By Poly Hincapié Buchelli.
EMMA B. DIARY OF A GIRL FROM THE PROVINCES
Emma B. reviews for us, from a gender perspective, the spatio-temporal dimensions of a period between nails Three Kings Day celebrations in monastic Salamanca.
It is not a diary in the chronological sense of time, since there are ellipses and flashbacks that alter the continuity and make it difficult to determine whether the framing between Reyes corresponds to one or more years.
The protagonist, Emma b., appropriates the narrative function and, through an urban discourse full of metaphors, projects flashes that, in the manner of a filmic statement, turn spaces, objects, environments into actors…“A slow, cold breeze slips down the stairs of the Clerecía, bumps into the foreigner in a black beret playing the violin on the corner of Meléndez Street, and tumbles down Compañía Street, crashes against the buttresses of the Church of San Benito, and bounces off the small metal door embedded in the golden stone wall where an anonymous graffiti artist has painted the silhouette of The Little Prince…” p.86
There are the iconic places, the hidden corners of the streets, the flowerpots on the balconies, the window across the way, the sound of a garage door, the color of wine or coffee, the shimmering, sonorous drops through a pane of glass, and the cold and the heat permeating the narrator's emotional seasons. A verse by Lope de Vega contributes to this last point: “The nostalgia of a dark and cold night, under a sky saturated with stars…The wind hesitates, icy, firm, without wings. A lazy night And solitary. Nothing seems to foretell the approaching snow… The time has come to contemplate the snow and wait.” P.13
Silence also acts as an actor and evokes Octavio Paz: “There is a white silence that sleeps. Beneath my pillow. A green silence that fills my mouth, numbs it, and banishes words. A silence that yearns for thirst, that longs to kiss your lips without leaving a trace. A silence that stirs my heart, irritates my sorrows, and awakens hidden anger. This ownerless anger scattered across the corners of desire.” P. 58
Literary and musical quotations accompany the search for man with no future in urban chases and digital messages that end with the repeated epilogue This is the end. So, while With You in the Distance Carla Guelfenbein uses it as a figure of evocation; the narrator Emma B relies on the song to make references. a no-go:“"A very nice email, very heartfelt, but... that's it, it's over, there's no more 'Contigo en la Distancia', not from Murcia, not from Brooklyn, not from the moon."‘ p. 16.
Humor and irony, but above all eroticism, make up Emma B. A Girl from the Provinces, a literary exercise of great quality. What else but this fragment, which, like the memorable Cyclops kiss in Hopscotch, manages to transcend: “…Awake vapors and moist Saturday night pleasures. The rain intensifies. Scents of hungry skin sanctify the golden stone night. Baptism of rain. Promises and desires. Our soaked bodies on the steps of the Clerecía. A drop clinging to your ravaged nose. A kiss in the hollow of my neck. Your wet hands hang from my breasts and slide down to my lap. Drops roll down the worn steps. We press together as if hiding a secret. A leg between your wild legs. Sweat seeks a space between the whispers of tamed lips. My hand traces the path of the torso that drips spasms of hot rain. Clustered kisses that inflame sexes rocked by the downpour. Flaking kisses ignite the moonless night, bind feet to the stones, slip down the rusty railing, crash their weariness onto the washed stones. Stars and shells. Undulating bodies, in latent convulsion. The cold hovered from afar…A warning from the gods. A promise fulfilled.” P. 70
This diary isn't easy reading. More often than you'd like, you have to pause to decode it. But don't worry, Emma B. immediately places us back in the bridges and streets of Salamanca to help you pick up where you left off.
AUTHOR: AJO DIZ
LASTURA PUBLISHING
2014
Note: The photos belong to the author Ajo Diaz, at the presentation of her book
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