Spanish poetry has contributed great authors to the world who have endured the test of time, in many different styles and forms, ranging from the ode, sonnet and elegy to couplets and free verses. This literary genre is characterized by being the purest expression in the form of words, of human beings’ feelings, emotions and thoughts. In the Arab world, a sophisticated love of poetry existed even before the advent of Islam. With poetry from the Siglo de Oro to the contemporary era, at this recital we will get the opportunity to hear the words of Garcilaso de la Vega, Antonio Machado, Manuel Machado, Federico García Lorca and Pablo Neruda in their original form, with a translation into the Arabic completed by two notable poets from both shores of the Mediterranean, a Palestinian resident of Spain, Mahmud Sobh, and Madrid’s Javier Lostalé.

Recital information sheet

Mahmud Sobh (Safad, Palestine, 1936) is a university professor emeritus from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and since the late 1960s has been tied to the Complutense itself and Spain’s Diplomatic School. Amongst other works, he has authored aHistory of Classical Arab Literature and the monumental work El diván de la poesía árabe oriental y andalusí (Diwan of Arab Poetry of the East and Al-Andalus), and he has translated such emblematic Spanish works as La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas. As a poet, he has received such prestigious awards as the Álamo Award, the City of Irún Prize and the Vicente Aleixandre Award. His poetry, in titles such as Huerto palestino (Palestinian Garden), Poseso en Layla (Possessed in Layla) and Mar blanco (White Sea), has been described as both popular and full of vitality, classical and iconoclastic, in which love, the search for identity, life as an adventure and rebellious sincerity are the essential points of reference.

Javier Lostalé (Madrid, 1942) is a Spanish poet belonging to the generation of the 1970s. He has had eight poetry books published, five of which have been brought together in La rosa inclinada. Obra reunida. 1976-2001 (The Leaning Rose: Collected works from 1976-2001). He also authored a book on literary thought titled Quien lee, vive más (He Who Reads Lives More, 2013), and was responsible for Antología del mar y la noche (Anthology and the Sea and the Night, 1971), by Vicente Aleixandre, and Edad presente. Poesía cordobesa para el siglo XXI (Present Age: Cordovan poetry for the twenty-first century,  2003). His first appearance was in Espejo del amor y de la muerte (Mirror of Love and Death, 1971), an anthology with a foreword by Aleixandre. During the decade of the 1970s, he became a contributor to Spain’s National Radio broadcasting system, having hosted the show “El Ojo Crítico” and co-directing “La estación azul.” Due to his work promoting reading, in 1995 he received the National Award for the Promotion of Reading Through the Media.