"Vallverdú, you are a centenarian and very modern!" Pema Maymó, editor of La Galera, says from the stage to the centenarian writer, who was honored at the Catalan Book Week.
And if the first part of this act of recognition was more or less formal, with a conversation with some of its editors, a little while later the author made it clear when he recited his Centenary Rap. It is clear that only he can do it, that he arrived there in full form and shows it, and begins by saying that “Hundred, did you say? A hundred only", and appeals to the young person to read, because "the books smell good and the author will sign them for you", and ends by reminding that "every day a volume in hand during Catalan Book Week" .
Earlier, the director of the Institute of Catalan Letters (ILC), Izaskun Arretxe, had recalled that Josep Vallverdú has published 303 books, including children's, youth, essays, poetry or translation. "We don't do a commemoration in the past but in the present, because in addition to being here you still continue to write", he pointed out. Joaquim Carbó, another historian - who is already 91 - looked at it slyly.
Carme Vidal Huguet, curator of the year Vallverdú, talked to Maymó, Rosa Pach de Pagès Editors, Josep Gelonch de Fonoll and Josep Lluch de Proa, highlighted some of his most outstanding titles, stressing that he is much more than the father of the popular Rovelló and that he has explored the entire literary spectrum with important books that must last, such as the Proses de Ponent that put this name into circulation and that Fonoll has republished; the last memorial book, Autumn Mosaic (Proa); the bulk of the poetry or the essay Indíbil and the fog in Pagès; not to mention the last children's book, El vuitè nan (La Galera). And it is that as Maymó said: "Rovelló is eternal, but that at the age of 98 he started making a retelling of Snow White, with adventures, different scenarios and with so much sympathy...".
Afterwards, modernity became clear in the cockfight in which two trap groups, 31 FAM and Bounce Twice, presented by the Vàlius, made replicas of poems by Vallverdú and the Rector of Vallfogona, which it is clear, after 400 years, not he showed up.
But who won? Because the public, a popular and sovereign jury, reflected a tie, that from the stage they asked Júlia Català, from the ILC, who was behind the act, to be dismissed, but she said no, no, let the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, decide, who got away with diplomacy in the front row, and the Vàlius proclaimed that it was a tie and that "everyone always wins in Catalonia". And the rap of Vallverdú arrived, a surprise for everyone.
And this circus of five tracks - the three adult stages and the two for the rascals - did not stop, between presentations such as those of Biel Mesquida and Jean Marie del Moral (Passes per Palma, ViBop), Anna Pazos (Matar el nervi, La Segona Periphery), Joan Safont (L'estiu passat, Comanegra) or Tessa Julià, Anna Rispau and Sigrid Martínez (I like to read, Publications de l'Abadia de Montserrat). Among so many events, the presentation of the anthology by Carles Hac Mor and the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the magazine Catorze also stood out in the morning, and there was even space for a pillar erected below the Castellers de Santa Coloma .
Later it was time for the Diffusion award to Roger Mas. The president of Editors.cat, Ilya Pérdigo, praised Mas because "he does intimate and deep readings of Catalan poets" and at the same time "he is an intermediary between the past and the present". Then the journalist Anna Guitart talked about literature with the singer-songwriter from Solsona, who thanked, amused, that "my dealers recommend fato to me", and how when setting poetry to music "sometimes there is magic", because " almost without effort the song flows before and after understanding the poem", but he also clarifies that, for this to happen, "you have to put the effort first". And they talk about Verdaguer and Sagarra, but also younger people like Amadeu Vidal and Bonafont and Toni Gol, and beyond the poetry of how Mas has spread the work of the philosopher Francesc Pujols, who "laughing said the most serious things and did use the sense of humor as a weapon”. Garriga and Arretxe, unaware of the protocol, looked at each other from the side of the stage.
And there was still time for a Mas concert to face the night and gain strength for the end of the week, this Sunday morning.
