This first-time English translation of The Tumbler (El saltamartí)-a
collection of poems written in 1963 and first published in Catalan in
1969-presents a convergence of Joan Brossa's critical and cultural
concerns. Charting his growing sense of social commitment and support of
Catalan independence, freedom stands as both Brossa's primary subject
and conceptual framework throughout this collection. The Tumbler is an
anti-clerical and anti-authoritarian work that brings together verse
vignettes and visual poems to revivify the proverbial, often with comic
and subversive effect. Brossa plays with image, iconography and
intimation as both verbal and visual elements vie for our attentions
across these pages as-always the innovator-Brossa evinces a manifestly
accessible and archly political poetry that demands our critical and
creative participation. The Tumbler stands as a critical study of
freedom; as "a bird that moves its wings."