Perhaps the first exclusive of Jesus Arias in your life gave it to his two brothers when, out of a small, informed them of where I was going to go his future, the the three: “When we’re great, we’re going to be artists”. Whatever it was, he already forsaw it. With the time, that was fulfilled to the letter. The brothers became musicians, and he, Jesus, became a total artist. Jesus Arias (Granada, 1963-2015) was a journalist, writer and musician. And each time appears some genius new us it underpins the idea that Jesus Arias gave in to that desire to be an artist. The last is a collection of poems, the first published of him, which was presented on Friday 20 at Granada. A garden against your name, a collection of poems of love but, above all, of his loss.
The philologist Isabel Daza Gonzalez has been responsible for the editing of this book and of the preliminary study accompanying the work, Theory and play of Jesus Arias. The first conclusion of Daza is: “All we knew when Jesus journalist –published in THE COUNTRY and in Grenada Today– the writer and musician. But he was fundamentally a poet. He was a poet always in his struggle, in his expression, in the management of the impossible language”. In addition, Daza says that “the book is, somehow, built this dimension of Jesus as a poet”. Until now it has been “known the poetry that he used in his music, but not the pure poetry, as in this book.”
The work, published by the Patronato Cultural Federico García Lorca, was written in different cities by Arias between 1992 and 97, between 29 and 34 years. It is the first that is known, but not the first that he wrote. His first poetic work he completed at the age of 16, Dreams unfinished, and then The Tramp of midnight, which ended 17 years. These books, previously unpublished, reflect, explains Daza, his first sorrows and concerns of adolescents. “These are pieces that he edited and encuadernó with extraordinary care, but that never made them public and we want to respect that.”
The story of A garden against your name is curious. He came to the brothers Arias one afternoon in April of 2017, in a tribute to their brother Jesus, two years after his death. There was presented also a poet, now deceased, Juan de Loxa. In his briefcase was the small treasure that on Friday, was unveiled in Granada. A collection of poems that Jesus had given him not know whether to comment on it or, simply, to Loxa what to preserve. That afternoon, Loxa did a first read-aloud of that material: “The loneliness comes sometimes, on a zebra crossing, or on page 48 of any book.” The brothers decided that he had to publish it. “Die people, but not their effects. All of this keeps you alive,” explains its editor.
a collection of poems, which contains some illustrations of youth of Arias, has three major sections, “with minor divisions, in addition to, of letters of siguiriyas, soleás and arts channels that break up the speech,” added his editor. The theme flowing throughout the work is the love, but “love hurt that it has more to do with the experience of loneliness and loss with love itself”, he concludes.
Arias already showed something new in 2018. It was the premiere of heaven downcast, a symphonic poem “for chorus, symphonic orchestra, voices, the flemish and strange instruments”, he had told himself.
