Rafael Alberti (Cádiz, 1902 – 1999) was one of the great Spanish writers, representative of the Generation of ’27.
This writer from Cádiz was a member of the Communist Party of Spain and had to go into exile after the uprising that brought the dictator Francisco Franco to power. Years ago, in 1920, Rafael Alberti began to write verses after the death of his father. From there, Alberti would emerge as one of the most prolific Spanish authors of the 20th century.
Shortly after that disastrous episode, Alberti returned to Madrid and there he met writers of the stature of Federico García Lorca, Pedro Salinas, Víctor Alexandre and Gerardo Diego, names that would later be considered the references of the glorious era of Castilian letters.
In today’s article Let’s get to know a little more about this famous literary character through his most famous phrases and reflections.
1. I don’t want to die on land: it makes me terribly panic. I, who love flying on a plane and watching the clouds go by, would like one day the plane I travel in to be lost and never come back. And let the angels make me an epitaph. Or the wind…
In this phrase, Rafael Alberti poetically explains to us how he would prefer to spend his last moments.
2. Words open doors on the sea
A metaphor of great poetic value.
3. I left with a closed fist… I return with an open hand
This famous phrase by Alberti has been interpreted in different ways, for example in reference to his period of exile.
4. Freedom is not available to those who do not thirst
To find freedom you have to fight and resist.
5. You will not go, my love, and if you left, even if you left my love, you would never leave
An excerpt from one of his most acclaimed poems: “Tú no te iras (or Come, my love, in the afternoon…)”.
6. Full of softness and carmine,
dream lantern, vague and flying,
He flew towards the highest viewpoints.
Look at her, cherub of cherubs,
from the orchard of the pulsating air.
Pensive Alberti among the flowers!
An excerpt from the poem he dedicated to his wife, Rosa de Alberti.
7.I will never be made of stone, I will cry when necessary, I will scream when necessary, I will laugh when necessary, I will sing when necessary
A declaration of intentions full of vitality and optimism.
8. It is necessary to be blind, to have scraped glass, quicklime, boiling sand stuck in your eyes, to not see the light that jumps out in our actions, that illuminates our language, our daily word, from within.
An ode to language in this memorable phrase by Rafael Alberti.
9. I saw you floating, flower of agony, floating above your own spirit. (Someone had sworn that the sea would save you from sleep.) It was when I realized that walls break with sighs and that there are doors to the sea that open with words and that there are doors to the sea that open with words
Another excerpt from “Ángel de las bodegas”, one of his most surprising verses in which he talks to us about wine.
10. And the sea went and gave a name, and a surname to the wind, and the clouds a body, and a soul to the fire. The earth, nothing
The elements and the landscape were concepts very worked on in Alberti’s work.
11. Life is like a lemon, being thrown into the sea squeezed and dried
A phrase open to free interpretation.
12. Through the centuries, through the nothingness of the world, I, without sleep, looking for you
About lost loves and the longing to return to happier times.
