Josep Piera (Beniopa, La Safor, 1947), brand new 55th Award of Honor of the Catalan Letters, is traveling to Barcelona, ??and the audience attending the presentation of the award, at the Palau de la Música, is traveling to the universe del homenajeado con un espectáculo that takes as its title that of a poem of his: Baraca, which, suitable in times of drought, says like this: “Water is life, / says the bright laugh of the river.” / Water is life, / the tops of the poplars on the riverbank rumble. / Water is life, / the drain sings clean and transparent. / Water is life, / I dream of the friendly shadow that accompanies me. / Water is life. / I sit there. Listen: / water is life, water is life… / And I feel the moon on my lips / that offers me warm and sweet / the tasty smell of healthy grass. / A fresh voice / from inside tells me: / water is life”. The baraka, the luck that has not completely eluded her for so many years.
The act begins with a popular Valencian tune sung by Ana Brenes, and Elies Barberà, Raquel Ferri and Xavier Francès review her biography, between thematic and geographical areas, childhood or paella – “an exaltation of life” that structures her spectacle while they cook it as metaphors cook it, because “to be a paellero is to be an artist of the ephemeral”, they say- and the disease in his Valencia, Sicily, Greece or Marrakech or to Andalusian poetry -and especially Ibn Jafaya-, which came to him before even than poetry in their own language.
Manuel Forcano’s gloss focuses more on his work, which begins by recalling that Piera has not come alone, that in addition to his family and readers, he is accompanied by Ausiàs Marc, Joanot Martorell, Francesc de Borja or Sandro Penna, as well as his characters from ” postwar whore” and “the fantastic seventies”. And again the Andalusians that he translated, of course. A true Mediterranean writer, starting from poetry and going back further.
And reciting either in Arabic, in Greek, in Hebrew or also in Latin, Forcano passes through the garden, by the sea, by the south, by the love, of which he has taught: “I don’t know how to write love poems ”, begins a poem, until it says that “a tu et cante ara, sols a tu”. According to the commentator, “a true declaration of love to all of us, to all readers in the Catalan language”.
Immediately afterwards, Xavier Antich, president of Òmnium Cultural, which awards the prize, praises Piera because “he has given us back the richest and most subtle language”, since his “is not an individual writing”, but rather a collective and political one.
A long standing ovation and Piera receives the award with the audience standing. The poet has not prepared a speech and chooses to improvise a “big thank you” and admits he is “overwhelmed”. He talks about his Drova, a valley that he defines as “a Greece without temples”, his place in the world, his home, where he has met so many times with so many poets, and he makes it present in a poem and puts on a brief recital well accompanied not only by other poets such as Jafaya, Jordi de Sant Jordi, Ausiàs Marc and Joan Roís de Corella, because poetry belongs to everyone and no one and it is always now, but also with the invaluable music of maestro Jordi Savall (viola de shrimp) and Xavier Díaz-Latorre (theorbo).
The act ends with La muixeranga – anthem for many Valencians – and Els segadors sung in chorus by an audience with readers, previous award winners such as Maria Barbal and Antònia Vicenç or writers such as Miquel de Palol, Àngels Gregori, Antònia Carré-Pons or Àlex Broch, in addition to authorities and politicians such as the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès; the president of the Valencian Courts, Enric Morera; the new president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Anna Erra; the Minister of Catalan Culture, Natàlia Garriga, and the Minister of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano or the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras.
Catalan version, here
