Joan Brossa, El saltamartí / The Tumbler

This first-time English translation of The Tumbler (El saltamartí)—a collection of poems written in 1963 and first published in Catalan in 1969—presents a convergence of Joan Brossa’s critical and cultural concerns. Charting his growing sense of social commitment and support of Catalan independence, freedom stands as both Brossa’s primary subject and conceptual framework throughout this collection. The Tumbler is an anti-clerical and anti-authoritarian work that brings together verse vignettes and visual poems to revivify the proverbial, often with comic and subversive effect. Brossa plays with image, iconography and intimation as both verbal and visual elements vie for our attentions across these pages as—always the innovator—Brossa evinces a manifestly accessible and archly political poetry that demands our critical and creative participation. The Tumbler stands as a critical study of freedom; as "a bird that moves its wings."