Salvador Oliva i Llinàs (Banyoles, 1942) is a poet and translator. He studied Hispanic Philology and works as a university lecturer. Notable among his poetry collections are Terres perdudes (Lost Lands, 1980 Miquel de Palol Prize) El somriure del tigre (The Tiger's Smile, 1986), and Complements circumstancials (Circumstantial Complements [a word-play because the title also means "Adverbial Phrases"], 1998). The critics consider that his work is among the most personal and innovative of the well-known generation of the 1970s. As a translator, he has mainly worked on Shakespeare’s plays, which he has translated in their entirety along with all his poetry.

He has been awarded several prizes for his translations, for example the 1986 Generalitat de Catalunya Prize, the 1988 Crítica Serra d'Or Prize, and the 2003 Cavall Verd-Rafael Jaume Prize for Sonets (Sonnets). Outstanding among his essays are Introducció a Shakespeare (Introduction to Shakespeare), which received the 1998 Octavi Pellissa Prize. He has also translated other works from English by Dylan Thomas, Oscar Wilde and W. H. Auden, inter alia. Younger poets have been able to benefit from Salvador Oliva's technical and aesthetic knowledge thanks to his theoretical books Mètrica catalana (Catalan Merics, 1981) and Introducció a la mètrica (Introduction to Metrics, 1986).



Web page: Xulio Ricardo Trigo for AELC.
Translation: Julie Wark
Photograph: Inma Sáinz de Baranda.