Marta Pessarrodona (Terrassa, 78 years old), the most prominent Catalan poet of today, had to have been a pharmacist, but fell ill. After a month of reading, he had to repeat the revalidation to study letters. Today she lives in Sant Cugat del Vallès, near Barcelona, in a ramshackle house with a bar cabinet - inherited from her parents - on the porch and a clock that does not mark the hours, but the rooms. Among black and white photos, a piano and toys of his dog Queta -in honor of his grandmother Enriqueta-, he has the most important library in Spain on the Bloomsbury group (more than 500 volumes on Virginia Woolf) and multiple portraits of women and dogs. One was done by Leopoldo Pomés to a previous dog, Mont, who was given to her by her friend the writer Esther Tusquets. Hospitable and generous, when the photo session ends, around three in the afternoon, she starts to cook a boletus risotto - according to the Il Giardinetto recipe - which finishes in 16 minutes.
Not exhausted? "Those of us who have played sports all our lives do not get exhausted." She played basketball - "I was tall then" -, tennis and golf. She learned on a public green when she was working as a Spanish reader at the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom). “When I started playing tennis they told me I was posh. Why? If there are public courts, there is no elitism in sports ”.
Why have you been so interested in women?
I should have been born a feminist. At the university I met three types: the nuns — there were many in Literature — those who had read The Second Sex , by Simone de Beauvoir, and those who had not. De Beauvoir was someone who could change his mind. She wrote that when socialism came, the problem of women would end, but after visiting Russia she recognized that she had been wrong. Still, it bothered. In 1949, the war was very close and no one expected a book about women. They started insulting her. I wrote him a letter of support and to my surprise he replied.
I was a girl when it was published ...
I read it when I was 13 years old. Francophilia came from an excellent teacher I had at the Joan Maragall institute in Barcelona. He wanted me to have a pen pal and I spent years writing to a girl from Toulouse. Now the children at 15 have gone around the world, but I was the only one in my class who traveled to France.
Was your interest in women seeking to do justice or to find out what you wanted to be?
Everything. I think the century of women was the 20th. The XXI is the rereading. A close friend says that at the age of 14 I said that I would neither marry nor have children. But I think if someone had said to me: "Oh, we love each other so much, why don't we have a child?", I would have had one.
You could have said it too.
Already. But the most important partner in my life, who was Gabriel, always told me: “If I had known you with children, great. But mine, no ”.
Gabriel Ferrater was president of a jury that did not award a collection of poems by Pessarrodona that he liked. He saw freshness in his verses and wanted to know it. He was 45 years old, 19 years older than her. “She offered to preface the book, but we immediately hooked up and I thought it was inappropriate. Esther Tusquets advised me: 'Don't be silly. Men come and go, but the prologues remain ”.
What did you see in Ferrater?
“I should have been born a feminist. At the university I met three types: the nuns, those who had read The Second Sex and those who had not "
Man, he was very handsome. It fascinated me and at the same time it scared me. I wanted to save him.
He says it in a poem: save him from himself.
Especially from alcoholism. The only times I said enough was because of that. I have never drank less than the four years I spent with him. At home I had nothing.
In 1972 he committed suicide without leaving a note and the legend arose that he had announced that before the age of 50 he would stop living because he hated "smelling old."
That was what Jaime Salinas said. The only time he talked to me about suicide was when I asked him about his father. "It was a simple, he committed suicide," he said. I have come to the conclusion that suicide is a disease.
But it does involve a decision.
There are those who carry that decision in their DNA. Hume argued with Catholics: "If God sees everything but a rock falls on you and kills you without him putting his hand to stop it, why can't you throw the rock?"
It took him 25 years to talk about Ferrater.
I never wanted to live in its shadow. Not when we were together. It was clear to me that he was someone and I was not. I wanted my individuality.
Why has it gone down in the history of literature as a suicide announced?
From what others say. He had a mania for holding me back.
Did you leave a goodbye?
Not.
It was said that he had cirrhosis.
I haven't gotten an autopsy. They have appropriated the myth. I always say that his last day must have been 72 hours because everyone saw him, talked to him, drank with him… He didn't have a phone!
Didn't they live together?
Yes and no: each had their own flat. He slept with me and went to teach. At home he took the pills. He chose the day very well. It was April 27, the Virgin of Montserrat, my mother's saint. He knew he would go see her. Many say they said goodbye and ate with him. They lie. In his memoirs Carlos Barral said that he went to the funeral. Was not. I had problems with his brother [also the poet Joan Ferraté], who decided that I was annoying. Esther Tusquets defined it well: "She has a neurosis greater than her intelligence."
Instead, he dedicated a great poem to his mother-in-law: "You appreciated me because I loved him / I loved you for loving him."
It is my best poem. Beautiful coneguda lady, a very Carnerian title. Love multiplies, you love whoever loves you.
Was the generation of the fifties macho?
Well ... my close friends at that time were boys. He found them more interesting. Women are much more interesting now. With freedom comes the criterion.
What helped build the Ferrater myth?
I think his poetry. In nine years he made three books. The current poets reach 30 and have published 15. With a single poem you can get . William Henley's Invictus : “It doesn't matter how narrow the road has been / or how many punishments my back carries: / I am the master of my destiny, / I am the captain of my soul”, all England knows. But economic profitability and not culture governs editorial production today.
She has written that they did not forgive her.
The figure you like is the suffering one: your love dies and you don't have the strength to live. I took them out to go to London. Esther advised me and it is the best thing I have ever done. My parents supported me. Actually, Gabriel had pushed me. Fifteen days after meeting him, he brought me The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing. I told him I didn't know enough English. He said he would learn by reading it and… I ended up translating Lessing.
Like Ana María Moix or Montserrat Roig, Esther Tusquets was one of her great friends.
I miss them a lot. When I met Esther in college, she invited us to the theater. Then home. It was rich and very generous. In her library were all the books that I wanted to read. In the fireplace there was a picture of his mother with a cocker spaniel and a maid brought us a plum cake that the cook had made. Friends are very important. I have been able to be weak especially with my friends.
Ferrater was his Pygmalion?
Absolutely. He is the man in my life who has least spared my life.
"I still didn't know that I would no longer be happy." Was it the love of your life?
Yes. I have had stories, but not a similar relationship. This verse comes from Borges. Like him, I am more of a reader than a writer. I went to Argentina on a trip organized by the Generalitat of Jordi Pujol. Now he is the devil, but he did things well.
An alleged thief more than a devil, right?
I suppose. But he spoke many languages when the prime ministers of the Kingdom of Spain do not usually speak more than Castilian.
Mercè Rodoreda wrote: “We are despite our families”. What was yours like?
“I can fall in love with a woman as well as a man. I think that I know how to mix people and that people want to see beyond ”
I was a rich girl from a poor family. What he wanted he had. The daughters of manufacturers from Terrassa went to England as au pairs. They sent me to study. They didn't leave me flats, but they let me live my life.
When in 2019 they gave him the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes, he said: "I owe everything to my parents." When did you realize?
In the background always. But over the years I have seen and appreciated it. They loved me and set me free. I had no need to be a rebel.
In his stories and poems, he recounts a childhood of riding the swallows in the port and eating squid and pajamas at the Set Portes. What remains of that Barcelona?
Four old men. Almost every meal ended with a slap from my mother because she ate badly.
His other sought-after family has been literature.
Mrs. Dalloway was published earlier in Catalan, in 1930, than in Spanish.
We cannot blame Franco for that.
Unclear. Catalonia always had a concern for modernity.
Now too?
Absolutely. I want the independence of Catalonia to go on to criticize it all day.
Can you be a nationalist and an internationalist at the same time?
It is one thing for the other. I want recognition. At congresses, he always asked a question to show that Catalonia was a country without color on the map. If there was more respect from the central government, I would not feel that need. The last to believe in the fit of Catalonia with Spain were those who went into exile. But there is no way, nor will there be, as long as when you express a discrepancy or pain, the answer is “for them”. It is not so much a matter of language and flag as of misunderstanding and lack of respect.
Would a referendum have solved the problem?
I would not have enlarged it. They say that the newspaper is the prayer of the laity and I am subscribed to the Times, which is a conservative newspaper. The rapist they gave to the emeritus king remains to be seen in the Spanish press.
Have they done the same with Pujol?
They should. I don't save it. I am an English monarchist.
They also have a good season ...
Yes, Andrés brings them upside down. I love your liturgy.
In such a traditional country, the Woolfs were so modern that with their publisher, Hogarth Press, they invented crowdfunding .
Yes. And it makes so much sense that now it's coming back.
Woolf refused to publish Ulysses, Joyce. She was right?
They couldn't take it financially. Ask yourself another question: how many times did Joyce talk about Woolf? Not even one. However, as publishers they opened many doors.
Not just literary. They showed polyamory - between Bertrand Russell and Ottoline Morrell or between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.
Borges said that Orlando is the longest love letter in the history of literature.
Was being modern to be more ethical than moral?
Principia Ethica — by Georges E. Moore — was everyone's bedside book. They wondered what was good, they did not perpetuate what was supposed to be good. They tried. The protagonist of End of Journey, Woolf's first novel, has it on her bedside table.
Does it cost more to conquer sexual or mental freedom?
The mental. During the confinement I have read little. Fear paralyzes. This virus has left us without the possibility of action. There is only room in the mind. That is why we must expel fear from our heads and be sound, but not fearful. We have to be brave where we can, and now we can in thought.
You are included in anthologies of lesbian stories. Are you bisexual?
I am interested in people and I can fall in love with a woman as well as a man. I've always been like this. I have met fascinating women, but when an interesting man appeared, I was drawn to him. I am unprejudiced. I have friends of all kinds. I think I know how to mix people and that people are willing to mix and see beyond. I'm a sociable loner. I spent years celebrating my saint with 34 people. But I love the after-party feeling: seeing full ashtrays, thrown glasses ... and being alone with my dog.
You have been a poet, narrator, essayist, translator, editor ... Weren't you afraid of covering a lot and spreading little?
If you like a thing, do it. You have to get excited. One thing leads to another. Gabriel spoke of leaving things so as not to affect himself. She also said that she didn't write a novel because she would have to make the characters drink a lot of whiskeys… I've never wanted to be a total writer. There are notable essayists and poets who have not resisted the temptation and have written a bad novel. I have been a girl for everything because I have felt enthusiasm. I have dedicated my life to researching three writers - Virginia Woolf, Mercè Rodoreda and Doris Lessing - who did not even go through high school. I'm not saying this to get people to drop out of school, but to claim reading: all three were great readers.
He met Lessing and Rodoreda, but he calls the rest by their first names, as if he had treated them. Have you been very mythical?
Very much. Gabriel, nothing. He threw away a letter from Jean-Paul Sartre from 1940. I would be incapable.
Does Rodoreda get the recognition it deserves?
Much. The narrators of Catalonia have had bad luck because she existed, one out of the series.
Why don't you translate your own books into Spanish?
Translating is reading in depth. Translators have successes that authors cannot. It bores me to translate myself. But I have been lucky enough to translate for writers that I really like.
He has written poems about cities like Berlin, London, Barcelona or Buenos Aires. What has interested you about them?
I try to talk about real cities: the victims of the Holocaust and the victims of real estate companies. Also of the witnesses of life. I went to the La Puñalada restaurant with my parents, then Gabriel, then Rodoreda, and it no longer exists. This I do not forgive Barcelona. In London or Vienna, places where I have been with people who are no longer there have not disappeared. To go is to recover something. It is important not to be so immediate and to have the courage to take feelings into account.
What is a courageous culture?
A councilwoman said she would go against the elitist culture. I should have added "and in favor of high culture." There must be popular culture, but also ambition. What amazes me about the Catalan past is that Carles Riba translated the Odyssey and when he returned from exile in a very precarious situation he said: "Now I know much more, I am going to translate it again." I want to defend that. I like countries that defend their worth, not chauvinists who believe that theirs is the best.
What has he lived on?
From when I worked in editorials and translation. Let's see, I'm for rent. I have not wanted to tie myself to anything. Having things complicates life a lot. I prefer the complications of not having them.
What would change in your life?
Little bit. All futile: having visited my aunt more. Put the name of my father's brother on her note. I didn't do it because I had screwed him up, but deep down my father loved him. Rodoreda used to say that important things are those that don't seem so and… Dying bothers me because of what I haven't read.