ALEJANDRO CASONA AND MY YOUTH

Bilingualism offers more options. If you are bilingual in English and Spanish, you can enjoy playwrights who are virtually unknown to most English speakers. This somewhat rambling beginning is prompted by a book I had forgotten I owned, one I first read in my youth. And there it was, the line that once stirred my young mind, still underlined in red: “Yo lo que quiero es beberme hasta el último trago de mi juventud.” (“All I want is to drink my youth to the last drop.”)

Did I ever heed that advice? Better not answer.

Alejandro Casona (1903–1965) wrote Nuestra Natacha (1935), the source of that unforgettable sentence. It is a wonderful and highly readable play. Casona also wrote La sirena varada, Prohibido suicidarse en primavera, La dama del alba, La barca sin pescador, Los árboles mueren de pie, Siete gritos en el mar, among many others.

May I suggest you look into the works of this remarkable Spanish playwright? I am sure Casona will not disappoint you.