Bio

Eduard Velasco (Barcelona, 1982) is a writer and translator, and also a former bookseller. Having graduated in Catalan Philology and Galician Philology, he has worked teaching Catalan and Galician language, as a literary translator and cultural promotor, with a special interest in the socio-cultural relations between Galicia and the Catalan Countries. He translated into Galician authors such as Emili Teixidor, Raimon Casellas or Avel·lí Artís-Gener; and into Catalan works by galician writers Vicente Risco, Gonzalo Navaza, Francisco Castro, Ricardo Carvalho Calero, Suso de Toro, Olga Novo, Ismael Ramos or Antía Yáñez. He is the author of the poetry collections Ruído de Trens (Espiral Maior, 2015) and O filósofo coxo (Espiral Maior, 2017), of the novel Os días felices de Benvido Seixas (Xerais, 2019) and of the children’s poetry book Animalario de ler a diario con bicharía da noite e do día (soon to be published by Xerais). For two years he co-directed the poetry-specialized bookstore Chan da Pólvora (Santiago de Compostela).

Project

During my time at the FaberLlull residence I will focus on the Catalan translation of Follas novas, the second of two poetry books written by Rosalía de Castro in Galician and which has never been translated into Catalan before. Published in 1880, it is considered to be the founding work of modern Galician literature and set a milestone both regarding the themes (social poetry committed to the emigrants’ situation and women’s advocacy) and the fact that it was written in a language at the time considered a dialect only suitable for strictly popular poetry.