All posts tagged: Catalan Portfolio

Dolors Miquel: Poems

Dolors Miquel: Poems

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By DOLORS MIQUEL
Translated by MARY ANN NEWMAN

 

Sparrowhearts 

The women of my family family 
hunted hunted birds, sparrows, birds, sparrows, and they made them sing
sing day in day out day in day out day in as the pots boiled, inner courtyards 
wide open,  
washtubs soaked old naked motheaten watery 
          unrinsed firstwashed clothes 
and the windows opened, gave birth, opened 
so beauty would regale them with songs and flowers and flowers and songs, 
buzzing, zigzagging, chirping, whispering,  
not understanding that they understood nothing. Nothing at all. 

Dolors Miquel: Poems
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The Advice

The Advice

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By IRENE PUJADAS
Translated by JULIA SANCHES

 

Spurred by the idea that you are interdependent and would do well to lean on others (on the opinions, advice, and experiences of others), you’re roped into taking part in a general meeting to decide your future. 

Some of your friends bring folders filled with graphs and statistics. One in particular comes bearing the works of authors, philosophers, historians, and psychoanalysts. Relevant passages are marked with Post-it notes.  

Your family and friends only want what’s best for you, or rather, they want you to do something.  

The Advice
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Lunch at the Boqueria

Lunch at the Boqueria

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By MERCÈ IBARZ
Translated by MARA FAYE LETHEM

Close, so close he can already taste it. This afternoon he’ll become the owner of a secret. But first he’ll have lunch with his mother, who’s waiting for him at the restaurant in the back of the Boqueria Market, and once he’s got her home safely, he’ll meet up with the current owner of a Picasso engraving and he’ll buy it.

Lunch at the Boqueria
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Forever Red

Forever Red

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By TINA VALLÈS
Translated by SAMANTHA MATEO

 

Whenever there’s any discussion of the hunger that marked the years following the Spanish Civil War, I’m reminded of the story about my paternal great-grandmother and the apple. My father says her name, halting at that g that separated her from all the other Annas. Maria Agna. No family dinner passed without mention of that apple. But, after so many years, I can’t quite remember if it’s an apple or a peach. My father always said the basket his grandmother carried back from the field emitted a potent scent, but I don’t think apples smell strongly enough that you could pick them out while driving in a truck a couple of meters away.  

Forever Red
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The Window

The Window

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By IMMA MONSÓ
Translated by MARLENA GITTLEMAN

 

Lisa

Morning after morning, Lisa would wake up with an easily achievable aspiration: to eat breakfast while contemplating the house at the bottom of the valley, which stood in the distance amidst the fog. When the fog started to fade, she could make out frost-covered shingles and smoke rising from the chimney. She could glimpse the narrow ribbon of water that divided the field behind the house, until it disappeared into the darkness of the impenetrable forest. And she could, above all, train her gaze on a hypnotizing point: the only lit window, the window of an attic room, a room Lisa guessed was a study.

The Window
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Zoraida Burgos: Poems

Zoraida Burgos: Poems

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By ZORAIDA BURGOS
Translated by PETER BUSH

 

OUR VERY OWN EQUILIBRIUM 
Wearily, but firmly, we twisted 
our feeble trunks 
around a stump 
alone but not sad amid other trees, 
entangled roots 
clinging till the last 
to our rough stony ground. 
We grow two shoots 
bringing hope to our landscape  
when a ruddy wing on the bare 
mountain horizon 
heralds a threatening wind downstream.  
Thoughtfully, carefully,   
we’ve been turning our mud, 
our clay, bare-fingered, 
with the strength of truth, 
of harsh truth dead reborn,
our hands tightly clasped.
And nothing, no wind, no clouds, no rain, no threats 
will shake  
the stump, clay or mud, and these shoots, 
for wearily, 
but firmly, 
we’ve made them our own.  

Zoraida Burgos: Poems
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Tramsa, Tromsa, Tramso

Tramsa, Tromsa, Tramso

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By MÒNICA BATET
Translated by MARIALENA CARR and JULIA SANCHES

Sometimes this is my story, others it’s not. They used to bring it up at home whenever the room fell silent. They’d talk about her, about a city with a strange name, Sokołowsko. They’d talk about that evening.

There are still pages and pages with tracings of her hands sitting in a drawer. Some are just of hands, while others have words written on the palms or along the fingers. Run away, Get out, Air air, Disappear…. Now and then I place my hand in one of the outlines to see if we have this one thing in common. If, maybe, I too will see all those people someday.

Tramsa, Tromsa, Tramso
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Remembrances

Remembrances

October 21, 2024 , , , ,

By ANTÒNIA VICENS
Translated by MARY ANN NEWMAN

Palma, 1978

One day he came, handed me a little box, and said look, look inside. Oh God, what a husband, I was afraid maybe he was losing it, another day it had been look, open this package, and there were more than half a dozen bras with ruffles. I opened the little box and was practically blinded by a stone brighter than the sun. No explanation, nothing, business is coming along, he said. And at night, here we go, trying for an heir, but that wasn’t coming along at all. 

Remembrances
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