The capital of Baix Camp joins the international commemoration of Bloomsday, the day that recreates the action of the famous novel Ulysses. In addition to honoring the work and its author, James Joyce, the event in Reus will focus on the local professor and linguist Joaquim Mallafrè, responsible for the first published Catalan translation of the work in 1981.
Although two Catalan translations of Ulysses are currently available, the first complete version in Catalan, by Joan Francesc Vidal Jové in 1966, remains unpublished. This translation, the first made in Spain, was held back for decades due to Francoist censorship, and its publication is still pending.
The life of Vidal Jové, a writer and translator born in Manresa in 1899, reflects the historical and cultural upheavals of Catalonia in the 20th century. After initial studies influenced by European and Occitan literary currents, his life was marked by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic, the Civil War, and exile in Marseille.
Returning to Barcelona in 1941, he experienced Francoist repression and the imposition of Spanish. Later, in Madrid, he undertook the task of translating Ulysses into Catalan for the AHR publishing house. His 1966 translation, predating José María Valverde's Spanish version (1976), is significant for its historical and philological importance.
Vidal Jové's translation, rediscovered in the mid-2000s by researcher Alberto Lázaro, demonstrates Catalan's capacity to tackle complex literary works. However, the first publication was by Mallafrè in 1981, considered a milestone for contemporary Catalan literature. Vidal Jové passed away in 1978 in Newcastle, England, after suffering a hemiplegia.
