April 23th is a very special day in Catalonia because of Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day), a celebration dedicated to books and roses. For that reason, we remember some of the poets who have made La Rambla their muse.
Talking about La Rambla is mentioning an intrinsic part of the history of Barcelona … and of any person who has lived in the city. It is evoking the Liceu Theater on fire, florists, Gaudi and social gatherings in the 20th century. Furthermore, La Rambla is also people from all the world, hot chocolate and party nights. Walking through this street should be a mandatory ritual to become a citizen of Barcelona. These Spanish poets knew so and that’s why they wrote pages and pages about it. These are…
Verdaguer (1845-1942)
Mosén Jacint Verdaguer was one of the most important figures of the Catalan Renaissance. Priest and poet, he lived part of his life in the Palau Moja (on La Rambla) as a protege of Antonio López y López, first Marquis of Comillas. His most important work is L’Atlántida but he also dedicated beautiful words to Barcelona and the Columbus Monument.
The name of Christopher
is also the name of Columbus; it is the legend
painted with the brushes of ten centuries
It is life itsef.
Ana MarÃa Moix (1947-2014)
Ana MarÃa Moix was a Catalan poet, novelist, short story writer and Barcelona editor. She had strong character and rebellious spirit. Moreover, she was the only woman appearing in The NovÃsimos (1970), an anthology of the youngest and most important authors of the 70’s in Spain, such as Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Leopoldo MarÃa Panero or Guillermo Carnero. This was the observation that she and her brother, writer Terenci Moix, made about La Rambla:
“La Rambla makes a parenthesis where the unexpected and the mix rule over people who, for many years, have converted the ability to live with other cultures in almost an ethnic feature. This has been achieved thanks to the adoption of civic norms, whether written or explicit. This could be summarized in an emblematic living together but not in each other’s pockets. Getting mixed is stopping being yourself -not just a little bit- to become what others are. “
Josep Maria de Sagarra (1894-1961)
Josep MarÃa de Sagarra i de Castellarnau was one of the most important dramatists and poets in the Catalan language. He fell in love with the streets of Barcelona, ​​specifically La Rambla, to which he dedicated one of his plays: La Rambla de les floristes (1935) (La Rambla’s florists). This relates the adventures and misadventures of Rosa MarÃa Sardá, a florist who meets a wide range of peculiar characters in the Catalonia of 1860. This is one of her fragments:
“Do you know what’s La Rambla of the flowers?
There are more poor slobs than rich people,
more screwballs
that people with a strong brain. “
Eduardo Mazo
This poet from Argentina is known as Les Rambles poet beacuse he spent more than twenty years practicing his art on Barcelona’s most emblematic street. He used to show his compositions in large wooden panels and also had a peculiar look since he was a full-fledged bohemian. This is one of the verses dedicated to the walk in the poem To La Rambla with love.
“And a poet writes your skirt;
and a painter gives you a kiss in the mouth,
and in your skin they combine at the same time
smoke, fever and logic “.
Jaime Gil de Biedma (1929-1990)
He is considered one of the most important poets of the second half of the 20th century and the Generation of ‘50, a Spanish movement supported by the so called children of the Civil War. Gil de Biedna was Seductive, intelligent and critical of the poets of his time, even that his work is brief but intense. In Albada he spends a few seconds talking about the bastard birds of  La Rambla.
“The flowers will be piled in the stands of La Rambla,
and the birds will whistle – bastards-from the trees,
while they observe the black humanity that goes to bed
after sunrise coming back. “
Federico GarcÃa Lorca (1898-1936)
What can be assured about Lorca is that he was a Rambla lover. The street inspired the Spanish poet to write one of his greatest pieces, Doña Rosita the spinster. In fact, in the performing of this piece, he dedicated one of the most emotional texts that have been written about Las Ramblas, describing it as “the only street on earth I wish would never end”.
“It is said, and it is true, that no person from Barcelona can sleep peacefully if he has not walked down the Rambla at least once, and it happens to me the same these days I’m living your beautiful city.”
