“We will remain forever faithful”: Raimon and the poetic and political validity of Salvador Espriu

News | Culture | Academic
(09/05/2025)
“This roundtable is amazing. The guests need no introduction”. This is how Professor Maria Moreno, from the University of Barcelona, welcomed the roundtable “Espriu: editions and recreations”, held on Friday 9 May, in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Philology and Communication. The event, part of the 3rd International Salvador Espriu Symposium, offered a rich and passionate dialogue between three leading voices in the contemporary dissemination of his work: the poet, philologist and publisher Ramon Balasch, the Valencian musician Pau Alabajos and the singer-songwriter Raimon.
News | Culture | Academic
09/05/2025
“This roundtable is amazing. The guests need no introduction”. This is how Professor Maria Moreno, from the University of Barcelona, welcomed the roundtable “Espriu: editions and recreations”, held on Friday 9 May, in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Philology and Communication. The event, part of the 3rd International Salvador Espriu Symposium, offered a rich and passionate dialogue between three leading voices in the contemporary dissemination of his work: the poet, philologist and publisher Ramon Balasch, the Valencian musician Pau Alabajos and the singer-songwriter Raimon.

The meeting was marked by moments of deep reflection, personal memories and a firm recognition of Espriu’s legacy in Catalan culture. The symposium, organized jointly with Pompeu Fabra University and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, is titled “Espriu recreat: ressons, usos i homenatges” (Espriu recreated: echoes, uses and tributes), and focuses on current readings of the symbolic and ethical universe of the poet from Sinera.

The secretary and personal friend of Salvador Espriu, Ramon Balasch, shared with the audience various anecdotes about his relationship with the poet, as well as the difficulties in publishing Ocnos i el parat esglai (2013), which brings together Espriu’s unpublished work from 1934 to 1984: “The Catalan publishers were reluctant, and that led me to take charge of its publication myself”. Balasch proposed a critical re-reading of Sinera’s imaginary and stated: “Sinera is not Arenys, it is the Barcelona from the Civil War’s ashes”.

Furthermore, he denounced the trivialization that has often been made of Espriu’s work, and he defended its ideological dimension: “Espriu was not pro-independence because he could not have been. In any case, he was a proto-independentist. His texts are full of assertions about Catalanness and the political rights of Catalonia and of all the Catalan Countries”. He also highlighted the cabalistic analysis of Espriu’s work carried out by Rosa Delor: “The book La càbala i Espriu is a goldsmith work and shows us a solar poet, who had this entire work thought out, internalized and planned in advance”.

Raimon, a key figure in the nova cançó and a personal friend of the poet, moved the audience by reading the poem Assaig de càntic al temple — “We will remain forever more faithful to the service of the people”, which was received with long and heartfelt applause. During his speech, he recalled how he met Espriu through Joan Fuster’s famous prologue to the large volume Antologia de la poesia catalana and how, after adding music to Cançons de la roda del temps, Fuster put them in contact. “In the first telephone conversation we had, Espriu told me that he admired me a lot. From then on, we became great friends. We loved each other very much”, he said.

Raimon also insisted on the musical demands involved in setting Espriu to music: “As with Ausiàs March, his poetic structure is very clear, and often the musical accentuation does not coincide with the accentuation of the verse, which makes it necessary to do a very precise job”.

The roundtable of the 3rd International Salvador Espriu Symposium, held at the UB, brings together Raimon, Pau Alabajos and Ramon Balasch to reflect on the poet’s cultural transmission and its current relevance.

The Valencian Pau Albalajos, speaking on behalf of a new generation of musicians, told how he set poem 46 of La pell de brau to music, first with Toni Xuclà and later in a version recorded in Nashville with an American producer. Alabajos stressed the poet’s relevance: “Espriu’s poetry is still very strong today. The current political situation has brought his work back to the forefront and made it relevant once again”.

The audience, made up of students, lecturers and scholars of Espriu’s work, attentively followed a dialogue that managed to keep alive the poetic tension and civic commitment that permeate Espriu’s universe. Professor Moreno concluded the event by stating: “Espriu continues to speak to us today, from the words he wrote and from the words we still inspire”.

The symposium ended on Saturday 10 May, with a literary visit to the Sinera cemetery in Arenys de Mar, and a public reading of texts by the poet. This symposium at the UB has shown that Espriu’s work is not only part of the past, but that it continues to cross the cultural and political present with a voice that still moves us.

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