ORIOL ESPINAL {archive}

Presented in a bilingual edition, Letters, Poetic Works brings together a fundamental selection from the literary legacy of Arthur Rimbaud. The volume includes an extensive biographical note, the two letters of the "seer" —accompanied by the appended poems— and a dozen of his most representative compositions, in addition to the complete texts of his two major works: A Season in Hell and Illuminations.

This study offers a critical and contextualized reading of Arthur Rimbaud’s life and literary trajectory. It presents a rigorous biographical approach, grounded in the extant documents, which reconstructs the poet’s complex figure both from a perspective informed by debates on modern subjectivity and from those that engage with the aesthetics of avant-garde rupture.

Poetic Production {1990-2006} brings together, in a bilingual Catalan-Spanish edition, my three poetry collections written in the Catalan language. The first, Cròniques del fracàs (Chronicles of Failure), written between 1990 and 2001, gathers a series of prose poems whose theme revolves around the impossibility of achieving perfection and the inevitable condemnation to failure that comes with any human project. The second, L’univers en tres versos (The Universe in Three Verses), written in October 2003, presents a collection of haikus arranged in a sort of tripartite poem, where each element is connected to the others and to none at the same time...

In this second volume of Poetic Production {2012-2023}, the seven poetry collections in Spanish published up to 2023 are gathered. The first three —Luz (2012), Muerte (2013), and Viento (2014)— were conceived within the poetic cycle Periferias, while the last three —Mares y jardines (2017-2018), Resurrecciones (2020-2022), and Agua oculta (2022-2023)— emerged independently, without the initial intention of forming a trilogy. Nevertheless, from a certain perspective, and considering the elements that connect them, it can be said that these three books constitute the pieces of a new and as yet unnamed poetic cycle.

Amar a Mar was written between November 2023 and April 2024. Its tripartite structure—twelve poems per section, each preceded by a liminal sonnet—was not conceived from the outset, but rather emerged gradually as the texts unfolded, revealing a latent order that gave coherence to the whole. The final number—thirty-nine poems—can be read as a multiple of three or as the conjunction of three prime numbers (3 × 13): an incidental fact that nonetheless resonates with the book’s inner cadence. Adding to this play of symmetries is a singular device: the three sonnets share the same final words in their fourteen verses. This repetition...

Almost in parallel with my other poetry collection, Amar a Mar, and once the long poetic cycle spanning from 2012 to 2023 had come to a close, Las islas was written between April and October 2024, in various places but under a single disposition of spirit—or soul: that of someone who quietly withdraws from the outside world in order to observe more clearly what unfolds within their inner territory. It is not a radical retreat, nor a closing off. It is also not a form of alienation or irresponsible escape, but rather an isolation that does not enclose but opens—embracing the insularity that whispers to those who wish to listen and perceive those “murmurs, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.”

The common theme of the poems in Chronicles of failure, the first of my three poetry collections written in Catalan, is rooted in the impossibility of achieving perfection and the inescapable condemnation to failure to which every human endeavor is doomed—whether due to the limits imposed by talent, insecurity in the storm of daily life, strategic mistakes, emotional traps, or outright fatality tout court.

The three books that comprise the poetic cycle Peripheries (Light, Death, and Wind) were written in 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively. Although I initially set certain constraints for myself, over time I gradually let go of any central governing principle and chose instead to allow the poem itself to determine its form—its own periphery—through a natural and, to some extent, automatic flow. The final result unfolds as a series of compositions that are formally and thematically diverse, whose only intentional and unifying structural feature lies in the opening and closing poems of each book.

Hidden Water is a natural continuation of Resurrections, just as Resurrections was of Seas and Gardens. Consequently, it would not be inaccurate to say that the three titles constitute sections of a single book—a poetic diary that begins in 2017 and concludes in 2023. In the case of Hidden Water, as in Seas and Gardens, some of its poems are born of the dramas, tragedies, and joys that emerged in my life during the writing process...

After several years spent writing letters to his deceased wife—each one filled with scientific arguments related to a fossil fish—ichthyologist Santiago Miralda composes what will be the final letter in the series, written just before taking his own life. This letter, however, differs markedly from the previous ones: except for its opening lines, Professor Miralda makes no mention of his obsessions. The rest of the text is entirely devoted to recounting a dream the scientist had experienced some time earlier...

Conceived as an allegory about the impossibility of escaping the tentacles of the system, The Southern Circles speaks to us, as Cernuda might say, of the high price paid by those who break away from everything. The protagonist of the story, Mario Mundi—a multifaceted and cosmopolitan artist—decides to make a radical change in his life and acquires a small estate in a remote, depopulated region. Upon the ruins of the old dwelling, he builds a circular house, where he settles with his wife. Shortly after their arrival in the region, the couple undergoes an apocalyptic experience that...

Although they incorporate a more pronounced lyricism than usual, the poems that make up Resurrecciones do not stray from the path outlined by personal experiences in my previous collection, nor do they renounce some of my recurring themes: the poem and the very act of composing it, love in its dual nature—both carnal and spiritual (if love can indeed be subjected to such categories or dualities), and the seas and gardens, whether of Almería or from the land of dreams...

Finales takes shape as a narrative diptych composed of two independent stories, “Ángel Salvador” and “Salvador Alas.” While both maintain their autonomy, they are interwoven through a shared atmosphere and a set of related formal and conceptual elements. But what inevitably binds the two stories is the ultimate decision made by their protagonists: the conscious choice to abandon existence, whether through voluntary euthanasia or considered suicide.

The correspondence Marian Espinal kept in her desk consists of a collection of letters and postcards the painter wrote to his family between 1916 and 1931, as well as a compilation of letters and postcards sent to him by friends, colleagues, and other individuals between 1915 and 1965. Of particular interest in the first group are the letters and postcards sent from Paris between 1919 and 1921, as well as the postcards sent from Tossa during the summer of 1918, and the letters he wrote to Maria Vancells during their courtship. All of these are delightful documents that reveal the worldview of a young artist...

In 2014, shortly before finishing the third book of Periferias, I conceived a new poetic project titled Sources and Tributaries. My aim was to select a line from another poet and use it as the starting point for a new poem. The project was ultimately postponed, and it wasn’t until July 2016—after reading a poem by Emily Dickinson—that I decided to revise the initial idea: the new project would be titled Prolongations, and the rules of the game would consist of taking the final lines of twenty poems—or entire poems if they were very short—by twenty great poets, and then prolonging them at will.

Months after completing the book Prolongaciones, I resumed my poetic activity by composing a few standalone pieces, always groping my way forward and without the concurrence of any premises or rules of the game. Nevertheless, I soon noticed that these new poems shared certain traits—traits that were far from insignificant. Namely, all the texts had been written in one go, while I was either in a garden or facing the sea, with the natural environment acting as a triggering agent for my most subtle intuitions.

Black Diptych is composed of the poems Still Life and August 15, both written in Catalan in 2006 and 2003 respectively. The first draws from invented dreams and personal experiences related to death, as well as reflections on the poetic act and the poem itself. The second focuses on a remembrance of the death, wake, and burial of my maternal grandfather—a narrative where borrowed verses (some dedicated to my ancestor) intertwine with fleeting, perhaps delirious, visions conjured by the memory of a world that no longer exists...

Retalations is a fictional work inspired by two personal experiences. The first, having been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a pedophile priest; the second, encountering my abuser—two decades later and entirely by chance—when fate had brought him to officiate the funeral of one of my brothers. Overcome with astonishment and suppressing my most primal instincts, I simply looked at the priest from the emotional position of one who laughs last...

Originally written in Catalan and completed in just seven days, this book can be read either as a simple collection of haikus or as a tripartite poem in which each piece is linked to the others while also containing its own self-contained world. Its verses are sprinkled with the wonder that reality arouses in the individual, the (always mistaken) idea of death, certain paradoxes, poetic self-reference, the celebration of love, and the evocation of the shadows of the last century. The Universe in Three Verses thus stands as an example of the intersection between haiku tradition and formal experimentation, fusing an objective poetics with a subjective ethical commitment.

Bibliophile edition, part of number 4 of the Tríptic collection, published by Ediciones de Antonio Agra, featuring three poems by Àlex Susanna and an original print by Oriol Espinal, hand-enhanced by the artist and printed by Masafumi Yamamoto.
Printed on 250 g Michel paper with Bodoni typeface. Limited edition of 75 copies, numbered and signed by the authors, along with a special series of 25 copies on handmade paper by Lluís Morera.
Published in Barcelona, December 1989.