spain – Page 98 – don't confuse the narrator

early awakening

Alarm

The neighbour’s rooster wakes
and flings his morning warning
to the hills. The echoes stretch
a string between hoarse-throated brays
and barks which tumble to the still-grey sky.

Comprehending compression

Definiciones del
Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española:

comprensión.
(De comprehensión).
1. f. Acción de comprender.

compresión.
(Del lat. compressĭo, -ōnis).
1. f. Acción y efecto de comprimir.

Y tú, ¿irías al taller ofrecido por esta gente?

autumn, but the sky’s still blue…

cloud

alone
in the blue, a small cloud, broad
in the beam as a nursery aeroplane
crumbles
and fades
to leave
a wisp
of
vapour
.

Yesterday the summer ended in Madrid. There were several torrential rain storms – proper “vertical rain” soldiering down – during the afternoon and evening, and then the worst hail storm I’ve seen in years which started around 1:00 a.m.
Continue reading “change in the weather”

counting cars

In the previous post I said that back in 1964 there were a fraction of the number of cars in Spain that there are today. I’ve actually looked that up and figures cited this week in the newspapers claim that back then there were “dos millones de vehículos frente a los 30 millones de ahora y cuatro millones de conductores frente a los 25 millones que existen en la actualidad.”

Let’s look at that again, in English:
Continue reading “counting cars”