MUSIC, MAESTRO, PLEASE !!!

Dear reader,

After writing and publishing the poem that follows I spend a fine day on the beach. The beach of La Gola near the Rio Ter was a dream that day.

The sea is often singing but the waves can also become like a heavy machine that never stops. But it was one of those fine days that everything went well, very well.

Then a melody came to my mind and I made some notes on a piece of paper.

Home I worked it our and kept it.

Thanks to my PC I still have that rough written score.

I enclose it: if anyone would make it more professional
I would only be too grateful.

And in that case, please send me a copy !!!

Thanks in advance
and
'Fins ara!' in Catalan

Jan Arends
Torroella de Montgrí (Girona)

CATALAN POETRY: EL MAR I EL TEMPS*** translated: THE SEA AND TIME

Jan Arends

EL MAR I EL TEMPS

El mar és un espai de temps
les hores passen, no conten gens:
els gavians i les onades
fan junts un joc amb les pujades.

Escuma blanca, cel i blau:
La Gola és un braç que mou
com una serp del ponent
com un fina i un vinent.

Dibuixes rápids en el banc:
l'aigua del Ter és com un cranc;
senyal del temps, senyal en blanc.

Un home sol amb esperança,
la dona jove que descansa:
un déu en tres: el mar que dansa.

-------------------------------------

Literally translation into English

THE SEA AND TIME

The sea is a space of time
the hours pass by but don't count at all;
the seagulls and the waves
play together with the tops of the waves.

White scum, sky and blue:
La Gola* is an arm that moves
like a snake that comes from the East,
like a coming and a going.

Quick drawings on the border:
the water of the Ter** is like a crab:
a sign of time, a sign in white.

A lonely man with hope
the young woman who is resting:
a trinity-god: the sea that dances.
............................................

* La Gola is the estuary of the Ter

** The Ter is a river in Catalonia.

*** Taken from 'Catalaanse gedichten' 1987
Torroella de Montgrí (Girona)
Spain / Catalonia

MAESTRO PAU CASALS ON CATALONIA, HIS NATIVE COUNTRY

One of the most influential musicians of last century said the following about his native country. That happened during the dictatorship of that shameless criminal Franscisco Franco Bahamonde who was never taken to court:

'I am a Catalan. Today Catalonia is a province of Spain. But before Catalonia was a nation and perhaps the greatest nation in the world. I shall tell you why: Catalonia had the first Parliament long before England did, and it was in Catalonia where the was a start of 'United Nations'. All authorities of Catalonia met in the XI century at Toluges - today a French city, then belonging to Catalonia - to speak of peace: they invented the Truce of God.'

Pau Casals spoke these words in the 'General Assembly of the United Nations'
on Ocober 24th, 1971.