1938, 'PAISATGE DE L'EBRE / LES SABATES D'EN JAUME'

Today, Saint James, The Grandma wants to remember all those, who have not yet been accorded dignity and who continue to sleep in places where their families cannot keep vigil over them, nor their neighbours honour them.

Paisatge de l’Ebre (Les sabates d'en Jaume) is a poem by Josep Gual Lloberes that was set to music by Teresa Rebull (Sabadell, September 21, 1919-Banyuls-sur-Mer, April 15, 2015). 

I carry the burden of exile -my past- with me, and the songs bear that weight- said Teresa. Of anarchist background, she grew up constantly packing and unpacking her bundles in a Sabadell with a working-class flavour. Her adult life would be equally nomadic and turbulent. A POUM militant and collaborator with the maquis (resistance fighters), she found her most powerful weapon against the dictatorship in songs.

Proof of this is her most famous song, Paisatge de l’Ebre -also known as Les sabates d’en Jaume- a poem by Josep Gual about a Civil War soldier. Yet, she never stopped seeking new paths of struggle.
 

Avui he tornat a la Serra de Pàndols
I a la cova he trobat les sabates d'en Jaume
Un forat a les soles, una pinta de bales
Dins d'un plat enfangat, tres cascots de metralla

Des de l'any trenta-vuit
Jo no havia tornat
A la Serra de Pàndols
I a la cova han quedat
Les sabates d'en Jaume

Dins d'un plat enfangat, tres cascots de metralla
A la cova han quedat les sabates d'en Jaume
I els dies de l'oblit, si és que això mai s'oblida
Veurem el cel vermell d'aquesta nova albada

A Pàndols i a Cavalls centenars de companys
Després d'haver passat aquesta torbonada
No s'han podrit en va i, aquest ossos, qui sap
Si seran nous garbons que prendran arborada

Des de l'any trenta-vuit
Jo no havia tornat
A la Serra de Pàndols
I a la cova han quedat
Les sabates d'en Jaume

Today I returned to the Serra de Pàndols
And in the cave, I found Jaume's shoes
A hole in the soles, a clip of bullets
Inside a mud-caked plate, three shrapnel fragments

Since the year '38
I had not returned
To the Serra de Pàndols
And in the cave remain
Jaume's shoes

Inside a mud-caked plate, three shrapnel fragments
In the cave remain Jaume's shoes
And in the days of oblivion -if such a thing is ever forgotten-
We shall see the red sky of this new dawn

At Pàndols and Cavalls, hundreds of comrades
After having weathered that violent storm
Did not rot in vain; and these bones -who knows?
Perhaps they will be new saplings that grow into trees

Since the year '38
I had not returned
To the Serra de Pàndols
And in the cave remain
Jaume's shoes

More information: Catalunya Experience

 

No s'han podrit en va i, aquest ossos, qui sap 

si seran nous garbons que prendran arborada.

Did not rot in vain; and these bones -who knows?
perhaps they will be new saplings that grow into trees.

Josep Gual i Lloberes