Bernado Atxaga published his book Obabakoak in 1988.ย It was, without a doubt, one of the “giant leaps” this Basque author took on his way to being considered theย most important living Basque author.ย Soon after, in January 1991, it was published in Italian, translated byย Sonia Piloto di Castri.ย It’s one of the 26 languages this book has been translated into, including Spanish, as the book itself was written in Basque.
New Italian edition of ‘Obabakoak’ by Bernardo Atxaga
Thirty years later, a young Italian publishing house, 21Lettere, has decided to republish the translation, which has been reviewed by Sonia Piloto di Castri herself.ย This independent publisher has set out to publish only six books a year.ย How do they choose what to publish?ย They explain: “If it’s beautiful, we publish it.ย That’s the way we are.”ย ย Obabakoak is the fourth projectโฆnot this year, but ever, in this history of this upstart publishing house.
The foreword Atxaga writes for this new edition is pure beauty.ย To create it, he took inspiration from his 1996 poem “Escribo en una lengua extraรฑa”, which can be found on the author’s website.
Scrivo in una lingua strana
Scrivo in una lingua strana. Le sue forme verbali,
la struttura delle sue proposizioni relative,
le voci con le quali designa le cose antiche
โ i fiumi, le piante, gli uccelli โ,
non hanno sorelle in nessun luogo della terra.
Casa si dice etxe; ape, erle; morte, heriots;
Il sole dโinverno, eguzki o eki;
Il sole di primavera o di estate,
anchโesso โ comโรจ ovvio โ eguzki o eki.
(ร una lingua strana, ma non tanto)
Nata, dicono, nellโepoca dei megaliti,
sopravvisse, lingua ostinata, chiudendosi in se stessa,
nascondendosi come un riccio in un luogo
dove il mondo, grazie a essa,
prende il nome di Euskal Herria.
Ma cielo รจ zeru; inferno, infernu; libro, liburu;
Ed essendo Erroma la capitale dโItalia,
Erromako zubia โ ponte di Roma โ รจ lโarcobaleno.
(In questo modo, dunque, il riccio ha mantenuto relazioni)
Lingua di una nazione molto piccola
(cosรฌ piccola che quasi non si vede sulla mappa)
non ha mai calcato i giardini della Corte
nรฉ i marmi degli edifici del Governo;
non ha prodotto, in quattro secoli, piรน di cento libri.
Il primo, nel 1545; il piรน importante, nel 1643;
Il Nuovo Testamento, calvinista, nel 1571;
La Bibbia completa, cattolica, verso il 1860.
Il sogno รจ stato lungo, la biblioteca, breve.
(Ma nel XX secolo, il riccio si รจ svegliato)
Obabakoak, questo libro che ora vede la luce
nella cittร di Levi, di Arpino e di tanti altri,
รจ uno degli ultimi della biblioteca basca.
ร stato scritto in diverse case e in diversi paesi,
e il suo unico tema รจ la vita in generale.
E Obaba รจ Obaba, un luogo, uno scenario;
Ko sta per โdiโ, A, รจ il determinante; K, il plurale;
La traduzione letterale: gli o le di Obaba.
La traduzione non letterale: Storie di Obaba.
(E per un prologo, con ciรฒ รจ tutto) Bernardo Atxaga (*Translation below)
We’ve spoken about this Basque author on many occasions, about how he has been able to take our culture and show it to the world, helping to transmit the best and most authentic image of who we are, far from the image that embassies and media in Spain (and France) have doggedly tried to project for decades.
That’s why we’re so glad this most global book is getting another chance in Italian bookshops.ย Its appearance has been received with interest, as can be seen in the reviews section the publisher itself has selected regarding the publication of the book, some of which we’ll leave you with here.
Catedrale – 7/12/2020 – Italy
A proposito dei racconti, di BERNARDO ATXAGA
Obabakoak, ossia storie di Obaba, pubblicato da 21Lettere e tradotto da Sonia Piloto di Capri, รจ un classico della letteratura mondiale. Una raccolta di storie incentrate sulle storie, sullโatto creativo del raccontare e su quello del ricordare, sul processo di immaginarle e sul misterioso legame tra queste e la realtร . Gioia letteraria che con ironica maestria e delicatezza si riflette nei personaggi. Una dichiarazione dโamore per la letteratura e l’umanitร .
Tornano in Italia le storie basche di Atxaga: โObabakoakโ
Torna in Italia, per le edizioni 21lettere, il libro che ha fatto conoscere al mondo lo scrittore basco Bernardo Atxaga, โObabakoakโ. Si tratta di uno dei pochissimi testi scritti in Euskara โ la lingua basca โ negli ultimi quattro secoli, un libro best seller negli anni 90, tradotto in 26 lingue, selezionato dal Guardian tra i migliori 10 romanzi ambientati in Spagna, vincitore del Premio spagnolo per la letteratura e di decine di altri premi nazionali e internazionali.
โObabakoakโ, a quasi 30 anni dalla prima edizione italiana, torna in libreria il capolavoro di Bernardo Atxaga
Una delle voci piรน autorevoli della letteratura basca e spagnola, scelto dallโObserverย tra i venti migliori scrittori del XXI secolo,ย 21lettereย riporta in Italia il capolavoro che ha fatto conoscere al mondoย Bernardo Atxaga.
Profeti in Patria. Bernardo Atxaga e le storie di Obaba: “Obabakoak”
Con colpevole ritardo e pungolata dalla notizia della serie tv HBO – giร uscita in Spagna a fine settembre 2020, ma ancora senza data di programmazione per lโItalia – avevo finalmente spuntato dalla lista dei libri da leggereย Patriaย di Ferdinando Aramburu.
Despite the passing of the years, whenever we speak of him, of Atxaga, we can’t help but recall the vile interviews another author, Fernando Aramburu, gave in 2011, in which he spoke of Basque authors in general and of Atxaga in particular.ย Well now, thanks to Giulia Marziali, the author of theย Critica Letteraria article we’ve shared, that unsubstantial link between both authors and both novels has again come up, meaning once again we cannot avoid speaking about Aramburu.
This author, born in San Sebastian (he says he misses the ambiance he remembers there from Franco’s times), dared to claim in interviews in 2011 that “Basque authors are not free”, or that what they need to do is “not turn a blind eye, like authors like Bernardo Atxaga do; a many with little courage and a great deal of fear, whos last novel takes place in Congo and not in the Basque Country”.ย He also claims that “In the Basque Country, they keep the fiction that there are readers in Basque alive, and therefore official support is necessary.”
We cannot deny that this policy, which is much to the liking of Spain and which representes everything Aramburu most misses and longs for, has served him well.ย You only have to look at how one of his empty works, in which he describes what happened in the Basque Country over the last sixty years, “Patria”, has been shared all over the world, becoming the portrait the world paints of the Basques.
Nevertheless, Aramburu will never be “theย most important living Basque author” even if here were the last one left, not the least because he himself excludes himself from that group.ย He does not feel like a Basque author, and that’s one thing we agree with him on.
Translation
I am writing in a strange tongue.ย Its verbs,
the structure of its relative sentences,
the words with which it designates old things
โrivers, plants, birdsโ
have no sisters in any other place on Earth.
House is etxe; bee, erle; death, heriotz.
The long winter sun, eguzki or eki:
the sun of soft, rainy springs,
also eguzki or eki, as is natural;
(It’s a strange language, but not so strange)
Born, they say, in the time of megaliths,
It survived, this stubborn tongue,
closing in on itself, hiding like a hedgehog in a place
where the world, thanks to it,
takes the name Euskal Herria.
But sky is zeru; hell, infernu; book, liburu;
And with Erroma being the capital of Italy,
Erromako zubia โ Roman bridge โ is the rainbow.
(So, then, the hedgehog had sex)
Language of a very small nation
(so small it can hardly be seen on the map)
It never laid foot on the gardens of the Court,
nor the marble of the government’s buildings;
it never produced, in four centuries, more than a hundred books:
The first, in 1545; the most important, in 1643;
the New Testament, Calvinist, in 1571;
The whole Bible, Catholic, around 1860.
The dream was long; the library, short.
(But in the 20th century, the hedgehog woke up)
‘Obabakoak’, this book that is now seeing the light
in the city of Levi, Arpino, and so many others,
Is one of the latest in the Basque library.
It was written in several houses and in different countries,
and its only theme is life in general.
And Obaba is Obaba, a place, a stage;
Ko means “from”, and A is the determiner; K, the plural;
The literal translation: those from Obaba.
The non-literal translation: Stories from Obaba.
(And for a foreword, this is all)
Bernardo Atxaga
Header photo: Bernardo Atxaga, the Basque author of Obabakoak. ยฉXabier Idoate