Joana

New edition, with an afterword by Pere Rovira, of the book that Margarit dedicated to his daughter Joana

“If the words in Joana are so intense, it is not only because of the terrible human experience behind them. I think this must be emphasized, because failing to recognize it would mean underestimating poetry itself and not perceiving the effort of a poet writing at the very limits of life. The desperate do not write, they do nothing—or they take their own lives. But Joana is a book about love, and love cannot coexist with despair, nor allow itself to be defeated by it: ‘The pain that comes from you cannot be an evil pain.’ That is why Joana is a book filled with pain, but not a sad book, because love always triumphs within it.”

Death is nothing more than this: the bedroom,
the bright afternoon at the window,
the cassette player on the bedside table
—as still as your heart—
with the songs sung forever...