Rafael Alberti

Rafael Alberti’s collection of poems set in vibrant Rome, his home in exile from Spain.

After his long exile in France and Argentina following the Spanish Civil War, Rafael Alberti’s final home in exile was Rome, where he wrote Roma: Peligro para caminantes (Rome: Pedestrians Beware). There, Romulus and Remus sneak down to the Tiber to suckle on feral cats, a jack of all trades pisses on the poet’s shoes, whistling as he walks away, and in the Campo de’Fiori the poet compares sonnets with the wandering spirit of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, all in the shadow of the glory of Rome’s imperial ruins.

Two suites of sonnets open and close the book, while in between, Alberti displays masterful poems in metered and free verse, rhyming couplets, and a numbered series of short poems. The blending of classical tradition with post-modern echoes the darkness and luminosity that exist within the poems, tinged with longing, nostalgia, love, as well as hope. In the end, the Eternal City is a refuge for Alberti: ”I left for you all that I once held dear. / Oh Rome, my sorrow pleads, hold out your hands / and give me everything I left for you.”

This unique trilingual edition features exquisite and nuanced translations in English and Italian from the original Spanish by Anthony Geist and Giuseppe Leporace alongside visually evocative photographs of Rome by Adam Weintraub. Readers will want to take this poetic walk in Rome since what sometimes elicits caution, an aspect of danger, also becomes a destination for discovery.

The first volume of Rafael Alberti's theater anthology, which renewed decisive aspects of Spanish avant-garde theater.

Subtitulada “Fábula de amor y de las viejas”, es una obra en tres actos.

Adaptación a la escena de la obra homónima de Francisco Delicado, realizada por Rafael Alberti.

La obra dramática de Rafael Alberti (1902-1999) siempre resulta postergada con respecto a la poesía, sin embargo, además de responder a una de las inquietudes firmes de muchos poetas de su generación, exterioriza preocupaciones que sólo en el teatro le parecían tener expresión justa. Así, Noche de guerra en el Museo del Prado, puede ser la crónica abreviada de una urgencia histórica.

Obra concebida para ser interpretada por la actriz Margarita Xirgu, si bien al final no se estrenó hasta el año 1992, con motivo de la Expo de Sevilla.

Según cuenta en su libro de memorias, La arboleda perdida, fue en Rota donde Rafael Alberti concibió la idea de un “romance popular visto con los ojos del pueblo”, a la manera de los antiguos romances de ciego. El tema de la obra seria la vida del capitán de Infantería Fermín Galán, que participó en la “sanjuanada” contra la dictadura del general Primo de Rivera.

(en 1 vol. junto  Noche de guerra en el Museo del Prado)

El hombre deshabitado se considera como un auto sacramental laico.

Antología de la épica romanceada durante la guerra española a cargo de Rafael Alberti.

"Esta antología trata de apresar en castellano una pequeñísima parte de esa fama que todos los críticos y estudiosos están dispuestos a otorgar a la poesía del Extremo Oriente. Perdón por haber entrado en aquel campo de flores con pocas armas lingüísticas para transcribir caracteres, colores, tonos y transparencias sutiles, pero los inmortales de la poesía china son patrimonio de la humanidad". Rafael Alberti.

"¡Oh, soñar con tus siempre apetecidas altas colinas dulces y apretadas, y con tus manos juntas resbaladas, en el Monte de Venus escondidas!"

Publicado exclusivamente en edición bilingüe español-italiano en Roma, en 1972, Desprecio y maravilla reúne algunos de los más extensos, ambiciosos e importantes poemas de la poesía civil de toda la obra de Alberti; no ha circulado en volumen exento hasta ahora en España precisamente por la extrema virulencia de algunos poemas. Tenemos así, un testimonio único y de elevadísimo valor literario, acerca de la última etapa del exilio romano de Alberti, y más generalmente, acerca del momento de exasperación y horror que marca el período epilogal del régimen franquista y coincide con el ápice más lúgubre de la guerra de Vietnam.

Recopilación de poemas inéditos, con composiciones dedicadas al cometa Halley, por ejemplo.

El título responde a una de las imágenes poéticas con las que Alberti se refiere al sexo femenino. Con ilustraciones de Manolo Rivera.

Alentado por el hechizo que sobre él obran unos cuadernos chinos, Rafael Alberti va desgranando en ellos sus Versos sueltos de cada día, escritos al hilo del discurrir cotidiano, del instante fugaz. Sembrado de delicias líricas que abarcan desde el aforismo poético, la evocación, la aprehensión del sentimiento, la imagen cercana al haikú, al poema o la copla de sabor popular.

El volumen reúne la creación poética de Alberti correspondiente al período 1972-1978. El libro está ilustrado con dibujos del propio autor.

Recopilación de sonetos de: Marinero en tierra, Cal y canto, A la pintura, Roma, peligro para caminantes y Amor en vilo.

.

El famoso libro de poemas que escribió el gran poeta Rafael Alberti con motivo del 89º cumpleaños de Pablo Picasso.

Doble homenaje de la editorial Losada al autor, en el que dio a conocer un bellísimo conjunto de poesías al cumplir éste los setenta años, y otro al entregar en un solo volumen sus composiciones anteriores a Marinero en tierra.

Algunos de los poemas contenidos en el libro juegan con el concepto de crear figuras con los signos.

Experimentación en la que el autor gaditano juega con la poesía y el arte dramático, creando escenas y textos “para ser protagonizados, sobriamente, sin sombra de declamación”.

Libro de viaje en el que se intercalan poemas e ilustraciones. En 1957, María Teresa y Rafael Alberti realizaron un periplo por China para tomar contacto con los cambios sociales surgidos de la Revolución Comunista.

Selección de poemas que el propio autor hizo sobre sus viajes por Europa del Este y por China.

En palabras del autor: "Estas Baladas y canciones del Paraná surgieron frente a los bañados del inmenso río argentino, llenos de vacas y caballos, sobre unas altas barrancas de naranjos y loros, en las que se alzaba una casa misteriosa llamada la Quinta del Mayor loco, propiedad que había sido de un militar que desapareció un día después que su mujer intentara matarlo por dos veces". "Vuelven de nuevo a mí, con tanta intensidad como en los más claros momentos de Marinero en tierra, las canciones de corte musical de repetidos estribillos, pero de contenidos diferentes. Y como por transparencia entrelazados al río y el raro paisaje que las provocan, se ven latir todos los años de dolor y nostalgia que anidan dentro de mí...".

Ora marítima pertenece al mismo ciclo y temática, que Retornos de lo vivo lejano, escritas durante en la estancia del autor en Argentina.

Winner of the 2016 Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation

"In Returnings, we are treated to an essay on the imaginative possibilities of a great poet, long exiled from his native land, turning memory into verse, recovering from the past everything that counts: love and friendship and the landscapes that shaped him. Through alleyways and storied ruins, colors and autumn and war, Alberti discovers poetry at every turn." Christopher Merrill 

Tras su estancia en Buenos Aires durante la postguerra española, Alberti sigue recorriendo Argentina.

"Por tu río, ciudad, puse mi pie en tu tierra. Yo venía -lo sabes- venía de la guerra". Una colección de poemas del autor gaditano centradas en el centro histórico y el barrio de la Boca de la capital argentina.

Juan Panadero fue un personaje inventado por Rafael Alberti para reflejar a través del mismo la desazón del destierro.

Libro que reúne una serie de semblanzas de grandes de la cultura del siglo XX, a quienes Alberti conoció. Por sus páginas desfilan García Lorca, Ortega y Gasset, André Gide, Gorki, Picasso, Valle-Inclán...

.

Each poem in this book is inspired by one of three different elements of painting: poems about color take the form of numbered lists, each item of which names a use to which a certain painter has put the particular color, a specific shade taken by the color in painting or in nature, or an association the poet has with the color; poems dedicated to the various tools a painter uses are written as traditional sonnets; and poems dedicated to painters imitate the style of the painter being addressed. ("Giotto" is written as a medieval lauda, while "Picasso" –a tribute to Alberti's longtime friend and the painter to whom he dedicates this book– is free-form, with words spaced over the page in an unconventional manner.)

Primera obra de Alberti escrita íntegramente en el exilio.

Obra de exilio, los nueve poemas que componen Vida bilingüe de un refugiado español en Francia hablan de las sensaciones y sentimientos de Alberti en París, oscilando entre la añoranza y la angustia. En el libro se mezclan evocaciones de España sin guerra con la imagen del París de aquel momento.

A los meses de provisionalidad e incertidumbre del comienzo del exilio del autor corresponde la gestación de esta obra, escrita bajo el doble signo de la flor y de la muerte, del «seco olor a sangre pisoteada» y el «aroma a jardines, a amanecer diario, a vida fresca, inexpugnable», del amor y el compromiso ineludible.

This work brings together poems from 1934 to 1939 and is divided into four sections: the first, La familia (The Family), is a reckoning with Alberti's childhood and adolescence, marked by the bourgeois environment and religion. The second section is an undeniable manifestation of the social commitment the poet chose to embrace. The third section includes the work 13 bandas y 48 estrellas (13 Bands and 48 Stars), while the fourth, Capital de la gloria (Capital of Glory), is a vibrant canto inspired by the struggle and resistance of Republican Spain during the bloody Civil War.

El título del libro proviene de uno de los poemas más provocadores del autor gaditano, ya que apareció una mañana pegado por las calles esquinas de Madrid en una acción ejecutada por el propio autor como proclamación pública de su conciencia marxista.

13 bandas y 48 estrellas es un abrazo solidario a los países hispanoamericanos en pugna con el “gigante del Norte”.

Dedicado a la memoria de su amigo Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, torero que sufrió una cogida mortal el 11 de agosto de 1934.

Un ejemplo del compromiso político del autor. Los poemas van acompañados de notas en prosa para explicar a los obreros el sentido de los versos.

Subtitulado «Elegía cívica», indica ya el rumbo que en los años sucesivos adoptará la lírica del poeta gaditano. 

«Será en ese momento cuando los caballos sin ojos se desgarren las tibias contra los hierros en punta de una valla de sillas indignadas junto a los adoquines de cualquier calle recién absorta en la locura. / Vuelvo a cagarme por última vez en todos vuestros muertos en este mismo instante en que las armaduras se desploman en la casa del rey».

Así reza el comienzo de una de las composiciones más insolentes, más agudas y anticonvencionales del repertorio albertiano, elaborada durante ese periodo en que el poeta obliga a todos sus campos íntimos a colocarse frente a las certidumbres burguesas, hijas de la comodidad y la rutina. 

Poemas que participan aún de las imágenes y dislocaciones del surrealismo y la vanguardia.

First published in Spain in the summer of 1929, Concerning the Angels (Sobre los ángeles) is the great Spanish poet Rafael Alberti's masterpiece, on a par with T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Pablo Neruda's Residencia en la tierra (Residence on Earth), and Federico Garcia Lorca's Poeta en Nueva York. It marks a major departure from the light-hearted tone of the poet's earlier verse, which was notably influence by Andalusian folksong. It is at once intensely imaginative and intimately realistic, a lyrical illumination of the poet's "dark night of the soul." 

Obra que Alberti que el mismo autor definió como neogongorina, tendencia en boga entre los de su generación, si bien coquetea también con el vanguardismo.

Yo era un tonto y lo que he visto me ha hecho dos tontos es un conjunto de poesías escritas en 1929 en homenaje a los cómicos del cine. Nunca publicadas en edición individual, y dispersas por las distintas recopilaciones de su poesía, se ha considerado como una de las obras más originales de los años 20 en España. «Yo nací —¡respetadme!— con el cine», declararía Alberti; y estos poemas a Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, Laurel y Hardy, son el reflejo asombroso de un arte joven como el poeta.

El alba del alhelí is among Rafael Alberti's earliest works and represents a sample of his popular-style poetry. The playful charm, cheerful tone, and delicacy of these compositions place them within the realm of the purest Spanish popular lyricism.

La amante is divided into four parts: Towards the Highlands, Towards the Northern Coast, Returning from the Coast, and Madrid. The brief poems, reminiscent of the songs of Gil Vicente and the traditional Cancionero, and introduced by the resonant names of the geography of Castile, possess the poetic genius, grace, and freshness that characterize this decisive stage of Rafael Alberti's long journey in search of new forms of lyrical expression.

Winner of the National Literature Prize in 1925, Sailor on Land is one of the fundamental milestones in the work of Rafael Alberti. This early poetry of the master from Cádiz is light, graceful, full of light and musicality, of imagined images and creatures, expressing the growing melancholy of a sea boy anchored on land. It resonates with echoes from the Romancero, Gil Vicente, and Garcilaso, to those of Rimbaud, Verlaine, and the avant-garde.

New edition of Rafael Alberti's memoirs, with all unpublished variants.

This new installment of Rafael Alberti's Complete Works is an exceptional chronicle that reproduces the events, achievements, successes, dramas, customs, frustrations, myths, and adventures of an era where the people who influenced the poet's personal or public world play a principal role. This edition includes, for the first time, all the versions, even unpublished ones, that the author produced of La arboleda perdida, a memoir essential for understanding the pulses and tremors of the 20th century.

After Imagen primera de... and La arboleda perdida, this collection of Rafael Alberti’s prose becomes an indispensable book. The themes of Prosas encontradas are extremely varied. Here we find Alberti offering his vision on Spanish classics, Alberti expressing his artistic or literary criticism, Alberti describing his personal memories, and Alberti undertaking a propaganda trip to the former Soviet Union.

The Lost Grove contains the first two volumes of Rafael Alberti's memoirs, covering the period from his birth to the Republic, viewed from the perspective of the early difficult times of exile. This work is both an admirable literary piece and one of the most valuable documents we have about the social, cultural, and political life of Spain during that period. It particularly sheds light on the evolution of the country's intellectual figures, from the great names of Alberti's generation—such as García Lorca, Aleixandre, Cernuda, and Guillén—to representatives of earlier generations starting from 1898, along with the more marginal figures who complete the tableau.

“On once again immersing myself in these poems so many times read, heard and recited, I saw the need to carefully re-read them, given the difficulty of capturing the always ethereal soul of his poetry, so full of images. An intense journey which gave rise to a fresh perception of his work and the need to show a different Rafael Alberti, forgoing the obvious. This is why I have distanced myself from the man with long white hair, after his return from prolonged exile, so that I could observe the rebellious, curious and restless child that he always was; the child who never stopped running along the gleaming beaches of the Bay of Cádiz, who played with rhymes, splashing his verses in the sea. I have tried to reflect the light that never left the eyes of the poet who painted with words.” Elena Ferrándiz, illustrator

Hilarious poems in which joy, light, colour and fun take the centre stage. 

Rafael Alberti is one of the most beloved and famous poets in Spanish literature. Poemas chiquininos offers a selection of festive, happy poems, verses full of light and ideal for introducing poetry to children.

In these colourful pages, beautifully illustrated by Mariana Ruiz Johnson, we will find musicality in verses dedicated to places, animals, and the sea. The most mischievous and funny side of this great poet returns to the novelty section in this book.

In Rome, a lady leaves her room and, in the silence of the night, obtains a sword. The verses of Rafael Alberti unfold and fold a secret adventure, which Isidro Ferrer captures in images full of poetry.

A carefully curated anthology featuring 23 poems by the poet Rafael Alberti, chosen specifically for young readers and for those who approach poetry with a childlike wonder. Illustrated by Federico Delicado.

Rafael Alberti, the last of the Generation of '27, poet and painter of the sea and words. This book is a Tribute in memory of the 120th anniversary of that group of poets. They created books that are new paths in prose and verse, so that the mystery of words with art, always new and always ancient, continues to amaze us. This book is an anthology, like entering an immense garden and picking just a bouquet of flowers. An anthology is a collection of living memories, an invitation to continue reading in other books. We hope that a celebration, like those the poet sparked in his encounters with children and adults, by the grace of reading, may arise in every corner where this book, with the pointer of fantasy, reveals its heart full of jingles.

Rafael Alberti was one of the greatest Spanish poets of the 20th century, and also an extraordinary poet for children, whom he attracted with his grandfatherly, wizard-like charm. His poems, many of which are collected in this splendid anthology illustrated with great skill and colour, enchant and captivate. His verses, musical, playful, and surprising, are tremendously close to the child’s universe. The themes (the sea, love, war, nostalgia, nonsense, the end...) gently introduce us to the essence of his immortal work.

Focused on the substantial unity of Rafael Alberti's work, this poetic anthology, which covers the most essential aspects of the author's lyrical activity, provides a thorough idea of the highly complex poetic personality of Alberti. In his work, the popular and the cultured, modern and ancient myths, the subjective and political material, humour and transcendence intertwine, alternate, and blend, enriching each other.

Selection and prologue by Natalia Calamai.

This volume contains all the poetry written by Alberti during his American exile up to the year of his return to Europe.

The fifth volume of Rafael Alberti's complete works, and the fourth collection of his poetry, includes essential titles such as Entre el clavel y la espada, Pleamar, Retornos de lo vivo lejano, and A la pintura, along with variants and scattered publications from this extensive and fruitful period.

The third volume of the complete poetry of Rafael Alberti.

The second volume of the complete poetry of Rafael Alberti.

This comprehensive poetic anthology features a selection of Rafael Alberti's most emblematic works, spanning from 1924 to 1988.

Reading this collection reveals the breadth, variety, and complexity of Alberti's poetry, as well as its different creative phases. It includes works from Marinero en tierra (1924), which establishes a mythical vision of his native Cádiz, to those reinforcing his connection with traditional Spanish poetry. The anthology also highlights Cal y canto and Sermones y moradas, which prefigure Spanish avant-garde poetry.

It explores the period when Alberti emerged as the «poet in the street», reflecting his growing social and political commitment. The collection encompasses his major works from his exiles in Argentina and Italy, and concludes with his return to Spain, where he reconnects with his compatriots in the streets, plazas, and bullfights.

Selection by Antonio Colinas.

A unique chronicle that reproduces the events, conquests, successes, dramas, customs, frustrations, myths, and adventures of an era where the individuals who shaped the poet's private and public world play a primary role. The Seix Barral edition compiles, for the first time, all versions, including unpublished ones, that the author created of The Lost Grove, a memoire that is essential for understanding the heartbeats and tremors of the 20th century. Presented in eight volumes.

In this first volume, all of Alberti's poetry from the 1920s is gathered. It includes poems written before Sailor on Land up to the eve of his period as a committed poet.

Antología Poética (Poesía) Visor

Antología ilustrada (Poesía) Anaya

Antología (Poesía y Prosa - 2 volúmenes). Alianza Editorial

Antología de poesía (Poesía). Espasa Calpe - Colec. Austral, Antología de poesía (2001) 

El mar. La mar (Antología ilustrada, 2007) Dúnamis Ediciones

Antología, preparada por Claude Couffon. Le temps des Cerises

Antologías. Mondadori

Antología, Campo das Letras

Antología (Comandante Durán. Leyenda y tragedia de un intelectual en armas de Javier Juárez), Random (Debate)

Antología. Xorki

Selección de poemas (1999). Susaeta

Selección de poemas (1998) bajo el título Sueños del marinero. Grijalbo

Selección de poemas (1999). Asociación de Amigos de la Residencia de Estudiantes

In 1977, the magazine-book Litoral dedicated issues 70-71-72 to the great Gaditan poet Rafael Alberti. It featured an unpublished book by the writer titled Cuaderno de Rute. The book begins with a letter from his daughter Aitana and ends with the correspondence he had that year with his poet colleagues and friends, such as Emilio Prados, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, and José Bergamín. It is illustrated with drawings by Alberti himself.