Poetry in the Mountains

Two poems by Novoneyra -Slender little spinner always at your spinning always spinning and dreaming in the end to come to nothing. -In the end to come to nothing, that has still to be seen since with the linen threads as I twist them from their place something has to take. -Something has to take and you were right, by faith, since while watching you all the time without realising I went along falling in love. This poem come from Novoneyra's Os Eidos Libro do Courel. I don't usually put the original alongside the translation but I will here. Novoneyra's poems are pure poetic objects: the sound sense is as important as the meaning and, at times, even the visual aspect of the words plays its part. If that sounds enigmatic, wait until tomorrow and I'll give you a couple of examples. -FILANDEIRIÑA delgada sempre metida a fiar sempre a fiar e soñar para logo non ser nada. -Para logo non ser nada eso inda está por ver e pois cas frebas do liño ó torcelas de camiño algo se ha de prender. -Algo se ha de prender i afé que tiñas razón que eu estábache mirando sin deñar que encantenón íbame indo namorando. The second poem Fiandeira namorada Que fías detralo lume Cos ollos postos nas chamas Roxiñas brancas y azules. Fiandeiriña que fías Nas noites do longo inverno As liñas máis delgadiñas Co fío do pensamento. Cai a neve quedo fora Riba dos teitos calada Mentras ti fías e soñas Nunha cousiña lonxana… (Spinstress in love/who spins beyond the light/with your eyes on the flames/ red, white and blue//Little spinstress who spins/on the long winter nights/the most slender threads/with the thread of her thought//The snow falls quietly outside/over the roofs in silence/whilst you spin and dream/on some small distant thing…)

At the hour the sweet morning star Begins to soften and melt, His well-horned mountain goats Trotting along in front, Temenday the Celtic shepherd comes Returning to his sweet fold Alone and singing through the broom Of Xallas, decked with heather so white. Trembling vague with solitude, He begins his song like this: “Ancient tomb of Pïosa, The wind so sad to hear Moans in the mute heather Over all the hills around you And pierces with animal roar Castromaior, near Portomarín With pained groan. Under your mantle Brave Brandomil lies Unforgotten, in the arms Of sweet and eternal sleep: He has on his right side His golden pagan helmet His strong spear and shield, Where once the sun would sparkle While with pleasure the Celts looked Shut up in the waste lands of Xallas. Oh, brave son of Ogas And of sweet and noble Eiriz, The long memory of you Will forever remain! And when the son of the Celts, In times yet to come Walking lost in thought May happen to pass this way, When in those times He sees the moon shining Spying you afar, he will say: ‘Brave Brandomil, Of the good pagan race Of Celts, lies here at rest!’” Queixumes dos Pinos, ed. Miguel Mato Fondo ( Vigo: AS.PG, 1996)

An afternoon in spring Murmured these words to me: If you are seeking paths With flowers in this world Then put to death your words And let your old soul speak. Let the same white linen That you are wearing now Clothe you in your mourning Clothe you at party time. Cherish your happiness Cherish your sadness too, If you are seeking paths With flowers in this world. I spoke then my reply To that spring afternoon: You have told the secret That is spoken in my soul: I abhor happiness Abhorring suffering. But before I ever tread Your flower-strewn path, I would like to present My old soul to you: dead. Antonio Machado Soledades. Galerías. Otros Poemas (1907- I used the edition edited by Geoffrey Ribbans (Cátedra, 1993)).

John Donne- The Flea I take a sceptical look at John Donne's famous poem about a flea. Is this really a good way to chat up the girls?

Here are Shakespeare's first ten sonnets for your listening pleasure.

Xosé Vázquez Pintor- The Longing Won't Win Out I am revisiting a poem by Xosé Vázquez Pintor. I want you to hear it in the original and in translation, now that I have connected my blog to the podcast service at Podomatic. First I will read the translation. I want you to pay attention to the line endings because they are important. Vázquez Pintor has a jazzy style. He topples the stresses towards the end of the line and then allows them to cascade into the next. This is not formal scansion but it is curiously effective.

In this post I am looking at Fuenteovejuna a play by Lope de Vega, the Spanish Golden Age playwright who is best known outside of Spain. There are a number of urban legends concerning him. One says that he compiled over one thousand plays. The people of Madrid love this story: it somehow makes Lope more of a genius than his contemporary Shakespeare. However, I am using a digital Colección integral, or Complete Works, which has left out 994 of the other plays: there are six published here; a fine enough sample to get to know the writer.

In this series of posts I am looking at ways to read with expression and understanding of the text. Shakespeare in the Mountains is a project that gathers people who are interested in reading aloud to eat, walk and read in the north of Spain. In my last post, I looked at Robin Goodfellow and made a link with Edward Thomas. In this post, I am going to examine two poems by Thomas that extend the theme of Englishness that is explored in the course Shakespeare- Myth. Thomas was a reader, walker and reviewer before he committed himself to the poetry that he is now remembered for. The poems are tight, condensed gems that give us powerful images, simply expressed.

In my last post, I read the poem Lob by Edward Thomas. “Thou lob of spirits” is how the sprite addresses Robin Goodfellow in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Edward Thomas suggests to us that Shakespeare tapped into English tradition when he created Robin Goodfellow. Think of that other famous Robin, Robin Hood. He also dwells in the woods with his band of Merry Men and is a famous trickster. Modern film versions like to make him dirty and “realistic” with the peasants he protects living lives of unmitigated misery in filthy hovels whilst the evil Sheriff of Nottingham hides in a draughty castle sending his bullies out to collect the taxes. Kevin Costner is the all-American Robin hero, righting wrongs and standing up for the little guy against the English sheriff. Errol Flynn was a different Robin, wasn’t he? He dressed in bright colours and slapped his thigh a lot in good humour. Think of these two ways of seeing: the dirty realistic, and the colourful fantastic. Which of the two is more real?

In the course Shakespeare: Myth, we look at the mythological worlds of Shakespeare’s plays. In this talk I want to read one poem, by Edward Thomas, without any commentary. I shall talk about the poem in a later posting. Before you listen to the poem, however, think of Robin Hood, then make a jump to Robin Goodfellow. Now trip over to an image of a hobgoblin. You are ready to the enter the world of Lob. It gives me a good opportunity to speak in my native West Country accent!

What is irony? In this talk I examine how Shakespeare allows his characters to speak with tragic pointers to different meanings beyond their current situation. Othello knows that he is a tragic hero, but he just does not grasp why.

Shakespeare uses rhyming couplets to sign off. In this short talk I examine how we can read these couplets.

Reading Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis: is Adonis a rapper? For Shakespeare in the Mountains