Joan Margarit

PRINCIPIS I FINALS

Language: catalan

Translations: german (ANFÄNGE UND SCHLÜSSE), english (BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS), spanish (PRINCIPIOS Y FINALES), turkish (Başlangıçlar ve sonlar)

PRINCIPIS I FINALS

Un temps, vaig ser una noia de futur.
Podia llegir Horaci i Virgili en llatí,
recitar de memòria tot Keats.
Però, entrant en les coves dels adults,
em van caçar i vaig començar a parir
els fills d’un home estúpid i cregut.
Ara m’empleno el vas sempre que puc
i ploro si recordo un vers de Keats.
Una no sap, de jove, que cap lloc
no és el lloc on podrà restar per sempre.
També s’estranya quan no arriba mai
aquell o aquella en qui trobar descans.
Una ignora, de jove, que els principis
no tenen res a veure amb els finals.

Translations:

Language: german

ANFÄNGE UND SCHLÜSSE

Eine Zeit lang war ich ein Mädchen mit Zukunft.

Ich konnte Horaz und Virgil auf Latein lesen,

den vollständigen Keats auswendig aufsagen.

Aber beim Eintritt in die Höhlen der Erwachsenen

wurde ich gefangen und brachte die Kinder

eines dummen, eingebildeten Mannes auf die Welt.

Jetzt fülle ich den Becher, sobald ich kann,

und weine, wenn ich einen Keats-Vers erinnere.

Sie weiß nicht, solange sie jung ist, dass es keinen

Ort gibt, an dem sie für immer bleiben kann.

Sie wundert sich auch, daß niemand kommt,

bei dem sie Ruhe findet.

Sie verkennt, solange sie jung ist, daß die Anfänge

niemals mit den Schlüssen übereinstimmen.

Language: english

BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

Once, I was a girl with a future.
I could read Horace and Virgil in Latin,
recite the whole of Keats by heart.
But when I entered the grown-ups’ caves,
they caught me and I started to bear
the children of a stupid, conceited man.
Now I drown my sorrows whenever I get the chance
and weep if I remember a line of Keats.
When you’re young, you don’t know
that you can’t stay in one place forever.
And you marvel if the man or woman
you longed to place your trust in never appears.
You don’t understand, when you’re young, that beginnings
have nothing to do with endings.

Language: spanish

PRINCIPIOS Y FINALES

Un tiempo fui una chica con futuro.

Podía leer a Horacio y a Virgilio en latín

y recitar a Keats completo de memoria.

Al entrar en sus cuevas, los adultos

me capturaron: comencé a parir

hijos de un hombre estúpido y creído.

Ahora cuando puedo lleno el vaso

y lloro al recordar algún verso de Keats.

Una no sabe, cuando es joven,

que no hay lugar alguno

donde poder quedarse para siempre.

Y le parece extraño si no llega

aquel o aquella en quien hallar descanso.

Una ignora, de joven, que los principios

no se parecen nunca a los finales.

Language: turkish

Başlangıçlar ve sonlar

Bir zamanlar, geleceği olan bir kızdım.
Horace ve Virgil’i Latince okuyabilirdim
Keats’in tüm şiirlerini ezberlemiştim.
Ama yetişkinlerin mağarasına girince,
Beni yakaladılar ve doğurmaya başladım
Aptal ve kibirli bir adamın çocuklarını.
Şimdi her fırsatta dolduruyorum kadehimi
Ve ağlıyorum anımsadıkça Keats’in bir mısrasını.
Gençken bilmiyor insan
Her zaman aynı yerde yaşayamayacağını.
Ve bir garip kalıyor insan,
Başını göğsüne yaslayacağı biri ortaya çıkmayınca.
Anlamıyor, gençken, başlangıçların
bitişlere hiç benzemediğini.

Joan Margarit

* 11.05.1938, Barcelona, Spain
† 16.02.2021, Barcelona, Spain

Joan Margarit studied Architecture in Barcelona and moved to live permanently in this city in 1961. Since 1968 he has been Professor of Calculus at the School of Architecture in Barcelona.

The most intensive and successful part of his work has been written since 1987.Throughout its long and supple existence, Joan Margarit’s poetry has kept acquiring more and more readers so that he has now become one of the most widely read Catalan poets in Catalonia and also in the rest of the Peninsula. His early works were written in Spanish but he would eventually switch to Catalan.

His poetry is realist with a strong presence of autobiographical elements, a well-tempered use of metaphor, and reflections of a moral nature that move from the individual to the collective. In Margarit’s work, anonymous individuals and jazz musicians might be the protagonists of a poem. Among the awards he has received are the Crítica Serra d’Or Prize for Poetry, the Flor Natural Prize in the Jocs Florals of Barcelona (on two occasions) the Carles Riba Prize, the National Literature Prize and the Jaume Fuster Prize.

His poetry has been translated to English, Russian, Hebrew, German, Portuguese and French. He is also a translator from Catalan to Spanish and German and from English to Catalan.

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