BOOK DAY!

AUTHORS RECOMMENDATION:These are important authors that we have

worked in our school. We have learned about their biography and we recited some

of their work. - Miguel Hernández: Biography Poems- Miquel Martí Pol: Biography Poems- Gloria Fuertes: Biography Poems- Joana Raspall: Biography Poems

Miguel HernándezMiguel Hernández

BIOGRAPHY:

Miguel Hernández was born in 1910 in Orihuela (Valencia).His family was poor; because of that he received little formal education.He spent his childhood as a farmer and he received some basiceducation from a state school. He was introduced to literature thanks tohis friend, Ramon Sijé. During the Civil War, he got married and his wife inspired him to writemost of his romantic work.He could not escape Spain after the Republican surrender and wasarrested multiple times after the war for his anti-fascist sympathies andwas sentenced to death. This death sentence was commuted to aprison term of 30 years.In prison, he produced an extraordinary amount of poetry.

Miguel HernándezMiguel HernándezPOEM : El sol, la rosa y el niño(students of primary education)

Spanish version: English version:

EL SOL, LA ROSA Y EL NIÑO THE SUN, THE ROSE, AND THE CHILD

El sol, la rosa y el niño The sun, the rose, and the child

flores de un día nacieron. were born the flowers of the day.

Los de cada día son Things of every day

soles, flores, niños nuevos. suns, flowers, new children.

Mañana no seré yo: Tomorrow I’lle be no more:

otro será el verdadero. someone else will be real.

Y no seré más allá I’ll be no more, beyond

de quien quiera su recuerdo. those who wish for their memory.

Flor de un día es lo más grande The flower of a day is tallest

al pie de lo más pequeño. at the foot of the smallest thing.

Flor de la luz el relámpago, Flower of light, the lightning flash,

y flor del instante el tiempo. and flower of the moment, time.

Entre las flores te fuiste. Between flowers you went.

Entre las flores me quedo.   Between flowers I remain.

Miquel Martí i PolMiquel Martí i Pol

BIOGRAPHY:Miquel Martí i Pol was born in Roda de Ter ( a small town in the Northof Catalonia) in 1929 where he lived all his life.His family was a working class family and he started working at the age of 14 in a textile factory. When he was 19, he had tuberculosis and heread so much. He started writing and composed a lot of poems, he also became asinger and songwriter and entered to politics. In 1970, he wasDiagnosed multiple sclerosis, although this illness did not prevent himfrom continuing his writing.Many of his poems had set to music by important Catalan singers such as Maria del Mar Bonet and Lluís Llach.

Miquel Martí i Pol was one of the most popular Catalan poets in the 20th century.

Miquel Martí i PolMiquel Martí i PolPOEM : Pa amb oli i sucre(used in kidergarden, you can teach food)

Catalan version: English version:Pa amb oli i sucre Bread with olive oil and sugarPa amb oli i sucre, Bread with olive oil and sugar,

quina pensada such a good think

per donar gust a la mainada.  to taste the children.

La llesca s'unta Slice smeared

amb el setrill with an oiler

però amb molt de compte but carefully

que hi ha perill.  there’s danger.

Després el sucre After the sugar

ben escampat well spread

que tot en quedi all that remains in

ben impregnat.  well impregnated.

I apa, a menjar-se'l, And come on, eat it,

que res no hi ha there is nothing

més agradable more pleasant

de mastegar. to chew.

Miquel Martí i PolMiquel Martí i PolPOEM : (older students)

Catalan version: English version:

Now it’s tomorrow. It doesn’t heats yesterday fire neither the fire today, and we will have to prepare the fire again. Since the silence, all that moves moves will become.

And it becomes. The stones and the path will be the bread and the sea, and the dark noise

right now, the song that moves, amphora full of new wine.

Now it’s tomorrow. Rain new voices by cloudy evening, gods will come again soaking drought.

Everything will be enough, and the ivy and the wall proclaim together the right of having the new fullness.

BIOGRAPHY:Gloria Fuertes was born in Madrid in 1917. Her family wasn’t rich but wasn’t poor. Her mother was a seamstress and her father was a caretaker.She was a good observer and this help her to develop a lot of imagination.At the age of 14, Gloria wrote her first book. She enjoyed so muchwriting this book that she decided to become a poet. She suffered the death of her mother and the difficulties of the CivilWar.When she finally became a poet, she decided to write books for children.In 1998 she died because of an illness. Today, everybody stillremembers her beautiful poems.

Gloria FuertesGloria Fuertes

POEM : DOÑA PITU PITURRA (used in kidergarden, you can teach clothes)

Spanish version: English version:

Gloria FuertesGloria Fuertes

Doña Pitu Piturra has gloves,

Doña Pitu Pitrra very elegant

Doña Pitu Piturra has a hat,

Doña Pitu Piturra with a feather

Doña Pitu Piturra has a shoe,

Doña Pitu Piturra too small!

Doña Pitu Piturra has gloves,

Doña Pitu Piturra too big for her

Doña Pitu Piturra has gloves,

Doña Pitu Piturra I said that before!

Gloria FuertesGloria FuertesPOEM : PIENSO MESA Y DIGO SILLA (older students)

Spanish version: English version:

Pienso mesa y digo silla I think table and I say chair

Pienso mesa y digo silla, I think table and I say chair,

compro pan y me lo dejo, I buy bread and I lose it,

lo que aprendo se me olvida, whatever I learn I forget,

lo que pasa es que te quiero. and what this means is I love you.

La trilla lo dice todo; The harrow says it all

y el mendigo en el alero, and the huddled beggar,

el pez vuela por la sala, the fish that flies through the living room,

el toro sopla en el ruedo. the bull bellowing in his last corner.

Entre Santander y Asturias Between Santander and Asturias

pasa un río, pasa un ciervo, a river runs, deer pass,

pasa un rebaño de santas, a herd of saints passes,

pasa un peso . a great load passes.

Entre mi sangre y el llanto Between my blood and my tears

hay un puente muy pequeño, there is a tiny bridge,

y por él no pasa nada, and nothing crosses; what

lo que pasa es que te quiero. this means is I love you.

(Todo asusta 1958)

Joana RaspallJoana Raspall

BIOGRAPHY:

Joana Raspall was born in Barcelona in 1913 and she died in Sant Feliu de Llobregat ( a town near Barcelona) in 2013. She was a writer and librarian. She studied Librarianship and Accountancy. She defended the Catalan language, especially at times when the people were denied the right tospeak and publish in Catalan (in the Spanish Civil War).She helped to preserve the Catalan language and she hid someimportant Catalan books during the times of the Civil War.This is why, it was quite late in time when she published her first booksand poems. She wrote poems, books, theatre and three dictionaries of synonyms,locutions and homonyms and paronyms.

Joana RaspallJoana RaspallHAIKU :(young learners. You can also use it for teaching sea vocabulary)

Catalan version: English version:

If you don’t listen,

the sea will have no voice.

And nothing to say.

POEM : Si el món fos….(older students)

Catalan version: English version:

Si el món fos… If the world was…

Si el món fos escrit en llapis, If the world was written in pencil,

podria esborrar la lletra/ que vol ferir, I would be able to erase the words/ which hurts,

podria esborrar mentides/ que no cal dir, I would be able to erase lies/

n’esborraria l’enveja/ que porta mals, which don’t need to be said,

n’esborraria grandeses/ de mèrit fals… I would erase envy/ it only leads to disgrace,

Però és escrita amb tinta/ de mal color, I would erase victories/ from undeserved merit.

del color brut de la guerra/ i del dolor. But it’s all written in ink/ of a bad colour

Qui voldrà escriure un món just i net? of the dirty colour of war/ and pain.

Potser tu i jo ho provéssim, Who will want to write a fairer and cleaner world?

ben valents, lletra per lletra, maybe you and I should try, with courage,

des del nostre raconet… word by word, from our little seeds…

Joana RaspallJoana Raspall

Comenius Project 2013-2015