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The 12 best phrases of the poet Rafael Alberti

The 12 best phrases of the poet Rafael Alberti

March 1, 2024

Rafael Alberti (Cádiz, 1902 - 1999) was one of the great Spanish writers, representative of the Generation of 27.

This writer from Cadiz was a member of the Communist Party of Spain and had to go into exile after the uprising that led the dictator Francisco Franco to power. Years ago, in 1920, Rafael Alberti began to write verses after the death of his father. From there, Alberti would uncover himself as one of the most prolific Spanish authors of the twentieth century.

  • Related article: "The 30 best phrases of Fernando Pessoa, the Portuguese poet"

Phrases and famous quotes of Rafael Alberti

Shortly after that disastrous episode, Alberti returns to Madrid and there he meets writers of the stature of Federico García Lorca, Pedro Salinas, Victor Alexandre or Gerardo Diego, names that would later be considered the referents of the glorious era of Castilian letters.


In today's article let's know a little more about this famous character of literature , through its most famous phrases and reflections.

1. I do not want to die on land: it gives me a terrible panic. For me, I love to fly by plane and watch the clouds pass, I would like that one day the device in which I travel was lost and did not return. And let the angels make me an epitaph. Or the wind ...

In this sentence, Rafael Alberti poetically explains how he would prefer to spend his last moments.

2. Words open doors on the sea

A metaphor of great poetic value.

3. I left with a closed fist ... I return with an open hand

This famous phrase of Alberti has been interpreted in different ways, for example in reference to his stage of exile.


4. Freedom is not for those who do not have their thirst

To find freedom you have to fight and resist.

5. You will not go, my love, and if you were, still leaving you my love, you would never leave

An extract from one of his most acclaimed poems: "You will not leave (or Come, my love, in the afternoon ...)".

6. Filled with softness and carmine,

dreamy, vague and flying fanal,

He flew to the highest viewpoints.

Look at the cherubim of cherubs,

of the vergel de los aires pulsadora.

Thoughtful of Alberti among the flowers!

An extract from the poem he dedicated to his wife, Rosa de Alberti.

7. I will never be stone, I will cry when necessary, I will scream when necessary, I will laugh when necessary, I will sing when necessary

A declaration of intentions full of vitality and optimism.

8. We need to be blind, to have glass scrapes, quicklime, boiling sand in our eyes, so as not to see the light that leaps in our actions, which illuminates our language inside, our daily word

An ode to language in this memorable phrase by Rafael Alberti.


9. I saw you float to you, flower of agony, to float on your same spirit. (Someone had sworn that the sea would save you from sleep.) It was when I checked that walls break with sighs and that there are doors to the sea that open with words and that there are doors to the sea that open with words

Another excerpt from "Ángel de las bodegas", one of his most surprising verses in which he talks about wine.

10. And the sea went and gave it a name, and a name to the wind, and the clouds a body, and a soul the fire. The earth, nothing

The elements and the landscape were very worked concepts in the work of Alberti.

11. Life is like a lemon, they throw you into the sea squeezed and dried

A phrase to free interpretation.

12. Through the centuries, for the nothingness of the world, I, without sleep, looking for you

About the lost loves and the desire to return to happier times.


John Lennon - Imagine (March 2024).


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