Montserrat Abelló i Soler
Montserrat Abelló i Soler (Tarragona, 1918 – Barcelona, 2014) is an acknowledged and indispensable voice in the contemporary Catalan poetic scene.
Born in Carrer Apodaca, number 23, she lived in several places outside Catalonia (Cadiz, London, Cartagena) following her father’s commutes, as he was a naval engineer. She spent the Civil War in Barcelona teaching English and acting as an interpreter for some members of the International Brigades. In 1939, at the end of the War, she had to flee with her father to France, and from there to England. From London, where she lived at the beginning of the Second World War, she went into exile in Chile, where she met Domènec Guansé, Joan Oliver and Pablo Neruda. She spent twenty years there, and, in 1960, she returned to Barcelona.
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Poet, translator, mother, rebel, she defended the role of women and the country. She started her literary production late. The following volumes should be highlighted: Al cor de les les corres that contains the poetic work of 1963-2002, Vida diària (1963), Indicis d'altres moments (2002), Memòria de tu i de mi (2006), as an example. She translates renowned authors such as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, who are her contemporaries. The Lletres Catalanes Honor Award (2008) and the Culture National Award (2008) show, among other awards, the recognition of a poet who focuses on the course of time and the strength of everyday life and femininity. She was declared the city's favorite daughter in 2015.
The author revives her introspection through the power of the direct word, which is able to convey an emotional experience that takes into account transient distance through memories, which do not lack an intensity that makes these reminiscences return at every moment. Montserrat Abelló uses the word to explain herself. Her struggle and determination are an example of individual and collective freedom, as a woman and as a Catalan.
Imatge cedida per Anna Gispert Magarolas
I DINS MEU UNA VEU EM DIU
I DINS MEU UNA VEU EM DIU
I dins meu una veu em diu:
vine amb mi a contemplar
com són les paraules per dintre,
a sentir el pols de les coses.
I llavors penses en aquells
que estimes i amb qui has
conviscut al llarg dels anys
i encara no coneixes
–mirades que fugen,
pensaments tancats, potser
només desclosos en moments
fugaços o en la intensitat
del desig.
Però mai a dins,
sempre a la vora del torrent
de silencis o de paraules;
sempre a punt i amatent,
però sense saber, sense saber.
I dins meu una veu em diu, 1990
RETURN
RETURN
It’s true that I have lived in other regions
with tight horizons
of very high bare mountains
and a cold and vast sea.
But although the mountains and the sea
and the clouds repeated
geography on geography,
flower on flower,
and cloud upon cloud,
in a tireless litany,
and we remained static
at the foot of the stone,
the memory is not mitigated by this
your blood, your dark blood,
that runs under the fig tree
and the green coves,
and stopped at the foot of the boat.
The high mountain was a great curtain
that didn't allow us to see
the ladder at the back of the stage,
violent outbreaks,
the trapezes, the hanging rope.
Sitting with my back to the mountain,
I contemplated the sea
and the hand
always the living hand of men and women.
But just as the rock comes off,
overcome by the weight of the snow,
or just as the rope unties the boat
by the too strong impulse of the wave,
thus my return was inevitable.
And now, here, replanted
in this thirsty land,
I saw you pass
all of you
That's why I'm looking for ways now,
the shadow of the trees, the dark shade
against the white houses.
And so, retreating,
I hear the sound of your word and mine.
Like the water that transpires
from the shadowy wall,
moss green, and slow;
it transforms into a single clear drop.
And now, sitting
at the threshold of my house,
I am with you
Daily Life, 1963, re-edited in 1981
WE DID NOT TALK ABOUT ANYTHING
WE DID NOT TALK ABOUT ANYTHING
We didn't talk about anything
We sat looking at each other.
Spring was
a quiet space
near a summer
which was just beginning.
We haven't talked about anything.
The maturity
Of our eyes
was very full
of words
The sphere of time, 1998
SABER QUE HA ARRIBAT
Carrer Castaños
SABER QUE HA ARRIBAT
Saber que ha arribat
el moment
de retenir
aquest gest,
altrament efímer
perquè perduri
en el record
i així retrobis
en els mots que deixes escrits
veritats que t’eren esquives.
Més enllà del parlar concís, 2014
LA NIT ESTRELLADA
Plaça dels Infants
LA NIT ESTRELLADA
The starry night
That does not keep me from having a terrible need
of -shall I say the word – religions. Then I go out
at night to paint the stars.
Vincent Van Gogh in letter to hsi brother
The town does not exist
except where one blsck-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.
It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange iron
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:
into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly.
No cry.
Anne Sexton
La nit estrellada
Això no m’impedeix de tenir una necessitat
terrible de - vols que hi digui - la religió.
Llavors surto a la nit a pintar les estrelles.
Vicent Van Gogh en una carta al seu germà
La ciutat no existeix
només on un arbre de cabellera negra llisca
amunt com una dona ofegada cap un cel ardent.
La nit és silenciosa. La not bull amb onze estrelles.
Oh nit, nit estrellada! Així és com
em vull morir.
Es mou. Són totes vives.
Fins la lluna es reinfla en els seus grillons taronja
per empènyer criatures, com un deu, des del seu ull.
La vella serpent mai vista s’empassa les esrelles.
Oh nit, nit estrellada! Així és com
em vull morir:
dins d’aquella bèstia furient de la nit,
xuclada per aquell gran dragó, per desprendre’m
de la meva vida sense ni bandera,
ni ventre,
ni crit.
Traduït per Montserrat Abelló
Al cor de les paraules. Obra poètica, 1963-2002, 2002