THE OLD "GLOSADORS" OF : POETS OF THE PEOPLE

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HEIRS, PERHAPS, OF THE REMOTE POETS OF THE PEOPLE, THERE HAVE BEEN MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE CARRIED THE TRADITION IN THEIR BLOOD. THEPHENOMENON IS COMMON TO OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. AMONGST OTHERS, THERE ARE THE "BERSOLARISn OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY, THE "FISTORESn OF GALICIA, THE "PAYADORES" OF NODE LA PLATAAND THE "REPENTISTAS" OF BRAZIL.

GABRIEL JANER MANllA AUTHOR

ne of the most remarkable cha- gether. All this knowledge, acquired duced and integrated in the perform- racteristics of the glosadors is through continuous practice, eventually ance, the complex action by which a po- their capacity for poetic impro- makes itself felt in the improvisation. etic message is transmitted and captured visation, although, of course, not al1 But, of course, there's no such thing as at the same time. (Poetry, voice, melody their poetry is improvised. There are a pure spontaneity, because there's no -text, energy, sound-, actively joined in series of pre-established rules and cul- such thing as pure automatism. the performance, lead to unity of mean- tural norms which ore translated in the But what in fact defines irnprovisation is ing.) This text, created at the very in- glosador's head into metric structures the simultaneous production and trans- stant it is received, is different from one and time-tested rhymes, skillfully put to- mission of a text. The text, then, is pro- previously created for the performance. l TRADITIONS

POPULAR CHARACTERS IN MALLORCA

Another important feature of the glosa- Save us, Saint Anthony, Zumthor (Introductiond la poésie orale, dor~is their fighting spirit, the argument from the glosador's tongue. Paris, 1983, p.2051, it probably started between two men or between a man We use it like a painter in Europe at the end of the Middle and a woman publicly fighting to show who with the same colour Ages, and later spread to Latin Ameri- off the sharpness of their wit and their paints both saints and demons. ca. There are the bersolaris of the ability to improvise gloses on the spot. Basque Country, with their several var- iations going back to remote times; the This rivalry makes the performances There are towns where these songs fistores of Galicia, with their "chal- real rituals which are manifested in the have a special following and which lenges"; the payadores, wandering struggles or the public disputes be- boast of the quality of their glosadors: minstrels of the Río de la Plata region tween the glosadors themselves. I once Sbller, Arta, Campanet, , Pbrtol, who improvised poems full of aphorisms heard a woman from Algaida, a glosa- , etc. Father Rafel Ginard, a and maxims, accompanied on the guitar dora, who was afraid of the fight the famous chronicler of popular poetry, like the glosadors of ; the Bra- glosadors from would put up. She wrote of Arta, more than forty years zilian repentistas, etc. said, "These will come and tie us up like ago: "ln Arta, great prestige is attached With the spread of literacy and printing sheaths, if we don't look sharp". One to the conservation of the glosador methods, the glosadors have published ancient song says, breed, latter-day rhapsodists, godlike their songs on home-made sheets or figures, for whom the founts of inspira- booklets, providing a record of their tion never run dry" (Croquis Artanencs, Your singing doesn't frighten me, wide range of subiect matter: deaths Arta, 1929, p.39). Another old song at least your meaning's clear. from broken hearts, thefts, events worth warns: You look more worried rernembering, advice to lovers, political than a grasshopper songs and gibes. stuck in a tarantula's web. Algaida takes after Sbller, Finally there is the playful element in the because they are al1 glosadors. improvisation of gloses, in the fight and Poetic images -parallels, metaphors, the rivalry. They play with the words, metonymy, etc.- are part of the fight. But there have been glosadors al1 over with the stops, the rhythms, etc. Once But everyone knows that the glosador is the island, men and women who carried more they play with the skill of men in quite capable of contradicting himself, the tradition in their blood, perhaps exploring the expressive possibilities of of turning words around as often as he heirs of the remote poets of the people. language, to reach the limits of imagi- chooses so to emerge victorious from The phenomenon is common to other nation along the paths that emerge the struggle: parts of the world. According to Paul from words. w