diumenge, 31 de gener del 2010

Bat la foscor


Catalan:

Bat la foscor que, per un fanal, vol ser acompanyada
i fila amb els seus tints sobre l'aire.
En cada petit cantó de racons s'hi amaguen, 
ombres, i guaiten petites i esporuguides dins matolls, 
en cada forat, rere solcs, entremig de fils de tendals pengen,
que s'hi amaguen cada nit, per habitar-hi.
Que quan clareja s'estiren llargs, doncs marxen.
I es van desfent, se'n van.


English:

The darkness beats, for it wants to be accompanied by the lamp post
and spins with its dyes in the air.
In every little edge of corners are hidden,
shadows, guarding small and frightened in bushes,
in every hole, every furrow, in between threads hanging from awnings,
hiding within every night to inhabit it.
When it dawns, they stretch long, for they leave.
And they fade away, they go.

dijous, 21 de gener del 2010

Matthew Tree

I have been an English resident of Catalonia for nearly a quarter of a century. During this time, I confess that my own personal perception- free of any politically orientated thinking - has left me with the absolute convction that all this time I have not been living in Spain, not as most people understand this word. And that I have been living in an inexplicably unrecognised, once independent country going by the full name of the Principality of Catalonia.

I have also observed over the years how central power in Madrid has consistently tried to sideline and ridicule Catalan language culture, Catalan political and economic aspirations and the very idea of the existence of Catalonia as an area in some way different from the rest of Spain.

I have also been a witness to a persistent anti-Catalan prejudice in the Madrid-based media which has created an atmosphere that is little short of xenophobic in Spain-outside-Catalonia, to the extent that Catalan goods have been boycotted on several different occasions, and Catalans occasionally refused service in cafés or openly insulted on the street, simply for speaking in Catalan to each other.

In short - and extensive reading of both Spanish and Catalan history would confirm this - the Castilian nation-building project which began in the 18th century, has not succeeded in incorporating Catalonia into its vision of what Spain should be like. I am not a nationalist, but I'm not blind either: Spain as it is currently structured, simply does not know how to cope with Catalonia, and all the evidence suggests that it never will. For this reason, I would welcome an independent Catalan state within the framework of the EU. Such a state would be better for both Spain and Catalonia, would internationalise an as yet little-known but extraordinararily vital linguistic culture, and would put an end to what is at the moment the greatest political and cultural anomaly on the European continent.

Matthew Tree, writer.

diumenge, 17 de gener del 2010

Poemet: Joan Oliver i Sallarès


VACA SUÏSSA

Quan jo m'esmerço en una causa justa
com mon Tell sóc adusta i arrogant:
prou, s'ha acabat! Aneu al botavant
vós i galleda i tamboret de fusta.
La meva sang no peix la noia flaca
ni s'amistança amb el cafè pudent.
Vós no sou qui per grapejar una vaca,
ni un àngel que baixés expressament.
Encara us resta la indefensa cabra,
que sempre ha tingut l'ànima d'esclau.
A mi no em muny ni qui s'acosti amb sabre!
Tinc banyes i escometo com un brau.
Doncs, ja ho sabeu! He pres el determini,
l'he bramulat per comes i fondals,
i no espereu que me'n desencamini
la llepolia d'un manat d'alfals.
Que jo mateixa, si no fos tan llega,
en lletra clara contaria el fet.
Temps era temps hi hagué la vaca cega:
jo sóc la vaca de la mala llet. 






dimarts, 12 de gener del 2010

De nit...



Catalan:

De nit un món amagat, d'ombres i perfils movedissos, fa el torn en hores de somnis minsos. Entre la penombra i l'invisible sorgeix la vida esporuguida de les hores lluminoses.
Doncs hi ha una altra mena d'activitat que es desvetlla entre el teló abaixat de la foscor, quan ja sembla no haver-hi més espectacle i les butaques es buiden d'espectadors enllumenats i aclaparats, i decora l'escenari de llumetes; brillants sobre els éssers de repenombra. Passejants de les hores fosques, es desenganxen dels cossos adormits, són nostres bessons, d'una altra faceta nostra, amants de la tinta negra i el teatre fora de la gran escena. 


English:

At night a hidden world, of shadows and shifting profiles, attends its shift in times of scarce dreams. Between the darkness and the invisible, emerges the scared life from the bright hours.

Then there is another kind of activity that is revealed between the lowered curtain of darkness, when it seems to be no more show and the seats are emptied of well lit and overwhelmed spectators, and decorates the stage with little lights; shiny over the shadow beings. Walkers of the dark hours, come off sleeping bodies, they are our twins, another facet of ours, lovers of the black ink and the theatre outside the big stage.