifesto summarizing what guided her activism:
To fate I am grateful for three gifts: having been born a woman,
of low class and oppressed nation.
And the turbid azure of being three times a rebel.
These verses became well known and practically the banner of the leftist feminist movement in Catalonia, which has appropriated the author as one of their own to the point of reviving her as a leading writer in absolute terms.