SUMMERS IN CAMPANET WITH JOANA

 

Through the front doors that nobody

Ever closed

a patio could be seen at the far end

of each house:

the patios with hortensias

in tins.

The black nights of summer,

While a melancholic bell clanged

of some goat

I heard a voice

that alerted me:

You will remember Mallorca

with every tear.

Its last door

is already closed.

Es perd el senyal (Loosing the signal), 2012

Translated by Núria Cohen.

(Sanaüja, 1938). Joan Margarit is a poet, architect and professor at the School of Architecture in Barcelona. His oeuvre has played a fundamental role in contemporary Catalan poetry. Among his works are L´ombra de l´altre mar (1981, La dona del navegant (1986, winner of the Serra d´Or Prize in 1987), Casa de Misericòrdia (2007) or Es perd el senyal (2002). He has been awarded numerous prizes throughout his career as a poet that started in 1963.