a new publication from Inizjamed
Bliet (u Miti) - poeżija u
proża*
[Cities (and
Myths) – poetry and prose]
Articles by Mark
Anthony Falzon, Adrian Grima, Miro Villar ٠ Poems by John Betts, Stanley Borg, Norbert
Bugeja, Kenneth Busuttil, Stephen Cachia, Ray Camilleri, Victor Fenech,
Sergio Grech, Maria Grech Ganado, Simone Inguanez, Immanuel
Mifsud, Ġorġ Peresso, Natasha Turner, Leslie Vassallo, Karen Vella ٠ Guest Poet: Miro Villar ٠ Short stories by Stephen
Cachia, Adrian Grima and Henry Holland
٠ Translations by Norbert Bugeja,
Stephen Cachia, Jacqui Zammit
Published by
Inizjamed 2002 ٠ Editor: Adrian Grima ٠
Cover design: Adrian Mamo ٠ Painting on the cover: William Azzopardi ٠
ISBN: 99932-620-2-1 Format: 92 pages (A5) ٠ Price Lm1.95
The publication of the book
Bliet (u Miti) is an important element in the artistic project
“Bliet (u Miti)” that started in April 2002 and is run by Inizjamed. The
project aims to revisit the Maltese “imaginary,” the picture that the
Maltese have painted of themselves while in the process of “creating”
themselves as a nation.
Every major project run by
Inizjamed has a publication to go with it: this allows us to “document”
our work and to analyse where we are heading. This is particularly
important in an organization like ours that is run completely on a
voluntary basis, with all the enthusiasm and inconsistencies that both
grace and paralyse voluntary work.
The book, which is all in
Maltese (except for two poems in Galician), includes short, previously
unpublished articles that deal with the topical issue of Malta’s cultural
identity and the way that it has been constructed and a number of literary
works by some of Malta’s most interesting writers. These include
established authors like Victor Fenech, Ġorġ Peresso, Immanuel Mifsud, and
Maria Grech Ganado; lesser-known but equally interesting writers like
Leslie Vassallo and Henry Holland, and a host of young authors, from
Simone Inguanez and Norbert Bugeja, to Stanley Borg and Karen Vella.
One of the more daring works is a short story called “Il-Baqta”
by Henry Holland (in picture). Holland published a book of
excellent poetry called L-Artist tat-Trapiż which has largely been
ignored in 1996; a number of short stories have been published in Maltese
by Inizjamed and one appeared in translation in Italy (“I Topi”) in a
magazine called Narrasud. “Il-Baqta”, written some eight years ago,
tells the story of how two violent men bully their mate known by the
nickname “Il-Baqta” (which literally means “curd, curdled milk”) both
physically and psychologically. It’s a captivating snapshot of violence
and the effects it has on its victims; but it is also a dramatic story of
loneliness and disorientation.
Like all of Holland’s works,
this is a profoundly serious work that has waited for eight years to be
published perhaps because of the obscene, violent language that captures
so vividly the violence on which the relationships between the various
characters is based.
Our decision to read
“Il-Baqta” in public and to publish it in Bliet (u Miti) was based
on a profound respect for the extraordinary literary qualities of the
story and for the boldness of the language. Before reading it in public
during the literary performance held in the maritime city of Birgu on
Thursday, 29 August, we asked the audience to judge the piece only after
having listened to the all of it. It has been well-received. In an
interview with Henry Holland that will be published soon on Babel Med,
Henry Holland points out that the publication of “Il-Baqta” with its
“vulgar” language, follows that of Ġużè Stagno’s novel Inbid ta’
Kuljum (Minima, 2001), Karl Schembri’s short story collection Taħt
il-Kappa tax-Xemx (Minima, 2002) and Alfred Sant’s novel La Bidu La
Tmiem (PEG, 2001). Holland’s choice of language, however, is by far
the most daring.
This publication also includes an article and poems by Miro
Villar (b. 1965), a young literary critic who is one of Galicia’s leading
poets. In 1998 Miro Villar won the first edition of the Premio Tivoli
Europa Giovani for books of poetry published in Europe by poets under the
age of 35. Two of the poems in this volume appear in their original in
Galician while the others appear in Maltese translation. The article
called “Miti tal-Galizja” (“Galician Myths”) deals with the important
presence of myths in Galician culture and with the myths surrounding two
places which Villar feels particularly close to: A Costa da Morte (The
Coast of Death) and Fisterra (The End or Edge of the Earth); these places
and the myths surrounding them feature prominently in his rich
poetry.
Many of the works in this
collection will be read on Super One Television in a new one-hour
programme of jazz, literature and visual arts between 11.00pm and
midnight. The programme called “Dizzy” is produced by Claudette Pace.
For a copy of the book
Bliet (u Miti) (in Maltese) please
write to
inizjamed@maltaforum.org or
phone +356 2137 6941.
Adrian Grima
9.02
*Special Thanks to http://www.babelmed.net for allowing me to reproduce this article.
