EVOKING BLAI BONET, BLAUS I SOL DE ROSES BLANQUES...

On the anniversary of Pere Quart's death, The Grandma, from Santanyí, has been rereading and remembering another great writer, Blai Bonet.

The islanders have a character very marked by the sea. It is normal. Entire generations have lived without ever leaving their island and this marks the local idiosyncrasy. The Mallorcans are no exception and this is because Mallorca is one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean, but like all islands it is finite.

Mallorcan culture is of enormous majesty, rooted in the land, its people and this blue and infinite horizon that can always be seen from any part of the island.

Mallorcan artists have painted the island, sung about it and written about it and it is through art that they have expressed states of mind, illusions and disappointments, dreams, hopes and fears.

One of the best Mallorcan poets of the 20th century was Blai Bonet, born in Santanyí. He was a novelist and poet who captured the colors of the island like few others and who wrote one of the most beautiful poems ever written about the island, a poem that sheds light, not so much because it speaks of light, but because its language seems to illuminate what it describes. It is a poetry that does not argue or explain: it makes a vision appear. It is the union between matter and transcendence. In many religious poets, spirituality tends to distance itself from the physical world; however, Blai Bonet does just the opposite. Faith passes through colors, through animals, through the earth, through the Mediterranean light.

Blai Bonet (1926-1997) was a Mallorcan poet, novelist and art critic.

Bonet released El Mar (The Sea) in 1958. In 1962, his collections of poems L'Evangeli segons un de tants (The Gospel According to One of Many) was awarded the Carles Riba Poetry Prize, but it was not published due to Spanish Francoist censorship, delaying it for more than five years.

In 1990, he was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi by the Catalan Government.

He was a member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers. He was a participant in the resurgence of Catalan literature in the 1960s.

Blaus i sol de roses blanques.
El pati verd i blanc de primavera,
ple de bels astorats davant la Pasqua.

Blues and sunlight of white roses.
The green-and-white courtyard of spring,
filled with lambs' bewildered bleating before Easter.

More information: GenCat

Blaus i sol de roses blanques.

Blues and sunlight of white roses.

Blai Bonet