Nosce Te Ipsum – An Interview with Chary Panés

Chary is the reason behind this series of interviews. She interviewed me for European Irish, the website for all the Irish expats and Hibernophiles living in on the Continent. So I thought I would turn tables and get to know her. She lives in Chiclana, Cádiz, a very special paradise with its own guardian, the Wind from the East (like the witch in the Wizard of Oz) that protects the area from overcrowding.

She studied Philosophy in Salamanca because she wanted to know EVERYTHING about this world, she really wanted to fully understand it, and she thought Philosophers would give her the answers she needed. Funny enough, they just had more and more questions. As one friend of hers says: we’re still at the beginning, but not as we were at the start. And I suppose that’s the important thing.

She got an Erasmus grant, and headed to Galway for a year. Not being able to stand the crazy climate in that country, she decided to come back to Spain, where the light of the sun makes life so much easier. But she brought a nice Irish fellow from Sligo who was delighted to get out of the rain. And since then, they’ve been living in Chiclana. they have two lovely children (one of them says about himself that he’s a miracle! And that he wants to be like the guys in The Beatles, have a band, become famous, but the most important thing, have long hair; and the other one says she’ll dance for her brother’s band, she just loves performing).

What is love for you?

Often answers depend on who is asking… I suppose love is what makes us BE. This is just a guess. So much has been said about this topic! I don’t exactly know what love is, but I’m aware of its effects. Love must be shown, or it is not love. Love is also irrational. And so are humans, even though it has been said they are rational animals… Nonsense. Computers experts try hard to make computers think like humans by getting them to be logical. The truth is that a computer will never be like a human being… because the essential part of humans is irrationality.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Coincidence. This might be difficult to accept, but I don’t think there’s a reason beyond this.

What is the biggest problem facing the human race at the moment?

How to cope with intolerance, how to accept that difference is part of our lives. Multiculturalism is a challenge for us.

If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?

I wouldn’t change a single thing. Not at all.  Everything in life is so weaved that it is very difficult to change one thing without changing the others.

Do you read poetry? Why? Why not?

I think there might be a difference between poetry and poems. While poetry is felt, poems are written down. How many poems do you know that have a lack of poetry? And yet, sometimes, one single word could be full of poetry… Anyway, I used to read poems, yes… There was a time when I could read in loud voice. Poetry has to be read in loud voice; otherwise we just have loose words on a piece of paper. Life is made of different stages: you do exercise for a while, and then you suddenly stop. The same thing happened to me with poetry. Sometimes you have to leave the land fallow, and give time a chance. From time to time, someone delivers a poem for me on a tray –in the inbox of Outlook . And I’m starting to recite them… again.

What is your mission in life?

Mission? Missions have to do with heroes. And I don’t like heroes. Jesus was one of them. They all have a tendency to die because of a real necessity of stating that his ideas are worth a life, their own life, and sometimes their follower’s life. Therefore, I do not have a mission. I might have little goals…

Have you ever felt hate? If so, tell me about it.

No.

Is optimism a strength or a weakness? Explain your answer

Optimism is, without any doubts, strength. I’m not talking about some sort of naïve optimism for which everything is fine. As I understand it, optimism means being aware of reality and its faults and it entails a great effort in order to make it better.

What is your favourite recipe?

Shepperd’s Pie…  but the way we’d cook it in Andalucía: white wine, onions, garlic…

If you had a motto, what would it be?

I wouldn’t have a motto. Humans are too changeable to have just one single motto in life. But“Nosce te ipsum”could be a good motto. However, Simone de Beauvoir said that “you cannot get to know yourself, all you can do is narrate yourself”. Isn’t it what I’m doing know? J

Add and answer two more questions that you would like to be asked!!!!

Ok. Why am I answering this questionnaire?

Because it seems to be a challenge.

(I would not add a number 13^th question, sorry)

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Tags: cadiz, interview, People, Poetry, Spain, spirituality

The Irish in Spain

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On Saturday I attended the first meeting of the Irish in Spain. Well, I suppose there must have been thousands or millions of meetings of  Irish in Spain over the years but not a big, official one of the Irish in Spain where we have a look at ourselves and see what we’re all about.

I was lucky enough to get invited to read some poems such as the deeply beautiful Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yeats.This is one of my favourite poems of all time as opposed to just one of my favorite poems. The latter chop and change according to internal weather systems but the all-timers are as fixed as the North Star. Have a read and see how you can see twinkly stars in the second stanza and hear the lake in the third .

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now,
And go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there,
Of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there,
A hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there,
For peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning
To where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer,
And noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now,
For always night and day
I hear lake water lapping
With low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway
Or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

A million years ago in Manchester I used to perform poetry with the Live Poets Society (motto: Poetry So Good You Can Actually Understand It) and it was with that happy band of poets that I learned the difference between poetry on the page and poetry on the stage. You need to lift the language from the paper and get it flying around the room. Poetry isn’t literature! It is sound. It is physical.

This Yeats poem is perfect for reading aloud. It is joyous and reverent and decided.

Anyhow, the Irish in Spain event was great. I hope the Madrid Irish can get some regular meetings going and that we have a national event at least annually. Good craic so it was.

Read about it here innisfree1916.

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Tags: Ireland, Madrid, Poetry, Spain

Listen!

“Listen!” is the first word of the the Old English poem ‘Beowulf‘ which tells of the adventures of the eponymous hero and his three great battles against two monsters and a dragon. Recently there was  a dazzling three-dimensional computer-generated movie of the story made in Hollywood.

Old English is very hard to understand. Look at this:

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

It means -

Listen! How great were the old kings of the spear carrying Danes and what honour they won in the days long gone.

Beowulf is famous for the quality of its poetry – for the beautiful sounds of the words and the imagination of its descriptions. Many words in Beowulf are” kennings”. Kennings combine two words to create an evocative alternative word. By linking words in this way, the poets were able to play with the rhythm, sounds and imagery of the poem. Beowulf contains over a thousand kennings! For example:

banhus (bone-house) – the human body

beadoleoma (battle-light) – sword

wægflota (wave-floater ) – ship

As you would expect with a poem about Danes, there are many kennings that describe the sea.

hronrad- whale road

fiscesethel – fish home

seolbæp – seal bath

Beowulf, the film, will make millions of dollars for Hollywood. It is reassuring that in spite of technological advances, storytelling has not changed. In the old days, with an audience huddled in the dark around the camp fire, the tribal poet would begin his tales with the word “Listen!”. Although modern storytellers have more ways to grab our attention as we sit huddled in the dark around a cinema screen, we are still called the audience – from the Latin audientia, from audire. Listen!

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Tags: England, History, Poetry