If Only For A Moment (I'll Never Be Young Again): Selected Poems of Jaime Gil de Biedma

by Gil de Biedma Jaime, James Nolan (translator)

Jaime Gil de Biedma is the most original and influential among the poets known as the ‘50’s Generation in Spain, and is considered the greatest Spanish poet to emerge in the second half of the 20th century. His life and literary career were bracketed almost entirely by the rise and fall of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, notorious for the suppression of literature. Born in 1929, he was six years old when García Lorca was murdered in Granada at the outbreak if the Civil War, and his collected poems, Las personas del verbo, first appeared in 1975, the year Franco died. What is surprising is that Gil de Biedma was a leftist, homosexual poet from the Catalan capitol, Barcelona – all of Franco’s favorite things – who not only published books of autobiographical poetry in Spain but was known as a poet of social conscience as well as erotic lyricism. Like other Spanish poets of his time, he chose his words carefully.

Genres: Poetry

184 pages, Hardcover

Published March 4, 2025

Reviews

[Ayesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC.


Beautifully done!!!!

That hairline scared me for a second but when I found out that he’s 💅🏼, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry and translation. I don't speak Spanish so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the translation but I appreciated the notes at the end that explained context, cultural quirks exhibited and references.

Gil de Biedma lived during a fascist regime and had to hide several aspect of his character. He was queer and died of AIDS with a lot of his poetry unpublished. The poet himself did not want his poetry read through a purely queer lens, though how much of this is influenced by living under Franco in post civil war Spain is unclear to me. James Nolan does a good job explaining the limitations when translating from one language to another and how certain creative choices have to be made based on knowledge of the author, the culture and society. Nolan spends the end notes to add context where it may be lost to those of us who do not speak Spanish or have little familiarity with the epoch.

I very much liked this poetry collection but what draws it down from being a full score for me is that I wish the poetry were in their entirety in Spanish and English instead of parallel in a way that cut off the rhythm when reading. This is purely up to preference but for me I would have rather had the entire poem continuously rather than dissected by a new page of Spanish and English alternating.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

[Riane]

"don't you see how everything you and I
once dreamed is overwhelmed by what is?"

Thanks to NetGalley and Fonograf Editions for the ARC.

[Courtney Mosier Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I drank this down in gulps. Beautiful poetry.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous poetry that's full of longing, and also a gay poet who managed to survive post Spanish Civil War era Franco, but ultimately died of AIDS. Great collection.