Nabi

Josep Carner's Nabí is a masterpiece of modern Catalan poetry. Based on the biblical story of Jonah, it is essentially a Christian poem, though it is scathing about the effects of religious perversion. In the widest sense a poem about the limits of rationality, it is a triumph of language - of a language which Carner helped to establish as a vehicle for serious poetry. This bilingual edition is introduced by the noted Catalan expert Arthur Terry. Josep Carner (1884-1970) was one of the leading members of a brilliant generation of Catalan poets. His work extends from the early years of the century to the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. J.L. Gili (1907-1998) was born in Barcelona and lived in England from 1934. A scholar, translator, publisher and bookseller, Joan Gili ran the Dolphin Book Company in Oxford for many years, and was well known as the translator of Lorca's Selected Poems (Penguin).