Francesc Bombí-Vilaseca (Barcelona, 1975) has been writing poems for some time and is a regular at poetry recitals, where, with a refined style, he says his verses with conviction and seriousness. But it has not been until now that a compilation of his poems has seen the light of day in a book, Febre amb gel (Fonoll), where on each page we find the same poem, written in three languages: English, Spanish and Catalan. But the versions are not exact. Adrià Pujol Cruells, in the prologue, compares them with the Goldberg Variations. Surely the reader of La Vanguardia already knows Bombí-Vilaseca from his work as a cultural editor, or perhaps has seen him in a room playing the electric guitar. But his poetic soul always appears in the depths of his clear eyes.
How come he hadn't published any books yet?
At the end of the nineties, which is when I wrote the most, I participated in many poetry recitals. Since my poems were already reaching the public, I had no need to publish them. Even so, I was closing some books, like this one.
Do you mean that your poetry is to be said, just as a play is to be performed, and that it be published in a book is secondary?
There are poems that are yes and there are that are not. What I say contradicts this book, because they are poems that I don't think I have ever recited. They are written in three languages, which are best interpreted when read in the context of a page.
But they are not exact translations.
It is rather a game between the three versions, sometimes more reliable, sometimes more wild.
Why three languages?
It came out like this. On May 11, 2000, I went to an exhibition by the Japanese artist Atsuko Arai about the disappearance of the houses in the Raval, through engravings of doors and windows that reproduced the buildings that had disappeared. I came home and a poem came out, which I translated into the other two languages, and a game appeared that made me enter a kind of creative ecstasy for a month and a half. I wrote everything in a notebook with a green marker.
What is the language of the first poem?
The first time I can't remember. He wrote the following ones in English, then in Spanish and finally in Catalan. Over the years, I have reread them, I have removed them, I have rewritten...
Does this order respond to any reason?
There was no will for anything. I listened to a lot of music in English, especially Anglo-Saxon rock. Regarding Spanish, in this newspaper at that time we only wrote in Spanish. And Catalan is my poetry language.
The result is not three versions, but the sum of the three poems illuminates a new poem.
It's like the Holy Trinity. In fact, they are layers of identity, because part of my education and my stimuli are in English and Spanish. It is a representation of identity, at least that of 23 years ago.
Does each language have a different nuance?
Not quite. But it is true that there are poems that represent me more in the English part, others in the Spanish part and others in the Catalan part.
He has combined deeper poems and lighter ones.
There are those that are more intense and others with more sense of humor, yes. I like the book precisely because of this combination: it is intense and fun at the same time. And what has surprised me is that I talk a lot about God.
Are you a believer?
No, I am a die-hard atheist. But the idea of God interests me a lot and, as an atheist, I miss it.
Have you had other periods of trance like that in 2000?
Not so long, no. Normally it has happened to me with a poem, but not with an entire book.
Now that you have published your first book of poems, will there be more to come?
I have two or three books that are more or less closed and that I hope to publish, yes.
Catalan version, here
