LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

Camilo José Cela, 1916-2002, Nobel Prize winner in literature, was a staunch believer in "ideas claras", "ferrea moral", and steadfast discipline.  He did not beat around the bush and never, never minced words:  “A los escritores nos basta con media docena de ideas claras y una férrea moral que nos sirva para mantenernos al margen de las instituciones, que son todas malas, sin excepción, todas caducas y mañosas.” Camilo José Cela, Cuatro figuras del 98 y otros retratos y ensayos españoles , 1961.

  Hay momentos en que todo, hasta lo más evidente, llega a parecer, por lo lejano, imposible. Son momentos que hay que vencer, como un vicio, a fuerza de voluntad, de mucha y muy firme voluntad.”  Camilo José Cela, Las compañías convenientes , 1999. (Delfín Carbonell Basset,  Diccionario panhispánico de citas , 2008.)

  "Hay momentos en que todo, hasta lo más evidente, llega a parecer, por lo lejano, imposible. Son momentos que hay que vencer, como un vicio, a fuerza de voluntad, de mucha y muy firme voluntad."  Camilo José Cela, Las compañías convenientes, 1999. (Delfín Carbonell,  Diccionario panhispánico de citas , 2008. Prólogo de Enrique Vila-Matas, "El lujo de las citas.")

I asked Camilo José Cela for a brief prologue to my 1997 An English and Spanish Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional Language . He wrote it and asked me to his place in Puerta de Hierro several times. I showed him a few pages of my project on a Spanish Dictionary of Slang. Cela liked it but suggested I use backup citations for every entry. Foolhardily I dived into the project not realizing the amount of work it was to take. After two years and reading over 800 books, I had the manuscript ready. Víctor García de la Concha , then Director of the Real Academia Española , refused to allow me to use the CREA or CORDE, data bases that were almost ready for public use. I went to the Academia's library every day, from 10 to 1, for a month, to check the citation files. In 2000 Larousse published Gran Diccionario del argot, el sohez . McGraw-Hill brought out the US edition and Ediciones del Serbal also published two additional editions.  Cela suggested I use the word soez for the dicti...

  El cierzo de la vida sopla fuerte para mí en estos tiempos y no hay más remedio que resistir porque, como decía Camilo José Cela, el que resiste gana aunque sepamos de antemano que tenemos perdida la partida de la vida. Y recordamos al Paul Verlain de mis años universitarios: Et je m'en vais au vent mauvais qui m'emporte deçà, delà, pareil à la feuille morte. Y por fín quand sonne l'heure, je me souviens  des jours ancienes et je pleur.

  My English-speaking readers may ignore that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Camilo José Cela (1916-2002), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989. He was a very prolific writer better known for his La Colmena , La Familia de Pascual Duarte and Viaje a la Alcarria . May I urge you to read his writings, if possible in Spanish, to discover an independent author, a tireless crafter of language, who is forever kindling new ideas upon readers. His mastery of the language is superb and he will surprise you. I was fortunate to have met him in his home, several times, and he was of much help in my putting together my Diccionario sohez del argot (published both by Larousse and McGraw-Hill).