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NEW NOVEL BY VILA-MATAS

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  I read the classics mostly, in English and Spanish, because I still have a long way to go to cover the extent of my unread literature. I do not at all scoff at current, young, and new writers. I am just being practical. I have little time left, and the day still has twenty-four hours. With Enrique Vila-Matas I make an exception. Why? I find his writings different, new, and I can relate to his way of seeing reality, or fiction, or whatever. I just simply like him. He fits the definition of literature Jorge Santayana gifted us with in his Three Philosophical Poets: "The sole purpose in possessing great works of literature lies in what they can help us to become." Vila-Matas does that: reading him, we become more, more reflective, more meditative, more insightful, more ourselves. And I was lucky to meet him yesterday, at the presentation of his new book "Canon de cámara oscura" at the Rafael Alberti bookstore, in Madrid. (Do visit when you come.) He is an affable, se...

KATIE, BAR THE DOOR Y SUS DOBLES CASTELLANOS

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  Katie (Katy), bar the door es una expresión inglesa relativamente reciente que no aparece en diccionarios, excepto en el mío de fraseología.  Lo traduzco por estas posibles frases castellanas:  Ojo al Cristo (que es de plata), oído al parche, Dios nos coja confesados. Como ejemplo:  If he is reelected, it’s Katie, bar the door Si es reelegido, que Dios nos coja confesados.  — “If you showed any weakness or a lack of knowledge, Katie, bar the door.” Magazine Salon (COCA), 2018. US. || “If we start industrializing the coastline on the shores of Lake Superior, Katy, bar the door…” The Washington Post, August 27, 2024. US. || "That's a great thing when women get together for a bachelorette party, ooh, Katie, bar the bar." NBC News, 04/27/2018. US.

CITAS HISPÁNICAS: MUJER AIRADA

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  “… he vivido lo suficiente para saber que no es cuerdo replicarle a una mujer airada.”   José Eustasio Rivera, La vorágine , 1925. (Delfín Carbonell,  Diccionario panhispánico de citas , 2008. Prólogo de Enrique Vila-Matas, "El lujo de las citas.") NB. José Eustasio Rivera, 1888-1928, a Colombian writer who penned "La vorágine", a cosmic novel that impressed me in my teens, in Pittsburgh, Pa. I learned passages by heart which I still remember. 

CITAS HISPÁNICAS: MORRIÑA

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  “La morriña es una vaga e inconcreta sensación de vacío que no se apoya ni en los sentidos ni en el alma.”   Camilo José Cela, Cuatro figuras del 98 y otros retratos y ensayos españoles , 1961. (Delfín Carbonell,  Diccionario panhispánico de citas , 2008. Prólogo de Enrique Vila-Matas, "El lujo de las citas.") PS. María Moliner gives us a quaint definition of "morriña": "Melancolía o añoranza, particularmente la que se siente al estar lejos de la tierra en que se ha nacido. Se usa sobre todo, aunque no exclusivamente, entre gallegos o referido a gallegos." Collins and WR say it is homesickness. I will add nostalgia, longing, wistfulness, ennui... 

CITAS HISPÁNICAS: BIBLIOTECA

“Para el escritor de verdad su única patria es su biblioteca, una biblioteca que puede estar en estanterías o dentro de su memoria.”  Roberto Bolaño, Entre paréntesis , 1998-2003. (Delfín Carbonell,  Diccionario panhispánico de citas , 2008. Prólogo de Enrique Vila-Matas, "El lujo de las citas.")

FRÍO QUE CORTA LOS COJONES AND OTHER QUAINT EXPRESSIONS

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We have just handseled spring and made true the words of the poet, "if winter is here, can spring be far behind?" Indeed not, and it is here, although coming on tiptoe and still reminding us of the colds of the last season, or of yesteryear, remembering Villon. Spanish has many ways of expressing the cold. As a way of wishing winter farewell and good riddance, let me jot down some possibilities: " Hacer un frío que pela (te cagas, te mueres, que corta los cojones, de mil demonios, de muerte, mortal, espantoso)." Of course, English is not far behind in expressions about the cold: " Be cold as charity (hell), as a witch’s tit, as ice, as marble, be bleeding cold."   — “En Erzurum… hace un frío que corta los cojones.” F. Sánchez Dragó, El camino del corazón , 1990. Esp. || “Aquí hace un frío que pela.” Paloma Pedrero, Invierno de luna alegre , 1989. Esp. || “Además, hace un frío de muerte.” Eduardo Mendoza, La verdad sobre el caso Savolta , 1975. Esp.  

DICTIONARIES BY THE WORKING MAN

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I know of Urban Dictionary in English, a travesty of lexicography. Penned by linguistically ignorant native speakers, the result is a jumble of nonsense: ill-conceived definitions, riddled with errors in grammar and spelling, where solecisms abound. It would be acceptable as a source of laughter and merriment, but indeed not of credible and serious word information. I have recently discovered that Spanish has a sort of counterpart to the Urban: "Diccionario abierto y colaborativo." All the above apply to this dictionary. Looking for a bona fide equivalent to the English expression: "not to be the sharpest pencil (crayon, knife) in the box," I stumbled upon this in the Diccionario abierto: "No ser el lápiz más afilado del estuche. Dícese de una ingeniosa [¿?] expresión colloquial y de cariz cómica [sic], que ha sido popularizada en las redes sociales, en la que se refiere sobre [sic] una persona que bien no es muy inteligente o bien le falta agudeza mental....