Miquel Àngel Riera: Manacor
Manacor

One of the best writers of Manacor, Miquel Ángel Riera, evokes in Biografia, the discovery of sex in puberty.

I want to tell you

Like men, Nai:

'I love you.'

Just

That, like men.

Without a syllable

Of weakness,

No soft coating on the words

Where the same-old sickly stench can gather.

How I love you,

With my voice,

With what I say,

"vertical", "punch",

"two-hundred

and fifty".

Without a letter on blank eyes,

Without opening my arms

Like someone stretching out a parchment in Gothic type. Right now

I love you.

Everything else is separate. Like a triangle,

Like a dagger,

Like a Norfolk Island pine

Or a low chair. With all the necessary letters,

With no spelling mistakes

Nor a cry,

I love you. And too often I'm hurt,

Exhausted,

To the core

Of my tenderness.

Biografia, 1973

Translated by Richard Mansell. Performed by Guillem Balboa Buika.

Miquel Àngel Riera

(Manacor, 1930 – Palma, 1996). Miquel Àngel Riera began his studies in Manacor, and then enrolled in Law at the University of Barcelona as an independent student. He was friends with Jaume Vidal Alcover and Guillem d’Efak, and he shared his literary concerns with them. His first published book is a collection of poems in 1965, Poemes a Nai (Poems for Nai) which had a strong impact, and was followed by Biografia (Biography), which was not published until 1974, even though it was written some years earlier. His poetic production regained momentum at the start of the 1990s, with highlights such as El pis de la badia (The flat by the bay) in 1992, amongst others. In the 1970s he began his career as a prose writer with the publication of Fuita i martiri de sant Andreu Milà (The escape and martyrdom of Saint Andreu Milà, 1973); however, it was his following novel, Morir quan cal (Die when necessary, 1974) which raised his profile outside of the island and its success amongst readers and critics continued until his death. He was the publisher of two collections, “El turó” (The hill) for writers from Manacor, later open to the rest of the country, and finally the so-called “Tià de sa Real” (Sebastian from sa Real) which covered a range of writers and themes. He received the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1989.

Poemes a Nai was famous before its publication, when typewritten copies exchanged hands. The whole book is a dialogue with his beloved using language that at that time was new to Majorcan poets.

Plaça de l'Església

The current building of Manacor's Dolors church is almost all from the 20th century, even though there is documentary evidence of a church there in the 13th century, possibly on the site of an old mosque, which was enlarged and renovated from the 14th-16th centuries, following the town's needs. Inside, some chapels are worthy of mention, such as the baptistery, with a baptismal font made from Binissalem stone from the end of the 17th century. Also, there is Saint Francis's chapel, with an altarpiece from the 18th century and an image of Saint Francis attributed to Jaume Blanquer, and also the Mother of God of the Snow chapel, which holds the image that presided over the main altar from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The rectory beside the church is medieval in origin even though it is difficult to see these due to the many works done over time. The plaça de l'Església (Church square) is also the shopping area in Manacor, with a market on Mondays that stretches as far as plaça de Ramon Llull. On the right-hand side of the church, looking towards plaça de sa Bassa, we can see a monument dedicated to the dictionary of the Catalan language begun by Antoni M. Alcover.

Manacor is a city beloved to literature and to the arts, and it has given a big list of writers and painters, a list bigger than usual. Miquel Angel Riera stands out among them, because of his poetry and narrative works: he was born and grown up very close to this square, at the Artà Street.

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