Carles Miralles (Barcelona, 1944-2015) was a poet, Hellenist and professor of Greek Philology at the University of Barcelona.

In 1965, he was awarded second prize (shared with Pius Morera) in the Amadeu Oller Awards for La terra humida (Damp Land) and, in 1967, the Salvat-Papasseit Prize for On m'he fet home (Where I Have Become a Man). Then came a long period of silence, which was to last until 1981 when he published two collections of poems, Camí dels arbres i de tu (Path of the Trees and You) and Per fi la tortuga (At Last the Tortoise). In 1990 he published La mà de l'arquer (The Archer's hand), for which he received the poetry award in the 1992 National Prize for Catalan Literature, while La ciutat dels platans (The City of Plane Trees) appeared in 1995. The volume D'aspra dolcesa. Poesia 1963 – 2001 (From Harsh Sweetness: Poetry 1963 – 2001), which was published in 2002 is a revised collection of his poetic work published thitherto. In 2013 he received the Salvador Espriu special Prize from the Jocs Florals of Barcelona.

Carles Miralles has always combined writing poetry with his studies of Greek classics and Catalan poets. Fruit of this work are the volumes Lectura de les "Elegies de Bierville" de Carles Riba (A Reading of Carles Riba's "Bierville Elegies", 1978), which was awarded the IEC-Josep Carner Prize in 1980; Sobre Foix (On Foix, 1993), winner of the "Serra d'Or" Critics' Prize for the Essay in 1994), Homer (2005), another book on Carles Riba, Sobre Riba (On Riba, 2007) or Sobre Espriu (On Espriu, 2013). He has also written the narrative work Escrit a la finestra (Written at the Window) and has translated into Catalan works by Xenophon and Herodas. He edited and wrote the Introduction to the Catalan edition of the tragedies of Euripides and the works of Sophocles, and also worked on the publication of Història de la literatura catalana (History of Catalan Literature), published by Ariel.

He was a regular contributor to the columns of the newspaper Avui besides writing for the publications Ítaca, El Pont, Serra d'Or, Els Marges, Faventia, Reduccions, Nous Horitzons, Quimera and Arbor.

He was a permanent fellow of the Philological Section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Institute of Catalan Studies) and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Barcelona, president of the Societat Catalana d'Estudis Clàssics (Catalan Society of Classical Studies) and director of the review Ítaca.

He was a member of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC, Association of Catalan Language Writers).



Web page: Toni Terrades Oliver for AELC.
Documentation: Toni Terrades.
Photographs: © Relats Fotogràfics-Carme Esteve.
Translation: Julie Wark.