Gabriel Celaya

Gabriel Celaya (full name: Rafael Gabriel Juan Múgica Celaya Leceta; March 18, 1911, in Hernani, Gipuzkoa – April 18, 1991, in Madrid) was a Spanish poet. Gabriel settled in Madrid and studied engineering, working for a time as a manager in his family's business.

Gabriel met Federico García Lorca, José Moreno Villa and other intellectuals who inspired him towards writing around 1927-1935, after which he devoted his writing entirely to poetry. In 1946 he founded the collection of the poems "Norte" with its inseparable Amparo Gastón and since then, he abandoned his engineering profession and his family's business.

The poetry collection "Norte" was intended to bridge between the gap of the poetry of the generation of 1927, the exile and Europe.

In 1946, he published the prose book "Tentativas" in which he signed as Gabriel Celaya for the first time. This is the first stage of existentialist character.

Along with Eugenio de Nora and Blas de Otero, he supported the idea of a non-elitist poetry in the service of the majority, "to transform the world".

In 1956, he won the Critics Award for his book "De claro en claro".

When this model of social poetry was in crisis, Celaya returned to his poetic origins. He published 'La linterna sorda' ('The lantern deaf') and reedited poems belonging prior to 1936. He also tested the experimentalism and concrete poetry 'Campos Semánticos'('semantic fields') (1971).

Between 1977 and 1980 their Obras Completas were published in five volumes. In 1986 he won a national prize for Spanish literature by the Ministry of Culture, the same year when he published “Open world”.

The work of Celaya is a synthesis of almost all the concerns and styles of Spanish poetry of 20th century.

Celaya died on April 18, 1991, in Madrid and his remains were scattered in his native Hernani.

Works

Poetry Marea del silencio, 1935 La soledad cerrada, 1947 Movimientos elementales, 1947 Tranquilamente hablando, 1947 (firmado como Juan de Leceta) Objetos poéticos, 1948 El principio sin fín, 1949 Se parece al amor, 1949 Las cosas como son, 1949 Deriva, Alicante, 1950 Las cartas boca arriba, 1951 Lo demás es silencio, 1952 Paz y concierto, 1953 Ciento volando (con Amparo Gastón), 1953 Vía muerta, 1954 La poesía es un arma cargada de futuro, 1954 Cantos iberos, 1955 Coser y cantar (con Amparo Gastón), 1955 De claro en claro, 1956 Entreacto, 1957 Las resistencias del diamante, 1957 Música celestial (con Amparo Gastón), 1958 Cantata en Aleixandre, 1959 El corazón en su sitio, 1959 Para vosotros dos, 1960 Poesía urgente, 1960 La buena vida, 1961 Los poemas de Juan de Leceta, 1961 Rapsodia eúskara, 1961 Episodios nacionales, 1962 Mazorcas, 1962 Versos de otoño, 1963 Dos cantatas, 1963 La linterna sorda, 1964 Baladas y decires vascos, 1965 Lo que faltaba, 1967 Poemas de Rafael Múgica, 1967 Los espejos transparentes, 1968 Canto en lo mío, 1968 Poesías completas, 1969 Operaciones poéticas, 1971 Campos semánticos, 1971 Dirección prohibida, 1973 Función de Uno, 1973 El derecho y el revés, 1973 La hija de Arbigorriya, 1975 Buenos días, buenas noches, 1978 Parte de guerra, 1977 Poesías completas (Tomo I-VI), 1977-80 Iberia sumergida, 1978 Poemas órficos, 1981 Penúltimos poemas, 1982 Cantos y mitos, 1984 Trilogía vasca, 1984 El mundo abierto, 1986 Orígenes / Hastapenak, 1990 Poesías completas, 2001-04 Essays El arte como lenguaje, 1951 Poesía y verdad, 1959 Juan Manuel Caneja, 1959 Exploración de la poesía, 1964 Castilla, a cultural reader (con Phyllis Turnbull), 1960 Inquisición de la poesía, 1972 La voz de los niños, 1972 Bécquer, 1972 Los espacios de Chillida, 1974 Lo que faltaba de Gabriel Celaya, 1984 Reflexiones sobre mi poesía, 1987 Ensayos literarios, 2009 Prose Taradez, 4003 Tentativas, 1946 Lázaro calla, 1949 Penúltimas tentativas, 1960 Lo uno y lo otro, 1962 Los buenos negocios, 1965 Memorias inmemoriales, 1980 Drama El relevo, 1963 Ritos y farsas. Obra teatral completa, 1985