I used to keep a blog where I used to post random poems that I came across and liked, as well as those that I wrote. I also wrote ramblings, observations, and aphorisms. I liked to imagine that blog as a virtual fridge door that flows endlessly where I post pictures, poems, words of wisdom, memorabilia. In the high days of blogging, during the first decade of this century, I also exchanged poems with other bloggers and followed similar blogs. There was a cyber etiquette of following back and commenting on posts. I find that the ability to comment and the capacity to pingback were essential parts of the experience of blogging. One was becoming a part of a blogging community. Unlike forums, blogosphere was a distributed sphere linked to each other by bookmarks one keeps on her computer, comments that are exchanged with one’s blog user profile (eg. Gravatar) and blogroll one shared on one’s blog page at one side. Unfortunately, both comments and pingbacks were exploited through spamming and DDOS attacks and eventually ordinary bloggers stopped including the comment section on their blogs and web pages. Such a shame!
So, here is a poem I came into my life today, for the sake of old blogging days. I learned that it was a well-known among certain leftist circles in Catalonia. This poem was written by Maria Mercè Marçal i Serra (13 November 1952 – 5 July 1998) who was a Catalan poet, professor, writer and translator.
Divisa
A l’atzar agraeixo tres dons: haver nascut dona, de classe baixa i nació oprimida.
I el tèrbol atzur de ser tres voltes rebel.
Maria-Mercè Marçal, Divisa. A: Cau de llunes, Barcelona: Proa, 1998, 2a ed., p.15.
Motto
I am grateful to fate for three gifts: to have been born a woman, from the working class and an oppressed nation. And the turbid azure of being three times a rebel.
Traduït per D. Sam Abrams
Maria-Mercè Marçal, Motto. A: Survivors. Barcelona: Institute of North American Studies, 1991, p.103.
source: PEN Català