An important and popular writer in Catalan during the 20th century was Miquel Martí i Pol. Miquel Martí i Pol was born in the 19th March 1929 and died the 11th November 2003 in Roda de Ter. He was a poet, a writer and translator.
Miquel Martí i Pol was from a humble family, so at the age of 14 he had to begin to work in a factory, after having studied the primary education.
At the age of 19 he suffered pulmonary tuberculosis and he could not work for a long time. During that period he took advantage of the situation reading and writing.
In 1954 he published her first book of poetry, Paraules al vent, and he won the prize Premi Ossa Menor.
In 1956 he married and had to sons. During Francisco Franco’s dictatorship he participated in Catalan cultural activities and he collaborated with PSUC [The PSUC was the largest opposition party in Catalonia and upon the fall of the regime it became a mass party].
The year 1979 he was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis and at 1973 he had to leave the factory. However he continued writing. In the year 1977 he won Premi Lletra d’Or and in 1979 he won Premi de la Crítica de poesia catalana. He won this Prize two more times: I 1991 and in 1994.
He also stood up as a translator into Catalan from writers like Aintoine de Saint-Exupéry, Georges Arnaud, Simone de Beauvoir, Claude Lévi-Stauss, Guillaume Apollinaire, Gustave Flaubert, Émile Zola, Jean Racine, Joris-Karl Huysmansi and Roland Barthes.
He died the 11th November 2003 and at that moment he was the most read and known poet in live. Many famous people went to his burial like Catalan politicians or Pep Guardiola, the current Barça’s coach, who was a close friend of the poet.