He was born to a modest family and completed his secondary school education as a student of Gabriel Alomar i Villalong in l'Institut de Palma.
He completed his bachelor's degree in arts and philosophy in Barcelona where he met his lifelong friend and renowned Catalan poet, Salvador Espriu.
In 1933, he embarked on a university Mediterranean cruise with Espriu and two of his other colleagues, touring Egypt, Lebanon, Greece, Rhodes, and Palestine.
When in Palestine, he and Espriu heard what may have been the last records of Qatalanit, a Jewish diasporic language also known as Judeo-Catalan.
His works were greatly influenced by the Mallorcan literary movement of l'Escola Mallorquina, though he was also influenced by other tendencies such as surrealism and neopopularism, similar to that of Spanish writers Rafael Alberti or Federico García Lorca.