Vols d'Orly was the last book Damià Huguet published in his life, and here we also find the identification with the landscape, in the case of "Mediterranean", mixing Mediterranean sea and land.
We connect all paths and ploughed fields
With the salt of the sea and scent of the pasture,
The streets of the towns and the ash-coloured hills
Where the moon and stars never turn their back.
Conversations in the street and whitewash that floats
Above low walls, encrusted by the unhurried
Sun, pointing to the solitude they feel.
The heart of these spaces we have traced with our nails
Is a nameless stone, with spots of earth,
Which has been rolling for years, blown by the wind signed
By the sea that lever flees, and the islands' rocks,
Leaving furrows wherever they go, never opening any windows,
Like the voice of the crops, who every spring
Raise their eyes to the sky without stepping back.
Vols des d'Orly, 1995
Translated by Richard Mansell. Performed by Manena Huguet.
(Campos, 1946 – 19 juliol 1996). Huguet was a writer, journalist and publisher. Self-taught, he was a businessman in the construction materials industry. His first book, Home de primer mà (First-hand man) won the Blanquerna prize in Manacor in 1969. Together with Josep Albertí and Bernat Nadal he published 72 (1972) with prologues from Blai Bonet. Cinc minuts amb tu (Five minutes with you, 1976), Carn de vas (Tomb meat, 1976) and Esquena de ganivet (Back of the knife, 1976) are an introduction, linked to the poetic realism of the time, to the world of Damià Huguet (cinema, Campos, travels). He was the founder of the collections “Guaret” and “Quaderns campaners” which promoted authors who were little known at the time, or outside conventional circles. He also published his own collections Com un peix dins el rostoll (Like a fish in the stubble, 1978) and Traus badats (Open incisions, 1979), a successful display of a popular erotic vocabulary, amongst others. Between 1969 and 1976 he wrote for “Diario de Mallorca”, covering both local news and film. In the 1980s he published three volumes of poetry which display a certain unity, in which the people of his town are the protagonist, especially people dedicated to manual tasks. The books are influenced by the harshness and severity of the landscape with explicit titles: Els calls del manobre (The labourer’s calluses, 1984), Guarets a l’alba (Fallow land at dawn, 1987) and L’ull dels clapers (The eye of the stones, 1988).
Campos is both a variation and summary of the Mediterranean landscape, in this case a blend of the sea and agricultural land, always dependent on uncertain rain.
The small village Colònia de Sant Jordi belong to the municipality of Ses Salines and covers a large part of the southern coast of Majorca. Colònia de Sant Jordi is a residential town during the summer season, nestled among large areas of sea shore with sand dunes of great ecological value that have remained untouched thanks to the thrust of the population and the drive of the movement for the defense of territory. These dunes are Es Trenc and Ses Covetes, on one hand; on the other hand we find the big extension of Sa Vall estate that was owned by Joan March and draws a long sandy beach until the iconic lighthouse at Cap de Ses Salines. Off the coast of Colonia de Sant Jordi and its beaches, the archipelago of Cabrera, declared Maritime-Terrestrial National Park in 1991.
The history of Colonia de Sant Jordi Goes back to the Bronze Age as the megalithic monuments Talaiots from the ninth century f.Kr demonstrate. It gives clues to the origin of agriculture and livestock in the area. Both Sa Vall's and Sa Colonia de Sant Jordi's salterns are the oldest in the world (IVa BC), since its operation was initiated by Phoenician merchants. Salt continued to interest the Romans, Arabs and Christians who settled successively in the area. Salt extraction continues to develop today using traditional methods.
