Beers & Books (437) – Juan Rulfo: Pedro Páramo

Pedro Páramo

Juan Rulfo (16 May 1917 – 7 January 1986)

Beers & Books (435) – The 40 Days of Musa Dagh

The Fourty Days of Musa Dagh

Franz Werfel (10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) 

Beers&Books (434) – Franz Werfel: Masterful Tales

Franz Werfel (10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945)

Sláinte, John!

"I think technique can be taught  
but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, 
and I see writing and reading as completely related. 
One almost couldn't exist without the other."

[John McGahern, who would today celebrate his 91. birthday.]

Sláinte, John!

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 Pavlova & Mr B

Pawlowa
or how to smuggle a donkey halfway around the world
*
Certainly neither the original title (‘The White Umbrella’)
nor the writer (Brian Sewell) would have piqued my interest.
Being sometimes a donkey myself, though,
I could not resist the German title. ;-)
For an enjoyable read ...

Mr B, a fifty-year-old Briton, is travelling with a television crew in Peshawar, Pakistan, to make a film about the country's history. When he sees a heavily laden donkey foal covered in wounds by the side of the road during a car journey, he decides not to take the flight back to London scheduled for the following day. Instead, he wants to walk to London with the young donkey mare, whom he names after the Russian ballet dancer Pavlova because of her long legs. With only the bare essentials, including a white umbrella from the London umbrella shop James Smith & Sons, the two set off.
Translated from the German Wikipedia entry.

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)

Saturday night poetry: Joan Maragall

For my Català-speaking friends and visitors.
To spare you lengthy passages in German, I have listed below when poems by Maragall can be heard, recited in Catalan by Jaume Villalba, in German by Àxel Sanjosé.
• 05:16 – 08:12
• 24:27 – 27:20
• 34:10 – 35:38
• 41:45 – 43:39
• 50:58 – 54:41
• 58:39 – 1:02:04
• 1:12:52 – 1:15:52 

May you enjoy. 

 

Joan Maragall (10 October 1860 – 20 December 1911)