Antoni Pous (Manlleu, 1932 - Barcelona, 1976) was a poet, translator and cultural activist.

He studied Humanities in the Gleva minor seminary, and Philosophy and Philology in the Vic seminary. Together with a group of seminarians consisting of Josep Riubrogent, Josep Esteve, Josep Junyent, Josep Grau, Segimon Serrallonga and Ramon Cotrina, he contributed to the poetry anthology Estudiants de Vic, 1951, which was published in 2002, with a letter from the poet Carles Riba to Antoni Pous as its Prologue. In 1952, he presented his collection of poems L’inútil plor for the Cantonigròs literary competition. In 1956 he was ordained a priest in the Vic cathedral and sent to the parish of Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà. Between 1958 and 1960 he studied Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and, on his return, he was sent to the parish of Igualada where he engaged in intense cultural activity which included founding the Grup Lacetània, as well as being editor of the magazine Textos and director of the collection “Quaderns de Lacetània”. In 1963 the collection Antologia de la poesia igualadina, for which Antoni Pous made the selection, and wrote the Preface and Appendix, was published. In 1965 he began teaching Catalan Language and Literature at the University of Tübingen and, after 1971, he was a lecturer at the University of Zurich. Together with Johannes Hösle, he edited the anthology of Catalan poetry, Katalanische Lyrik im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert (1970).

He is author of the collection of poems El nou bon sempre seguit del desconhort a Jaume d’Urgell (1974) as well as other brief works and poems which have appeared in magazines, anthologies and a range of other publications. He also translated into Catalan works by Walter Benjamin, Paul Celan, and E.H. Schillebeeckx.



Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Photograph: Ramon Farrés.
Translated by Julie Wark.