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Thanks for this Peter. I know nothing of the specifics of the event but like the idea that direct delineation of personal expereince might be filtered through poetic forms from another language and culture. Ian > Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:53:24 +0100 > From: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Ferrater > To: [log in to unmask] > > I've come across a strange thread which starts from the Catalan poet > Gabriel Ferrater (1922-1972). It is that at Queens University Belfast > in the 1960s, the then Professor of Spanish Arthur Terry was > translating Ferrater, and Seamus Heaney and others took a great > interest in the results and possibly they, and Terry himself, were > important factors in establishing the direction of those Northern > Irish poets who became so successful. Terry's translations of Raymond > Queneau are also said to come into this. The point would be some kind > of breaking away from modernistic poeticism into a plainer, unloaded > manner and direct delineation of personal experience, within > traditional formalities. Ferrater declared himself opposed to > "obscurantism". > > Has anyone else come across this story? The trouble with it seems to > me to be that whatever Ferrater is like Queneau's way of writing is > several thousand miles away from Heaney's. > > The only other poet I've noticed heavily influenced by Ferrater is the > Belgian William Cliff, whose earlier work (all I know) I found very > readable. He is several thousand miles away from Heaney in another > direction. > > There are a few Ferrater poems readable on-line which seem engaging, > and in no way plain-speaking but with a lot of the symbolistic and > image-laden writing you expect in the Hispanic world. There is a book > translated by Terry published by Arc, (introduction by Heaney) which I > don't think includes the texts in Catalan, making me reluctant to > purchase it. > > PR