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.