a wandering woman writes

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

The music of time




There is something, a type of memory, I don't quite know what, a background noise, a music, barely perceptible, perhaps, but it is as if in the darkest, most well hidden heart of a house everything that happened in the house has remained there, molded, shaped. As if the house harbored in a musical score the meter of the sobs and of the happy times. The adagio of a lament. The andante of a dream. Now and then the tamborilero of the joys and the laughter. And abruptly, the hard blow. And now and then the silences. Also the silences. You open the door and there it is, the full symphony, and suddenly you let yourself be carried from smell to smell, from sound to sound. From sensation to sensation. The music of time.


The quote is (translated by me) from a gorgeously lyrical book, Utilidades de las Casas, by Isabel Cobo. I loved it when I read it, and somehow my recent trips to little places - La Alberca, Prats de Mollo, Mogarraz - brought it to mind. Small towns have a similar kind of memory, don't they?

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posted by Erin at 7:07 PM

9 Comments:

  • Im a senior at Eastern Illinois University and had lived in Salamanca for a study abroad program from Jan - Mar last year and i absoluetly loved it. Finding your blog only intensifies my desires and longing to go back! It's been almost 2 years this winter since ive left there and not a week goes by that i dont think about Salamanca and my travels. I hope i can one day be able to do what you have and move there! I will continue to live through your blogs as if i were still there!!

    - Ryan

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:50 AM  

  • To previous commentor, Ryan:

    Ryan, I first encountered Spain 22 (that's unbelievable to me) years ago on a study abroad program in Madrid. I visited Salamanca and was enchanted too. I've been back to Spain (one time to live for a year) several times and it stays with me, just under my skin. Three friends (I am thinking now of several photos taken in Salamanca with them, ) from that year abroad are visiting me next month -- we have been exchanging e-mails with ultra-vivid memories of those months we spent in Spain together. I guarantee that in 20 years Spain will still be with you. Go back and visit if and when you can, and know that if you really want to, you can.

    Ann in KC

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:13 AM  

  • Lovely quote! The music of time.
    La Alberca looks great. And not very far from the Cáceres wines.
    In Algerian Arabic, Alberca means the water hole, the pond. I wonder whether t

    By Blogger Cream, at 12:27 PM  

  • Wandering woman, Your blog and beautiful words that spill onto the pages of cyberspace are eloquent and beautiful to read.
    I long for my sweet return to my beloved Spain! Your blog only makes it that much more enchanting.
    Gracia, laduque

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:00 AM  

  • Bonita traducción. I think I must get one of my pals in Spain to order me that book, heh, heh. (Which I think is ...de las casas rather than ...de las cosas, although really, they are both appropriate).
    :-)

    In any case, that made me think of a friend's house in a tiny little village in Asturias near the border of Galicia. If the walls could speak. And yet, they do. Small towns in Spain are an entirely different mind set. Particularly in the summer months when time seems to stand still, and everyone makes the annual pigrimmage back to their little village/home town.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:00 PM  

  • Welcome, Ryan and thanks for the comment. I'm with Ann - Spain will stay with you. I had an idea you might hate, Ann, but after your get together if you wanted to write a little something about it to post on my blog here, I'd love it. Will you think about it? I'd love to hear how that time and place look from where you all are now.

    Cream, it means the same in Spanish, pretty much. So many of my favorite Spanish words are Arabic words that made their way into Spanish: albahaca, almohada,albaricoque..all those lovely al words (and lots more).

    Thank you, la duque! And welcome. Where are you now, if I can ask?

    Ortizzle, I am mortified, I know the title of the book, I've added it to my profile and recommended it to everyone I could think of, but yep, I typed cosas here. ¡Qué verguenza! It's casas, of course and are you sure you can't find it on Amazon? Amazon en español? Worth a shot? (Thanks for the heads up, btw.)

    By Blogger Erin, at 8:20 PM  

  • Hi WW, I am living in San Diego, CA, 30 years now, though I love to call many places home, Madrid for one.

    As for living in 2 languages, I completely agree with you, I want so much to live a life in Spanish, because in my head, I know it is there, it just doesn't come out the way I want it too. Make sense?

    laduque

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:35 AM  

  • I, too like to call many places (the world? ;) ) home, laduque. I like the way you put that.

    By Blogger Erin, at 11:12 PM  

  • Erin -- just saw your comment. I don't hate that idea at all! Let me see what I can do. I'd like to develop a discipline to write a bit every once in awhile. Work has been a bit of a rollo lately and I think it will be good to work on a few other things (like Kiva) -- kind of like I took French classes and cooked and knit a lot while I was in law school. Maybe that little itch should be telling me something . . . . :).

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:39 AM  

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