«Cançó del pressentiment», by Clementina Arderiu, in a shop window in Roses

Walking through Roses, in a shoe shop, I came across this poem by Clementina Arderiu, «Cançó del pressentiment» — Song of the Foreboding.

The poem

We leave it in Catalan, the language it was written in: to translate it would be to write a different poem. It speaks of sensing a change coming, and of a hope that has never misled the one who listens to it.

Si presento la mudança

entremig del meu costum,

és que alguna cosa hi dansa.

Serà boira, serà llum?

Ara sóc com el qui es llença

dins la nau al mar pregon:

prou la ruta és dins sa pensa,

però la fi, qui sap on?

Esperança no em fa nosa,

m'ha dut sempre a bon camí,

i en parlar-me ella una cosa

me l'havia de complir.

Per això en tinc alegria

sens que en sàpiga res cert:

missatger que ella m'envia

son missatge ja ha complert.

*Clementina Arderiu, «L'alta llibertat» (1920)*

Who Clementina Arderiu was

Clementina Arderiu (Barcelona, 1889 – 1976) is one of the great voices of twentieth-century Catalan poetry. She published «L'alta llibertat», her second book, in 1920, and in it she settled the voice that marks her out: the short song form, plain language, and everyday things looked at closely until something deeper shows through.

She was married to the poet Carles Riba. Years later, their grandson Pau Riba set this very «Cançó del pressentiment» to music.

Poetry in shop windows

The window is part of «Mes de Paraules», the literary season Roses holds between World Poetry Day, on 21 March, and Sant Jordi. One of its strands is «Aparadors de Paraules»: students on the Commercial Activities course at Centre Escolar Empordà pick a poem, illustrate it and write it on the windows of shops around the town.

The season runs in spring, and the poem was still there in August, among the shoes. Which may be the best way of getting poetry to people who were not looking for it: putting it in their way.

If you pass through Roses, look at the shop windows. There are several, and they change every year.