“Ho conosciuto Gerico, ho avuto anch’io la mia Palestina, le mura del manicomio erano le mura di Gerico… ”: these are verses by Alda Merini, taken from the collection of poems entitled “La Terra Santa”, which will be presented in the Catalan translation (published by Editorial Arrela) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, 8 September at the Italian Cultural Institute in Barcelona, which spearheads the dissemination of Italian culture in Catalonia.
The presentation will be attended by Catalonian translator and poetess Nora Albert, and Prof Gabriella Gavagnin of the University of Barcelona, who will stage a poetry recital in two voices, in Italian and Catalan. “La Terra Santa” is a collection of poems by Alda Merini published by Scheiwiller nel 1984. The collection’s prevailing theme is the psychiatric hospital, which the poetess metaphorically compares to the Holy Land described in the Bible.
