Tomás Morales

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary street map

One of the greatest creators of modern poetry, Tomás Morales (Moya, 1884 - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1921) placed Canary literature firmly on the present day map, which it had been missing around the beginning of the century. Las Rosas de Hércules (1919) situated the work of its author in a modernism style with epic, neat tones, with a great formal rigour within a symbolist tradition, with echos of a grand classical and mythical poetry, the sea up against the myths.

With Tomás Morales and his contemporary Alonso Quesada, Canary literature regained its contemporary qualities it had enjoyed centuries previously, while connecting with new times. Then, from the sudden deaths of both of them a new period would emerge, again quite cutting edge and contemporary. The poetic works of Morales constitute a great point of reference today, well away from, yet essential, in order to fully understand the island's literary tradition. 

«The night spent aboard, in the peace and quiet of the port.
Dawn is breaking right now: the pale light
is invading the bundles of the deserted jetty;
the fugitive sound of an escaping boat can be heard...

The caressing freshness of the sea breeze,
harbours that come alive; muffled rumours
of sails that flap gently in the early morning,
and the far off whistles of tug boats...

The odd muffled cry can be heard,
carriages that move away slowly at daybreak
and the purple strip of the soon to rise sun;

in the early morning light, smoke
rises from the brick tower of a chimney,
like a blot pouring out over the dawn...»

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

[Las Rosas de Hércules, 1919]

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