Maria Mercè Marçal
{{Short description|Catalan poet, professor, writer and translator}}
{{Family name hatnote|Marçal|Serra|lang=Catalan}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Maria Mercè Marçal
| image = Número 52 verda. Maria-Mercè Marçal i Rafael Vargas (15307047704).jpg
| imagesize =
| alt =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1952|11|13|df=y}}
| birth_place = Ivars d'Urgell, Catalonia, Spain
| death_date = {{death date and age|1998|7|5|1952|11|13|df=y}}
| death_place = Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| occupation = Poet, Professor, Writer, Translator
| language = Catalan
| nationality = Spanish
| alma_mater = University of Barcelona
| spouse = Ramon Pinyol Balasch (1972-1976)
| children =
| awards = {{Awards|award=Prudenci Bertrana Prize|year=1995|title=La passió segons Renée Vivien|role= |name= }}
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Maria Mercè Marçal i Serra (13 November 1952 – 5 July 1998) was a Catalan poet, professor, writer and translator from Spain.
Biography
Marçal was born in Barcelona{{Cite web|url=https://www.escriptors.cat/autors/marcalmm/english-maria-merce-marcal|title=English Maria-Mercè Marçal {{!}} Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana|website=www.escriptors.cat|access-date=2020-03-13}} but spent her childhood in Ivars d'Urgell (Pla d'Urgell), which she considered her home. Her mother was Maria Serra, a woman who loved theater and songs, and her father was Antoni Marçal, who had to leave college for family reasons. She had a sister Magda.{{Cite web|url=https://fmmm.cat/biografia/|title=Fundació Maria-Mercè Marçal {{!}} Biografia|language=es|access-date=2020-03-13}}
She went to high-school in Lleida, at the Institut de Lleida, after receiving a scholarship. She then studied literature at the University of Barcelona, earning a degree in Classical Philology there. She went on to become a Professor of Catalan Language and Literature.
In 1972, Marçal married the poet Ramon Pinyol Balasch. They separated some time afterward.
In 1973, she was co-founder of the publishing house Llibres del Mall with her husband and another young Catalan poet, Xavier Bru de Sala.{{Cite web|url=https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/research-centres/centre-study-contemporary-womens-writing/languages/catalangalicianspanish/maria|title=Maria-Mercé Marçal|date=2017-03-17|website=The Institute of Modern Languages Research|language=en|access-date=2020-03-13}}
In 1980, her daughter Heura was born, an experience that she transformed into tender poetry.
In 1992 she proposed the creation of Catalan Women Writers as part of the Catalan Centre for PEN.
She translated into Catalan works by both French and Russian writers: Colette, Marguerite Yourcenar, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Baudelaire and Leonor Fini.
Marçal died in Barcelona in 1998 of cancer, aged 45.
Legacy
Marina Rossell, Teresa Rebull, Ramon Muntaner, Txiqui Berraondo, Maria del Mar Bonet, Celdoni Fonoll and Gisela Bellsolà have sung Marçal's poems.
Works
In 1976, Marçal's first book of poems Cau de llunes (winning the Carles Riba Prize), introduced by a splendid poetic sestina penned by Joan Brossa, includes the poem "Divisa," which is like a manifesto summarizing what guided her activism:
To fate I am grateful for three gifts: having been born a woman,of low class and oppressed nation.
And the turbid azure of being three times a rebel.
Marçal's influential second book, Bruixa de dol or Witch in Mourning (1979), has been translated into English.
Her only novel, The Passion according to Renée Vivien, was published in 1994. Following on from ten years of work researching the life and poetry of Vivien, this poetic almost-biographical novel won several awards such as the Premi Carlemany, Premi de la Crítica, the Prudenci Bertrana award, the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes award, the Crítica Serra d'Or prize and the Joan Crexells award. It was translated into English and published by Francis Boutle Publishers in 2020.
= Selected publications =
- Cau de llunes. Barcelona: Proa, 1977. {{ISBN|84-209-7191-X}}
- Bruixa de dol (1977–1979). Sant Boi de Llobregat: Llibres del Mall, 1979. {{ISBN|84-7456-049-7}}
- Terra de mai. Valencia: El cingle, 1982. {{ISBN|84-7456-124-8}}
- Sal oberta. Sant Boi de Llobregat: Llibres del Mall, 1982. {{ISBN|84-7456-122-1}}
- La germana, l'estrangera (1981–1984). Sant Boi de Llobregat: Llibres del Mall, 1985. {{ISBN|84-7456-277-5}}
- Contraclaror: antologia poètica, de Clementina Arderiu. Barcelona: La Sal, edicions de les dones, 1985. {{ISBN|84-85627-26-1}}
- Desglaç (1984–1988). Barcelona: Edicions 62 - Empúries, 1988.
- Llengua abolida (1973–1988). Valencia: Climent, 1989. {{ISBN|84-7502-246-4}}
- La passió segons Renée Vivien. Barcelona: Proa, 1994. {{ISBN|84-7809-739-2}}
- Paisatge emergent: trenta poetes catalanes del S.XX. Barcelona: La Magrana, 1999. {{ISBN|84-8264-167-0}}
- Raó del cos. Barcelona: Edicions 62 - Empúries, 2000. {{ISBN|84-297-4685-4}}
- Contraban de llum: antologia poètica. Barcelona: Proa, 2001. {{ISBN|84-8256-672-5}}
- El meu amor sense casa (CD). Barcelona: Proa, 2003. {{ISBN|84-8437-513-7}}
- Witch in Mourning. Translation of Bruixa de dol. London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2023. {{ISBN|9781739895525}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{lletra|URL_name=maria-merce-marcal}}
- [http://www.escriptors.cat/autors/marcalmm/pagina.php?id_sec=31 Maria-Mercè Marçal - Escriptors]
- [http://www.fmmm.cat/ Fundació Maria-Mercè Marçal], in Catalan.
- {{YouTube|42UMOkpDRI0|Videopoem FRIDA}}
- Poems: http://www.barcelonareview.com/46/c_mmm.htm
- Poems in English: https://exchanges.uiowa.edu/issues/fledglings/marcal-moneyhun/
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcal I Serra, Maria Merce}}
Category:Catalan-language writers
Category:Translators to Catalan
Category:Translators from Catalonia
Category:Deaths from cancer in Spain
Category:University of Barcelona alumni
Category:20th-century Spanish translators
Category:Women writers from Catalonia
Category:20th-century Spanish poets
Category:20th-century Spanish women writers