Joaquim Rubió y ors

The Catalan poet Rubió y Ors was one of the pioneers of the Catalan “Renaixença”. These poets would seek inspiration in the repression of their own language and culture by Castilian rule in Catalan history. From 1839 onwards Rubió y Ors regularly published Catalan poems in Diario de Barcelona under the pseudonym “Lo Gayter del Llobregat” (the bagpipe player of the Llobregat, a local river). The compilation of these poems in 1841 contained a pugnacious prologue and immensely influenced other Catalan poets. For eleven years Rubio y Ors taught literature at the university of Valladolid. He returned to his birth town where he became a history professor at the university of Barcelona. The following year he was among the co-creators of the reinstatement of the “Jochs Florals” or flower festivals, competitions to stimulate Catalan literature. Rubió y Ors started writing a multilingual edition of Lo Gayter de Llobregat in 1888. It contained translations of poems written by numerous European poets, one of them being Gezelle’s "Mijmeringe" (Reverie).