Joan Maragall: The blinded cow

As so often happens,
I spontaneously opened this new book
to 'a random' page and... read this poem several times.
Pages 36/37: La vaca sega / Die erblindete Kuh.

Beers & Books (433) – Joan Maragall: Poems

Another bilingual treasure.

Joan Maragall (10 October 1860 – 20 December 1911)

Beers & Books (432) – Book of Absences

Buch der Abwesenheiten
& Die schönen Wege
*
Llibre d'absències
& Els bells camins

Miquel Martí i Pol (19 March 1929 – 11 November 2003)

Beers & Books (431) – Llamazares: The yellow rain

The yellow rain
*
La lluvia amarilla

 

 Julio Llamazares *28 March 1955

Beers&Books (430) – Jaume Cabré: Jo confesso

Das Schweigen des Sammlers = The Collector's Silence*
*
Jo confesso (2011)
*
Confessions

 

 Jaume Cabré * 30 April 1947

*Apparently, the original title was not considered conducive to sales.

Happy 114th, Flanny!

It's all a matter of Omnium, eh? ;-)
*
[...] people who spend most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles [...] 
get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle
as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them 
and you would be surprised at the number of people [...]
who are nearly half people and half bicycles...
(from "The Third Policeman")

Flann O'Brien *5 October 1911

Before anyone erroneously claims he is dead: Those few people still taking for granted Flann O'Brien died 1 April 1966: Flann fooled you all.

Beers & Book (428) – Italian narrators

Italian storytellers, 13th til 18th century

Beers & Books (427) – Spanish narrators

Spanish storytellers, 14th til 20th century.

Beers & Books (426) – Catalan narrators

Catalan storytellers
*
Recently purchased second-hand: 19 stories by 
Jacint Verdaguer, Carles Bosch de la Trinxeria, Narcís Oller,
Joaquim Ruyra, Victor Català, Ernesto Martínez Ferrando,
Miquel Llor,  Lorenç Villalonga, Mercè Rodoreda, Pere Calders,
Salvador Espriu (2), Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Manuel de Pedrolo,
Jordi Sarsanedas (2), Joaquim Carbó, Terenci Moix, Josep Albanell.

Beers & Books (425) – Victor Català: Solitud

I consider myself lucky.
Victor Català's ‘Solitud’, published in German in 2007, 
has ‘found its way’ into my library –
antiquarian, at a good price and remarkably well preserved. 
What a book!!

Victor Català (11 September 1869 – 27 January 1966)

Beers & Books (424) – Mercè Rodoreda

Aloma (1938), La Placa del Diamant (1962), La meva Cristina i altres contes (1967)
Mirall trencat (1974), Jardí vora el mar (1967), Quanta, quanta, guerra (1980)

 

Mercè Rodoreda (10 October 1908 – 13 April 1983)

Beers & Books (423) – Mercè Rodoreda: Short stories

La meva Cristina i altres contes
*
My Christina & Other Stories 

 

Mercè Rodoreda (10 October 1908 – 13 April 1983)

Coffee time with Lluís Llach

Les dones de la Principal
*
[There does obviously exist no English version]

Lluís Llach *7 May 1948

Coffeetime "À rebours". ;-)

A rebours.

 Joris-Karl Huysmans (5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907)

Coffeetime with Lemprière's Dictionary

Lemprière's Dictionary

Beers & Books (422) – Also the donkey has a soul

Also the donkey has a soul

Peter Bichsel (24 March 1935 – 15 March 2025)

Beers & Books (419) – Ospina Pizano

Solo un poco aqui

María Ospina Pizano *1977

Dark suspicion

I've got a deep dark suspicion
that pretty soon we should start
looking around for another planet
for ourselves. 

Wolfgang Borchert (20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947)

Beers & Books (418) – By the Lake

Oh, a book by John that I don't know yet?
So I asked my bookseller to order it for me in the USA.
A few days later I held ‘By the Lake’ in my hands,
opened it and started reading.
‘The morning was clear. There was no wind on the lake.’
A déjà vu? I know that one, don't I?
And right:
Exactly the beginning of ‘That They May Face The Rising Sun’.
Vintage International had just changed the title.

John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006)

 

Beers & Books (417) – Upton Sinclair: Öl.!

Oil!

Upton Sinclair (20 September 1878 – 25 November 1968)