In this post I am looking at two poems about spinning by Novoneyra. You can listen to the Podcast here: Poetry in the Mountains

-Slender little spinner
always at your spinning
always spinning and dreaming
in the end to come to nothing.
-In the end to come to nothing,
that has still to be seen
since with the linen threads
as I twist them from their place
something has to take.
-Something has to take
and you were right, by faith,
since while watching you
all the time without realising
I went along falling in love.

This poem come from Novoneyra’s Os Eidos Libro do Courel.  I don’t usually put the original alongside the translation but I will here.  Novoneyra’s poems are pure poetic objects: the sound sense is as important as the meaning and, at times, even the visual aspect of the words plays its part.  If that sounds enigmatic, wait until tomorrow and I’ll give you a couple of examples.

-FILANDEIRIÑA delgada
sempre metida a fiar
sempre a fiar e soñar
para logo non ser nada.
-Para logo non ser nada
eso inda está por ver
e pois cas frebas do liño
ó torcelas de camiño
algo se ha de prender.
-Algo se ha de prender
i afé que tiñas razón
que eu estábache mirando
sin deñar que encantenón
íbame indo namorando.

And here is the second of the spinning poems:

Fiandeira namorada
Que fías detralo lume
Cos ollos postos nas chamas
Roxiñas brancas y azules.
Fiandeiriña que fías
Nas noites do longo inverno
As liñas máis delgadiñas
Co fío do pensamento.
Cai a neve quedo fora
Riba dos teitos calada
Mentras ti fías e soñas
Nunha cousiña lonxana…

(Spinstress in love/who spins beyond the light/with your eyes on the flames/ red, white and blue//Little spinstress who spins/on the long winter nights/the most slender threads/with the thread of her thought//The snow falls quietly outside/over the roofs in silence/whilst you spin and dream/on some small distant thing…)