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Longing: Selected Poems
The poetry of Jaime Gil de Biedma, the most original and influential Spanish poet since the civil war, is finally, after years of censorship under Generalissimo Franco, reaching a huge audience in Spain. His poems capture the mood of post-civil war Spain and of cosmopolitan Barcelona, where the poet belonged to a celebrated literary movement within the antifascist resistance. His poems are ironic and urban, satiric and unusually Mediterranean. The poet profiled in his poetry—defiant, self-mocking, with a nostalgic tango in the background—has become a legendary figure in the long struggle of the Spanish t emerge from the dictatorship modern and free.
Jaime Gil de Biedma was born in Barcelona in 1929. He studied law, and then worked and lived in Manila for long periods. He died of AIDS in 1990. James Nolan is the author of Why I Live in the Forest and What Moves Is Not the Wind (Weslyan University Press), and the translator of Pablo Neruda’s Stones of the Sky (Copper Canyon).
Jaime Gil de Biedma was born in Barcelona in 1929. He studied law, and then worked and lived in Manila for long periods. He died of AIDS in 1990. James Nolan is the author of Why I Live in the Forest and What Moves Is Not the Wind (Weslyan University Press), and the translator of Pablo Neruda’s Stones of the Sky (Copper Canyon).
- GenresPoetry
120 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1993
38 people want to read
About the author
Jaime Gil de Biedma
54 books48 followersNacido en 1929 en el seno de una familia de la alta burguesía castellana, su padre se trasladó a Barcelona para trabajar en la Compañía de Tabacos de Filipinas. El que fuera su despacho puede ser visitado hoy en día en el Hotel 1898 en La Rambla de Barcelona.
Gil de Biedma estudió Derecho en Barcelona y en Salamanca, donde obtuvo la licenciatura en dicha materia. Su poesía evoluciona desde los primeros poemas intimistas de Las afueras al compromiso social de Compañeros de viaje. Al mismo tiempo es una poesía que evita constantemente el surrealismo y busca la contemporaneidad y la racionalidad a toda costa a través de un lenguaje coloquial, si bien desnudo de toda referencia innecesaria. Verdadero exponente de lo que se suele denominar una doble vida, Biedma desarrolla actividades empresariales (su padre le introdujo en el negocio tabaquero familiar) y al mismo tiempo coquetea intelectualmente con el marxismo y su vida interior queda por completo marcada por su condición de homosexual, circunstancia que, en el seno de su profundo pesimismo, le va a llevar a vivir al límite toda una serie de experiencias íntimas autodestructivas.
Si bien hasta entonces había sido un gran lector de poesía francesa, en particular de Charles Baudelaire, en 1953 se trasladó a vivir a Oxford, lo que le puso en contacto con la poesía anglosajona del momento, hecho que ejercería la influencia más determinante en su obra posterior. A partir de 1955 trabaja en la empresa de tabacos de su familia. En 1959 publica Compañeros de viaje, que juntamente con Moralidades (1966) integra la parte más social de su poesía, con piezas llenas de denuncia política en las que evoca la hipocresía burguesa, la miseria que presidía el sistema capitalista, la opresión del pueblo por la España franquista y la discriminación de la mujer.
En 1965 aparece A favor de Venus, una colección de poemas de amor impregnados de erotismo, y en 1968, por último, publica Poemas póstumos. A partir de entonces Biedma publicará diversos poemas en revistas literarias, así como unas memorias: Diario de un artista seriamente enfermo.
En 1974, Biedma padeció una crisis que le lleva a dejar la vida literaria y se recluye en un férreo nihilismo. El determinismo de una sociedad incapaz de cambiar su historia y el conformismo y desencanto que impregna el mundo intelectual de izquierdas después de la transición a la democracia le abocaron a la desesperación. Fracasaron sus esfuerzos por sobrevivir a la apatía del conformismo burgués del que no conseguía escapar. Esto le condujo a abandonar prácticamente su producción literaria hasta su muerte por sida en enero de 1990, al lado de su último compañero, el actor Josep Madern. Sus restos fueron incinerados y enterrados en el panteón familiar de Nava de la Asunción (Segovia) donde vivió largas temporadas (incluyendo toda la Guerra Civil) y donde escribió muchos de sus poemas.
Miembro destacado de la llamada Escuela de Barcelona, se relacionó con sus componentes Gabriel Ferrater, Carlos Barral, seguramente el más sólido de ellos, y Juan Marsé, que no es estrictamente de esta generación, y se carteó con uno de sus modelos, el poeta de la Generación del 27 Luis Cernuda. En su obra poética recurrió al coloquialismo y a la ironía para destacar asuntos sociales y existenciales y, aún cuando no es muy extensa (siempre prefirió la calidad a la cantidad), se ha considerado como una de las más interesantes de su generación, la de los llamados poetas sociales de la España de los años 50. También escribió algunos ensayos literarios.
Dos de sus sobrinas han alcanzado relevancia en el mundo del arte y la política, por un lado Ouka Leele (Bárbara Allende y Gil de Biedma), una de las fotógrafas más internacionales de España y artista muy representativa de la Movida madrileña, y por otro Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma, expresidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid y anteriormente, presidenta del Senado y ministra de Educación.
Desde 1990 en Segovia y desde
Gil de Biedma estudió Derecho en Barcelona y en Salamanca, donde obtuvo la licenciatura en dicha materia. Su poesía evoluciona desde los primeros poemas intimistas de Las afueras al compromiso social de Compañeros de viaje. Al mismo tiempo es una poesía que evita constantemente el surrealismo y busca la contemporaneidad y la racionalidad a toda costa a través de un lenguaje coloquial, si bien desnudo de toda referencia innecesaria. Verdadero exponente de lo que se suele denominar una doble vida, Biedma desarrolla actividades empresariales (su padre le introdujo en el negocio tabaquero familiar) y al mismo tiempo coquetea intelectualmente con el marxismo y su vida interior queda por completo marcada por su condición de homosexual, circunstancia que, en el seno de su profundo pesimismo, le va a llevar a vivir al límite toda una serie de experiencias íntimas autodestructivas.
Si bien hasta entonces había sido un gran lector de poesía francesa, en particular de Charles Baudelaire, en 1953 se trasladó a vivir a Oxford, lo que le puso en contacto con la poesía anglosajona del momento, hecho que ejercería la influencia más determinante en su obra posterior. A partir de 1955 trabaja en la empresa de tabacos de su familia. En 1959 publica Compañeros de viaje, que juntamente con Moralidades (1966) integra la parte más social de su poesía, con piezas llenas de denuncia política en las que evoca la hipocresía burguesa, la miseria que presidía el sistema capitalista, la opresión del pueblo por la España franquista y la discriminación de la mujer.
En 1965 aparece A favor de Venus, una colección de poemas de amor impregnados de erotismo, y en 1968, por último, publica Poemas póstumos. A partir de entonces Biedma publicará diversos poemas en revistas literarias, así como unas memorias: Diario de un artista seriamente enfermo.
En 1974, Biedma padeció una crisis que le lleva a dejar la vida literaria y se recluye en un férreo nihilismo. El determinismo de una sociedad incapaz de cambiar su historia y el conformismo y desencanto que impregna el mundo intelectual de izquierdas después de la transición a la democracia le abocaron a la desesperación. Fracasaron sus esfuerzos por sobrevivir a la apatía del conformismo burgués del que no conseguía escapar. Esto le condujo a abandonar prácticamente su producción literaria hasta su muerte por sida en enero de 1990, al lado de su último compañero, el actor Josep Madern. Sus restos fueron incinerados y enterrados en el panteón familiar de Nava de la Asunción (Segovia) donde vivió largas temporadas (incluyendo toda la Guerra Civil) y donde escribió muchos de sus poemas.
Miembro destacado de la llamada Escuela de Barcelona, se relacionó con sus componentes Gabriel Ferrater, Carlos Barral, seguramente el más sólido de ellos, y Juan Marsé, que no es estrictamente de esta generación, y se carteó con uno de sus modelos, el poeta de la Generación del 27 Luis Cernuda. En su obra poética recurrió al coloquialismo y a la ironía para destacar asuntos sociales y existenciales y, aún cuando no es muy extensa (siempre prefirió la calidad a la cantidad), se ha considerado como una de las más interesantes de su generación, la de los llamados poetas sociales de la España de los años 50. También escribió algunos ensayos literarios.
Dos de sus sobrinas han alcanzado relevancia en el mundo del arte y la política, por un lado Ouka Leele (Bárbara Allende y Gil de Biedma), una de las fotógrafas más internacionales de España y artista muy representativa de la Movida madrileña, y por otro Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma, expresidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid y anteriormente, presidenta del Senado y ministra de Educación.
Desde 1990 en Segovia y desde
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 20, 2022
“YOUTH, LIFE’S BRATTY SIREN”
My impression of Jaime Gil de Biedma, the gay Spanish poet, is that he was an elegant and classy man. His poetry in Longing: Selected Poems is elegant and classy, too. Irony appears in much of his poetry, and humor is not far beneath the surface no matter how serious the subject.
Gil de Biedma said that the two main themes in his poetry were “’el paso del tiempo y yo’ (the passage of time and me).” The poet’s description of time in “Ars Poetica” is magnificent: “and alone above all, the whirling of time’s / great gap spiraling in toward the spirit / while overhead, promises float by / fizzling out like foam.” In “I Shall Never Be Young Again,” he writes, “But years have raced by and / the terrible truth looms larger: / the only plot this play has got / is growing old and then dying.” He begins “Hymn to Youth,” the penultimate poem in Longing, with this priceless line: “What are you up to now, / youth, / life’s bratty siren?”
Gil de Biedma wrote during the Franco years, so he had to be discrete about politics in his poetry. His description of Francoist Spain in the poem “In Luna Castle” is disguised in an old Spanish legend: “our country / feels like a jailhouse to everyone, / from sea to shining sea.” He begins “Years of Triumph”: “Half of Spain occupied all of Spain / with the vulgarity and complete disdain / only an unruly nation of rednecks / could show the defeated.”
Unsurprisingly, his love poetry is ambiguous about the gender of the romantic object. In “Yesterday Morning, Today,” a gorgeous poem, he writes, “And then you turn toward me, / smiling, I’m thinking / so much has changed but this / is how I remember you.” “Anniversary Song” contains this devastating line: “don’t you see how everything you and I / once dreamed is overwhelmed by what is?”
In “The Poem-Writing Game,” Gil de Biedma equates writing poetry to masturbation. Had he become disillusioned with writing poetry? Was he just plain tired of it? In the first stanza he writes, “The poem-writing game-- / it’s no game—starts out / seeming something like / the solitary pleasure.” In the following stanzas he describes what poetry is and what it can do but undercuts his serious argument with “What’s essential / to explain is life, / its philanthropic aspects / and its Saturday nights.” In the concluding stanza, he repeats the sentiments of the first stanza: “The poem-writing game, / which is no game, ends up / seeming something like / the solitary vice.”
In two of his most well-known poems, “Against Jaime Gil de Biedma” and “After the Death of Jaime Gil de Biedma,” it is almost impossible to separate the poet from his subject, himself. These two poems are masterpieces. In “Against Jaime Gil de Biedma,” the poet mercilessly takes stock of himself: “I could remind you that you’re not so charming anymore. / That your sporty style, your cool / turned cruel / after you hit thirty.” He goes on to say, “If only you weren’t such a little whore!” In “After the Death of Jaime Gil de Biedma,” the poet talks to himself as if he has already died. His eulogy takes no prisoners: “Sometimes I ask myself what / my poetry will be like without you. / Though maybe I was the one who taught you. / Taught you to get even with my dreams, / dragging them down into the dirt. You coward.”
The final poem in Longing is an eight-line piece titled “De Vita Beata.” In a note, James Nolan, the translator, says, “The title is a Latin expression that means a pious retirement from life.” Here are the beginning and the end of the poem:
In an antique land where nothing works,
something like Spain between two civil
wars,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
and living on like a bankrupt count
among the ruins of my intelligence.
This beautiful valedictory poem is one of my favorites from Longing. James Nolan mentions that Gil de Biedma wrote little after his collected poems were published in 1975 (the same year as Franco’s death). He was only around forty-six years old then. He retired to a town called Ultramort, which in Catalan means “beyond death.” Gil de Biedma was lost to AIDS in January 1990 at the age of 60.
My impression of Jaime Gil de Biedma, the gay Spanish poet, is that he was an elegant and classy man. His poetry in Longing: Selected Poems is elegant and classy, too. Irony appears in much of his poetry, and humor is not far beneath the surface no matter how serious the subject.
Gil de Biedma said that the two main themes in his poetry were “’el paso del tiempo y yo’ (the passage of time and me).” The poet’s description of time in “Ars Poetica” is magnificent: “and alone above all, the whirling of time’s / great gap spiraling in toward the spirit / while overhead, promises float by / fizzling out like foam.” In “I Shall Never Be Young Again,” he writes, “But years have raced by and / the terrible truth looms larger: / the only plot this play has got / is growing old and then dying.” He begins “Hymn to Youth,” the penultimate poem in Longing, with this priceless line: “What are you up to now, / youth, / life’s bratty siren?”
Gil de Biedma wrote during the Franco years, so he had to be discrete about politics in his poetry. His description of Francoist Spain in the poem “In Luna Castle” is disguised in an old Spanish legend: “our country / feels like a jailhouse to everyone, / from sea to shining sea.” He begins “Years of Triumph”: “Half of Spain occupied all of Spain / with the vulgarity and complete disdain / only an unruly nation of rednecks / could show the defeated.”
Unsurprisingly, his love poetry is ambiguous about the gender of the romantic object. In “Yesterday Morning, Today,” a gorgeous poem, he writes, “And then you turn toward me, / smiling, I’m thinking / so much has changed but this / is how I remember you.” “Anniversary Song” contains this devastating line: “don’t you see how everything you and I / once dreamed is overwhelmed by what is?”
In “The Poem-Writing Game,” Gil de Biedma equates writing poetry to masturbation. Had he become disillusioned with writing poetry? Was he just plain tired of it? In the first stanza he writes, “The poem-writing game-- / it’s no game—starts out / seeming something like / the solitary pleasure.” In the following stanzas he describes what poetry is and what it can do but undercuts his serious argument with “What’s essential / to explain is life, / its philanthropic aspects / and its Saturday nights.” In the concluding stanza, he repeats the sentiments of the first stanza: “The poem-writing game, / which is no game, ends up / seeming something like / the solitary vice.”
In two of his most well-known poems, “Against Jaime Gil de Biedma” and “After the Death of Jaime Gil de Biedma,” it is almost impossible to separate the poet from his subject, himself. These two poems are masterpieces. In “Against Jaime Gil de Biedma,” the poet mercilessly takes stock of himself: “I could remind you that you’re not so charming anymore. / That your sporty style, your cool / turned cruel / after you hit thirty.” He goes on to say, “If only you weren’t such a little whore!” In “After the Death of Jaime Gil de Biedma,” the poet talks to himself as if he has already died. His eulogy takes no prisoners: “Sometimes I ask myself what / my poetry will be like without you. / Though maybe I was the one who taught you. / Taught you to get even with my dreams, / dragging them down into the dirt. You coward.”
The final poem in Longing is an eight-line piece titled “De Vita Beata.” In a note, James Nolan, the translator, says, “The title is a Latin expression that means a pious retirement from life.” Here are the beginning and the end of the poem:
In an antique land where nothing works,
something like Spain between two civil
wars,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
and living on like a bankrupt count
among the ruins of my intelligence.
This beautiful valedictory poem is one of my favorites from Longing. James Nolan mentions that Gil de Biedma wrote little after his collected poems were published in 1975 (the same year as Franco’s death). He was only around forty-six years old then. He retired to a town called Ultramort, which in Catalan means “beyond death.” Gil de Biedma was lost to AIDS in January 1990 at the age of 60.
August 24, 2012
This is an interesting historical piece with a fantastic interrogation of what it means to be gay and coming out in the 1960's and earlier in Spain, the Philippines, and France. But that being said, I was not moved by most of the poetry. Part of that is the lifelessness of the translation in my opinion and the other part of it is the lifelessness of some of the poetry. I wanted to really like this and considering the lengths I went to to secure a copy, I now know why people don't typically bother. I would recommend this for anyone trying to understand queer poetry internationally.
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