From Barcelona, Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel evokes from memory and with nostalgia places of his native Palma.
Look how windows close and in the room evening,
Evening falls, on an August bed, you can see it
From any pomegranate tree;
Surprise the hidden corners of the garden and you will discover the secrets of the bedspreads,
the armchairs covered in old cloth, the twisted columns!
Go to the garden, beside the image of the Virgin,
Beside the pool, tired of cradling the same leaves,
There are the windows that still remember the suicide
And the madman who saw him hanging, and couldn't stop laughing
With his eyes dotted with shadows like buttons...
"Auca", Imitació del foc (1938)
Translated by Richard Mansell. Performed by Biel Mesquida.
(Palma, 1913 – Barcelona, 1938). Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel is an emblematic poet, one of the figures who breathe most life into contemporary Catalan poetry. He was a precocious student and moved to Barcelona after secondary school, where he became a follower of Carles Riba and developed a great friendship with Salvador Espriu. His premature death, at 24 years of age, cut short a brilliant literary career and turned him into a myth and symbol of a generation that was lost owing to the political situation at the time. Despite the brevity of his work, it is a break with tradition and it is attached to the most reformist and avant-guard tendencies in poetry. His work is collected in three volumes: Nou poemes (Nine poems, 1933), Quadern de sonets (Book of sonnets, 1934) and Imitació del foc (Imitation of fire, 1938). In the latter, Majorca is the motif and theme and there are many explicit references to the landscape and history of the island.
«Auca» (Auca, the name of a poetic genre in Catalan) is a long poem from Imitació del foc. It offers a very personal journey around the streets of Palma, full of memories, anecdotes and references to legends associated with each place, which blend into each other in a surrealist and dream-like discourse. Close to La Misericòrdia, he also refers to La Rambla and its fountain, the Capuchin convent, carrer dels Oms where his mother used to embroider when he was young...
The gardens of La Misericòrdia surround a historic building, founded by the Jesuits in 1565 as a place for those in need. La Misericòrdia is today the cultural headquarters of the Consell de Mallorca, an important cultural centre with a library, archive and space for cultural events. The gardens are a welcome and necessary green space right in the middle of Palma. Amongst the plants is a "Moreton Bay fig", brought from Australia and planted here in 1830. At that time the gardens were reconfigured and designed as a botanical garden, with the aim of promoting studies in the field. Today, the gardens, cut off from the outside world by a wall and railings, are a peaceful space encouraging rest and reading. The area also hosts different cultural activities as well as some sculpture by contemporary artists.
