The poet Gabriel Ferrater – or Biel, as his friends called him – grew up during one of the most turbulent times in Spanish history. Shortly after his birth, there was a coup d’état; before he even turned 10, the king abdicated and Spain became a Republic; as he was entering adolescence, the police imprisoned his father for politically supporting an independent Catalan republic, and two years later, a terrible civil war broke out. During his childhood, Biel is barely aware of what is happening. H...