Carmen de España
A not particularly serious assault on Prosper Mérimée.
Category: Poets
Jingoistic poem celebrating the Battle of Vigo Bay (1702)
Half roasted Frenchmen, some o’er Gratings Broil’d/Do mix with Spaniards in the Sea parboil’d;
Is the anglocabrón longing for sun, sangria and sex a new phenomenon?
Blasco Ibáñez says that actually we have always thought “at all hours of the Mediterranean rim.”
The Italians have the all best games
(Even if they can’t make a decent paella.)
Mysterious Zaragoza nights
Between-wars texts about Zaragoza by Germans who appear never to have visited the place.
El gallito inglés / le coq anglais
Proud English cock, limp Latin hen: the binary opposition of English and Spanish fowls as a metaphor for the contrast between growing British military might and declining Spanish power.
The fretting nun’s secret
Kalebeul explained.
Barcelona and the great European fire sale
And an explanation of why “La gata sobre el tejado de zinc” is, in metallurgical-roofing terms, an inappropriate translation of “Cat on a hot tin roof”.
Viaje a México
Our itinerary, and that of Polo Polo on his Viaje a España.
The green of the louse/Lo verde del piojo
An etymological hop from kite-flying with Juan Marsé back to Concha Piquer’s greatest hit.
