CategoryThe Story
The poet Josep Pedrals talks to us about his neighborhood in a poem.
(Translated from the Catalan by Ronald Puppo)
During those years I was undocumented. “Not having papers” used to mean (means) lacking facts. But there was nothing to fear in the library.
I suspect that Jane Bowles, Pere Calders, Nelly Sachs, Joan Maragall, Federico García Lorca, Josep Vicenç Foix and Mercè Rodoreda once lived together in Vallvidrera....
I wish they’d all go away. That this damned Operation Escape would end. That the neighbourhood would be emptied of those who live and who don’t live in Pedralbes.
This former town once had eighty laundries washing the clothes of Barcelona’s wealthy.
Cinc minuts de marge. I, si ve, la reconeixeré a primer cop d’ull?, o em costarà saber si és ella i després hauré de dissimular amb un “Sílvia, no has canviat gens”?...
Maybe the stories zigzag around Poble-sec and mutate each year and in every square. Or maybe they emerge from the Paral•lel, that avenue of light and showbiz that was...
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