International Mother Language Day. Luis Melgarejo participates in “Threads”, an exhibition that connects textiles and literature to celebrate multilingualism
In the framework of the collaborative projects of the UNESCO Cities of Literature network and organized by the city of Manchester, “Threads” is a physical and digital exhibition, which aims to rescue the textile heritage in dialogue with literature and other artistic and cultural manifestations.
The exhibition will take place at the Manchester Central Library from February 12 and will run for a month, coinciding in its course with the “International Mother Language Day“, a date on which UNESCO proposes to promote multilingualism and the value of the first language as a key educational resource for social inclusion.
Granada UNESCO City of Literature participates in the project by inviting the poet Luis Melgarejo, who for the occasion has written “Urdimbre viva”, an unpublished poem in which the memory, weavings, materials, musicality and voices of our land converge, projecting to the world the richness and diversity of the local cultural identity. The text will be accompanied by a sample of embroidery and materials made by the author’s family, in homage to the tradition of weaving fabrics with uses typical of the town of La Zubia in Granada, which will travel to be exhibited in Manchester.
The poem will also be published on the project’s website, where it will appear in both its original Spanish and English versions. The translation has been done by Jean Sanders.
“Living Warp Thread“. Exerpt
III
“And even from my two grandfathers something
remains, I believe.
This accent that from time to time resounds in my breast
when I join words is the strong drawl
of my grandfather Manuel braiding ropes
of hemp, lifting loads
of esparto, flax, jute, humming.
And this tenacious prosody,
this left-handed syntax, without patches,
they say it comes to me from my grandfather Isidoro,
if those who knew him do not lie”.
English translation: Jean Sanders.
Luis Melgarejo
Luis Melgarejo (La Zubia, Granada, 1977) has published three books of poems to date: Libro del cepo (Hiperión, Madrid, 2000), with which he won the XV Premio de Poesía Hiperión; Los poemas del bloqueo (Cuadernos del Vigía, Granada, 2008; 2nd corrected and expanded edition), which won the Javier Egea Poetry Prize in 2005; and Tiritañas y guiñapos (Tiritañas y guiñapos) (Saltadera, Oviedo, 2017).
Unpublished poems and first versions of some of his texts have been collected over the last few years in numerous anthologies and literary magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. He holds a degree in Hispanic Philology from the University of Granada and a Master’s degree in Publishing from the University of Salamanca. He currently works as a bookseller.
