THE OTHER CITY (I)

Havien arribat a la Rambla Nova, i la llum excessiva els feia tancar els ulls, i llavors la veien a través del tremolor de les parpelles, com si vibrés.

I Ramon, que s’havia aturat i li oferia una cadira i li deia: “Prendrem cafè”, i procurava somriure, tenia, no obstant, una expressió d’enuig inconfusible.

[...]

Ascendiren cap al mirador i a mesura que  la pujada es feia més feixuga, i la tia esbufegava, i l’havia deixada de la cintura -per fi!- i l’oncle i la mare i la tia es quedaven enrera, anà apareixent als seus ulls el mar, tan blau, tan dolorosament blau i quiet —el vent bufava de terra i aturava l'escuma a penes arrissada arran de la platja— que els ulls se li ompliren de llàgrimes i aprofità un nou remolí de pols per treure’s el mocador i  eixugar-se les parpelles amb calma.

Tots eren al seu costat i parlaven. Però ella no sabia el que deien perquè enfront seu hi havia el mar. Pertot arreu el mar. I tot d’un plegat li semblà que estava en una illa, i el mar poderós encerclant-la, tan quiet, tan aparentment immòbil, però forçut. I ella adorava la força.

L'altra ciutat, 1955

THE OTHER CITY (III)

It was this that was impossible, that had made her refuse the avalanche of images that were thrown at her; with the black dust, with the perfume of the sea, with the stench of fish. [...]

The wind had died down, but the sea was still fighting against the immobility of the beach. The foam rose, recharged, and then left a shiny parabola mark until it was greedily sucked up by the sand. [...]

Almost at the same time, she was ashamed, because she knew that a decent woman should not go out early in the morning in a boat and wander from one corner to the other on the sea. On one side the line of the horizon, swinging, on the other the jagged line of the houses, and the waves flowing under the boat, that smelt of tallow, of fish and burnt wood.

But in the afternoon she had persuaded Ramon to go and welcome her.

They had sat on the sand and watched the sea change, until it became still, as if the purple reflections lulled it to sleep.

The keels advanced slowly, towards the port, and the bulls took off on the sand, exposing their soft bellies.

They walked in zigzags, avoiding the boxes of fish, the handles and gimbals still full of bait, and the screw nets, here and there, which gave off an intense smell emerging from the bottom of the sea.

"And this is Carrer del Serrallo," said Ramon. Rosa had not imagined it like this: neither the white colour of the walls with the darkness of the portals below; and on the ground the baskets full of fish, swordfish, mullets, scorpionfish and the breams, all the transparent colours and the fine flights of their scales.

It was difficult to walk around and cross this tangle, and one did so as if one wanted to dance with a leisurely step. The men came and went with a quiet step between the piles of fishnets. There was a small moment of indecision and the roll from the net closed around a fish basket, which trembled like a belly. A flat murmur rose above the silence of the others, unintelligible like a spell. Suddenly someone, with a lowered head  and amidst  clenched teeth, interrupted the endless song:

—… Sixty-seven, sixty-six, sixty-five.

—My

A disenchantment dispersed the group, and it closed again as if it were impossible to get rid of it. They stood still, their hands in their pockets, their eyes fixed, and the murmuring began again.

[…]

The whiteness of the houses turned pink, the smell of fish was almost a contact, and the faint sound of bare feet on the stone did not cease. In the back of the houses were piled the still loose nets, and the empty boxes.

The other city, 1955

THE OTHER CITY (V)

Diuen que el diable el va fer en una nit.

Els arcs lligaven l’angle Agut de la vall. Els arcs avançaven, un rera l’altre, amb ritme segur, sobre el buit. El gest de la pedra cenyia la verdor dels pins, el cel tan net. 

Van seure sota els arcs de l’aqüeducte. El director explicava.

—Com que els romans no sabien -deia- la llei dels vasos comunicants…

—No la sabien? -preguntà, incrèdula, una noia.

—Com que els romans no sabien la llei dels vasos comunicants —repetí el director—, salvaven qualsevol desnivell construint un aqüeducte.

L'altra ciutat, 1955