Antonio Martínez Sarrión

Martínez Sarrión studied baccalaureate in Albacete and graduated in Law from the University of Murcia in 1961. In 1963 he went to live in Madrid, where he works as a public official in the Central Administration. Between 1974 and 1976 he co-directed, with Jesús Munárriz and José Esteban, the Spanish and Ibero-American Poetic Illustration, a poetry magazine from which twelve issues appeared.

He was included in the famous anthology of the critic José María Castelet Nueve novísimos poetas españoles (Newest Ones New Spanish Poems), which consecrated him in the contemporary Spanish poetry.

Within the common anti-realist restlessness of the group of the newest ones, Martínez Sarrión stands out for his rebellious sixtyeightish that made him admire beat poetry and for assuming very soon many of the cultural, irrationalist, and mythical references (literature, cinema, jazz) that his fellows on the road would later adopt.

In his poetry, everything is mixed – the poet's quote, a conversation, a digression, a memory, a jazz song – in a way that realizes itself through the rupture of the syntactic forms.

The technique of his poetic work has always been compared with that of surrealism, although is, in fact, different because "the accumulation of images, apparently disconnected, comes from the will (...) to express chaos as it is lived. There is, therefore, no work on the "free associations", but conscious dis-aggregation of logical associations, (...)" (Jenaro Talens in his foreword to El centro inaccessible...).

Another aspect of his work is occupied by memorialism. He published many articles and a trilogy of memories, which occupies his childhood years (Infancia y corrupciones, 1993); his university education (Una juventud, 1996) and his ascension to literary life. (Jazz y días de lluvia, 2002)

Martínez Sarrión is also a remarkable translator of French. He has made one of the best Spanish versions of the Les fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) by Charles Baudelaire, and has also translated Victor Hugo's work Lo que dice la boca de sombra y otros poemas (What the shadow mouth says and other poems), Stendhal Translating Award in 1990. Other authors whose work he translated into Spanish are Jean Genet, Michel Leiris, Alfred de Musset, Chamfort, Jacottet and Arthur Rimbaud.

He participated on several occasions as a collaborator in the Spanish TV show Qué grande es el cine (How great cinema is) in La 2 and Cine en blanco y negro (Cinema in black and white) in Telemadrid, both presented and moderated by José Luis Garci.

• Information about Martínez Sarrión with excerpts of his poetical works (In Spanish)
• Poetic selection in Spanish.