Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.
And, lo, the hunter of the east has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable – Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Cosas de España

Mark Stücklin writes here on the unintended – but predicted – consequences of rent controls in Barcelona

And Lenox Napier waxes a trifle nostalgic here.

A bit of Spanish history and a moral dilemma arising from it . . . Spanish adventurers like Cortés and Pizarro carried out their conquests largely without authorization from higher authorities; afterwards, there were intense debates back home over whether such aggression against people who, after all, posed no threat to Europeans could really be justified. The key problem was that – unlike non-Christians of the Old World, who could be assumed to have had the opportunity to learn the teachings of Jesus, and therefore to have actively rejected them – it was fairly obvious that the inhabitants of the New World simply never had any exposure to Christian ideas. So they couldn’t be classed as infidels. The conquistadors generally finessed this question by reading a declaration in Latin calling on all the Indians to convert before attacking them. Legal scholars in Spain were not impressed by this expedient. At the same time, attempts to write off the inhabitants of the Americas as so utterly alien that they fell outside the bounds of humanity entirely, and so could be treated literally like animals, also didn’t find much purchase. None of which, of course, stopped Cortés and Pizarro from becoming very rich. And most of South America from being colonised by Spain.

Cousas de Galicia

As on all public holidays – but especially one after a late night – not many places were open in Pv city today and there were very few folk around. And no newspapers to read with my copa, leading to withdrawal symptoms. To fill my time, I was motivated to adapt a well-known bit of doggerel . . .

​’Twas New Year’s Day in Ponters

​And all through the city

Nothing was stirring

Not even a blue tit-y.

There’s a prize for a better final line. Not exactly a huge challenge.

The Way of the World

New Year’s traditions around the world

Quote of the Day

A retrospective . . . It was a tumultuous year, bringing us the continuation of bloody wars over the planet, with the addition of new ones, adding to the toll of human misery – which seems to be the only limitless resource.

Spanish

• Migas: Breadcrumbs
• Migajas: Big breadcrumbs?
• Pertrechar: To equip supply
• Moco(s): Snot
• Moquear: To sniffle. To have a runny nose

Did you know?

‘Agglutinative’ languages are those characterized by their word-formation process. Examples are Turkish, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean and Swahili. Words are formed by stringing together distinct morphemes[bits], each with a specific meaning or grammatical function. There is a high morpheme-to-word ratio, resulting in longer words with multiple components. Morphemes maintain clear boundaries and individual meanings within words

In contrast, [simpler] ‘analytic’ languages – like English and Spanish – rely on separate words to convey meaning and grammatical function. They have a low morpheme-to-word ratio, with each word typically composed of a single morpheme. Syntactic relationships are primarily indicated through word order and the use of prepositions or postpositions.

You Have to Laugh

The 1937 phrasebook Collins’ Pocket Interpreters: France paints an alarming picture of a typical visit to France:

I cannot open my case.
I have lost my keys.
I did not know that I had to pay.
I cannot find my porter.
Excuse me, sir, that seat is mine.
I cannot find my ticket!
I have left my gloves (my purse) in the dining car.
I feel sick.
The noise is terrible. [For if you cross into Spain]
Did you not get my letter?
I cannot sleep at night, there is so much noise. [Ditto]
There are no towels here.
The sheets on this bed are damp.
I have seen a mouse in the room.
These shoes are not mine.
The radiator doesn’t work.
This is not clean, bring me another.
I can’t eat this. Take it away!
The water is too hot, you are scalding me!
It doesn’t work.
This doesn’t smell very nice.
There is a mistake in the bill. [Ditto]
I am lost.
Someone robbed me.
I shall call a policeman.
That man is following me everywhere.
There has been an accident!
She has been run over.
He is losing blood.
He has lost consciousness.

Finally . . .

I’ve mentioned that WordPress always suggests what they think are relevant Labels for my posts. I never bother to check them for deletion candidates but I have noticed that they frequently suggest Wine, for no apparent reason. Must be AI at work.

Finally . . . Finally . . . .

If someone I know on a Spanish number 66x xxx x29 wished me a Happy New Year on wotsap, I need to know who they are . . .

As it’s the start of the month, nay the year. . . . 

Some readers, I hope, will know that the verse I cite at the top of my posts is the opening quatrain of Fitzgerald’s wonderful – but very ‘free’ – translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which you can read about here. And here’s something on Persian poetic traditions.

Some verses of The Rubaiyat are well known, of course, eg:-
The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

My favourite:-
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
doctor and saint, and heard great argument
about it and about: but evermore
came out by the same door as in I went

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

The Usual Links . . .

• You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
• For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.
• For those thinking of moving to Spain:– This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here. Finally, some advice on getting a mortgage. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.