Shows
La maktaba di Don PabloNinja's Poetry Bites - Lazybones, Pablo NerudaCats teach us the importance of laziness. As does Pablo Neruda, in two poems written in his happy fifties at Isla Negra - Oda a la pereza and El perezoso. Translations by Stephen Mitchell and Alastair Reid.2021-04-2510 min
La maktaba di Don PabloCosì parlò Glorioula - Erri de Luca on homesickness“Quando ti viene una nostalgia, non è mancanza, è presenza…” Words from Rafaniello, the refugee cobbler, in Erri de Luca’s novel Montedidio (2001). Dedicated, in particular, to Greeks far from home who cannot join their loved ones for Orthodox Easter, due to coronaborders. English translation by Michael Moore.2021-04-2107 min
La maktaba di Don Pablo4 - Prison, self-exile, lyricism - Abdellatif Laâbi“Qu’est-ce qui est le plus beau / la main qui s’ouvre / ou les yeux qui se ferment?” Often compared to Neruda and Hikmet for his lyrical humanism, Abdellatif Laâbi is considered Morocco’s leading contemporary poet. Incarcerated for eight years due to his political writings, his prison poems speak from “beyond the borders of what is human”. Laâbi later found refuge in the Parisian banlieue, and continued to write of his homeland from afar. A soft warrior of words, with a constant thread of tenderness despite his hardships. English translations from the French by Breyten Breytenbach, Donald Nicholson-Smith, André...2021-04-1944 min
La maktaba di Don PabloNinja's Poetry Bites - The Cats Will Know, Cesare Pavese"There will be other days, / there will be other voices. / You will smile alone. / The cats will know." -- Pavese's final poem to his lover Constance Dowling. In italiano, English (tr. Linh Dinh), και λίγο ελληνικά (μφ. Γιάννης Παππάς).2021-04-1007 min
La maktaba di Don PabloCosì parlò Glorioula - Hemingway on catsGlorioula deserves her own playlist too. Short recordings, snippets of wisdom from our favourite authors. We begin with words from Ernest Hemingway, a lover of cats, especially those with six toes.2021-04-0704 min
La maktaba di Don PabloNinja's Poetry Bites - Pleasures, Bertolt BrechtNew playlist by Νίντζα, Don Pablo's best friend. Random poetry recitals, 8 minutes max. We begin with a short poem by Brecht, a list of simple pleasures, written a year or two before he passed on. In Greek first, for the fun of it. Translated by Nadia Valavani. Followed by an English version, tr. Marcy Jarvis. -- Meanwhile, Ninja calls to be let out, but as the door opens...2021-04-0408 min
La maktaba di Don Pablo3 - Andrea Camilleri, RiccardinoThe final novel in the Montalbano series, kept under lock and key until exactly a year after Camilleri left us. Does il Commissario die? No spoilers. In this podcast we focus on “vigatese”, Camilleri’s very own blend and style of italo-siciliano, taught passively to the reader as it evolves from novel to novel. Una forma d’innamoramento linguistico. The hardback edition of Riccardino offers a fascinating lexical comparison between the “prima stesura”, completed in 2005, and the definitive, more “sicilianeggiante” version of 2016. Featuring Catarella, the clumsy, good-hearted receptionist, also with a language of his own. Ah dottori dottori, dimando compressione e pirdonanza! Plu...2021-04-0138 min
La maktaba di Don PabloMDP 2 - Dictionnaire amoureux des îlesPlanet or satellite, refuge or prison, condemnation or promise of a fresh start. What is an island, but a mini-continent? Are islands as finite and self-contained as we may wish to believe? "L'île, c'est d'abord le voyage vers l'île." Hervé Hamon invites us to journey from island to island alphabetically, or haphazardly, following the whim of countless winds with ancient, musical names. In this podcast we begin from Isla de Chiloé, Patagonia, soon returning to the Mediterranean. Crete, Ikaría. Ithaca isn't in the book, for some reason. Malta is, for the wrong reasons. We'll also hear a littl...2021-03-2648 min
La maktaba di Don PabloEpisode 1 - Introduction, Raftópoulos, Caeiro (Pessoa), NerudaKaliméla! A Greek-Maltese word, meaning good start, good ending, or “bonne continuation”. Welcome to the first episode of Don Pablo’s new podcast series. Books, poetry, language & translation, the wine-dark Ionian sea, islands, and of course, cats. From a future máktaba - a small Mediterranean library - on Homer’s mountain, north Ithaca.
In this relaxed, introductory episode, I briefly explain my choice of names, and how Pablito and I ended up on Odysseus’ island. Followed by a little poetry of Státhis Raftópoulos - a modern Thiakí poet -, Alberto Caeiro (Pessoa), and Pablo Neruda. And a song by Radiod...2021-03-1845 min