Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

7 P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches Speech XV Yet another year we return to this beloved land to participate in this solemn ceremony, always so revealing end emotive. “ Deus quere, o homen sonha, a obra nasce ”, God wills, man dreams, the work is born. Perhaps these words by Fernando Pessoa, as concise as a heraldic motto, could serve as a beautiful symbol for what has been the life of these Awards, which are now fifteen years old. What at first consisted of an exciting dream, now, thanks to the efforts of many and because God willed it, is a beautiful reality, a work accomplished, open, with the strength of hope, to new horizons and to the future. To return every year to the Principality of Asturias and to present the Awards that bear my name is especially pleasing to me, for all these reasons. I am grateful to the members of the Juries for setting their sights so high, for being in harmony with the values we wish to exalt, the independence of their criteria and, in short, for getting it right. They have presented us with what survives: undying works and examples. I also express, yet again, my gratitude to our Trustees, as well as to the authorities and to the growing number of people who contribute to making these Awards a great work of Spaniards, united before the world. This beloved land of Asturias and the example of some of its finest sons come together again this year in one name: that of the poet, critic and teacher Carlos Bousoño, who has been granted the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. Asturian by birth, he combines values which are rarely seen together. He is, on the one hand, a poet who for half a century has been enriching the Spanish lyric tradition with exemplary poems, and on the other, a scientist, a theorist of literature, a thinker who has endeavoured to go further than no other of his contemporaries in shedding light upon the secret mechanisms which make the miracle of art possible. The poetic work of Carlos Bousoño represents a deep exploration of the problems of mankind, from a clearly existentialist standpoint. The pure psalms and the celestial odes of his first books, written while still an adolescent, full of religious fervour, were followed by a dark night which he tried to escape from by allowing himself to be invaded by reality. The poet reminds us that the beats of the human heart are numbered, but he also tells us that humility and the recognition of simple things —a flower, a jug, an open hand— save our lives. In the bottomless flow of our universal novel, Don Quixote points out that “historians should be precise, truthful and not in the least impassioned, and neither interest nor fear, rancour nor liking, should turn them aside from the way of truth, whose mother is History, the imitation of time, the storehouse of acts, the witness of the past, example and warning to the present, a sign of things to come.” This is a magnificent definition to refer to the two great historians who have been granted the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, Miquel Batllori and Joaquím Veríssimo Serrão. The fine spirit and hard-working character of the Catalan people have reached a peak in our days in FatherMiquel Batllori, a wise and flexible person. Many are the spiritual and historiographic themes he has tackled, but it is significant that his interest has been drawn, specifically and most especially, towards those areas where Catalan culture opens out into something universal and, in opening out, becomes fertile, enriches us all and teaches us. Humanism and the zeal for renaissance shine in the output which Batllori has offered us. The editions prepared by him of authors such as Arnau de Vilanova, Ramón Llull and Baltasar Gracián, “ ‘God wills, man dreams, the work is born.’ Perhaps these words of Fernando Pessoa, as concise as a heraldic motto, could serve as a beautiful symbol for what has been the life of these Awards.” Watch video