In the great Mediterranean

There will be those who, with or without children, will take advantage of the opportunity to go to the movies these days, not only to cool off inside these true climate refuges, but above all to see films like the latest from a studio that has made us dream of many twists and turns. I'm talking about Pixar and its new adventure, entitled Elio and proposes a psycho-emotional defense of the beauty of otherness. It also conveys another equally important message: that, despite everything, we are not alone, and we always have the opportunity to be part of a larger community. In a time when the hate speech of the new, furious far right has returned, it is essential to rebuild bridges of belonging. With the happy publication of Mediterranean Breviary By Predrag Matvejević, in a masterful translation by Pau Sanchis Ferrer, LaBreu Edicions once again gives us a primordial work to understand the profound soul of this ancient and ever-living sea, although in recent years it has also reminded us that it is one of the greatest cemeteries on the planet. The book—with a moving prologue by the eternal Nobel laureate Claudio Magris and an epilogue by David Guzman, who has just been deservedly recognized with the Diffusion Prize—is much more than an essay: it is a lyrical, erudite, and sensorial ode to an aquatic symbolic, historical, and intimate space, a shared territory in which a single uniting substance reigns.

This marvel shines like a splendid beacon and confirms the translation gifts—and in Catalan we can say that translating is not betraying but choosing—of a poet, prose writer, editor, and translator in a state of grace like Pau Sanchis Ferrer. With a language that breathes, rises, penetrates, and takes root, he has managed to capture the wise spirit and playful style of Predrag Matvejević as if it were his own. The translation is precise, cultured, and profound, vibrant as a wave and exact as a nautical chart worthy of the legendary Mallorcan cartographer of Jewish origin Abraham Cresques, one of the figures who could not be missing from this celebration. Through Matvejević's pen, we hear other voices resonate: Juan Francisco Mira, Baltasar Porcel, Biel Mesquida, and the aforementioned Magris, among others. Together and separately, they offer a constellation of perspectives that transcend borders and centuries, because this sea knows no limits; it only knows how to propel directions and destinies. Read the Mediterranean Breviary It means immersing yourself in a liquid library, in a universe of ports and drifts where words are thought and a network that remind us of where we come from and with whom we share this immense journey. If you can, this summer you should read this literary marvel—a precious cry for literature, diversity, and uniqueness as an eternalizing force—by the sea or with the sea well out in the open.