Guest Post

Spring is winding down, days are getting hotter, Feria Jerez 2010 has come and gone. And now start the goodbye parties. The first one to whom we had to say farewell went home to France this past weekend. He recently revealed his writing skills when he let me read a poem he'd written about his Spanish adventure. And, as it fits with the theme of my posts and the waning phase of our year in Spain, it seemed appropriate to share here. It's a farewell to Andalucía:

Le vent tourne. Je quitte ce vent sableux pour la fraîcheur de l’océan. En te quittant Andalousie, je laisse dans les rues de Jerez une part de moi-même. Perdrais-je de ma mémoire la musique orientale de Jookoo ? Perdrais-je le souvenir des danses Gypsi des belles andalouses ? Je regarde pour la dernière fois ce soleil, meurtri et mélancolique. Il est le fruit tendre et mûr de ce pays, la chaleur envoûtante des longues nuits de fête et de plaisirs. Je quitte la belle du Sud, mes rêves de paradis s’assoupissent. Ce soir, des étoiles dans le ciel brillent dans mes yeux. Je me dis que je verrais les mêmes en France, ma chère andalouse. Te revoir et mourir avec toi, c’est une douce phrase qui bourdonne sans cesse en moi, une chanson d’amour, où l’on se sépare en larmes mais en se promettant de se revoir très vite.

Written by Sylvain Caillaud

Author Mini-bio:

Hailing from La Petite Boissière, a small town in Western France, Sylvain came to Jerez to do an internship. His career interest is eco-tourism, and the beaches and sierras of Andalucía provided a broad and beautiful stepping ground for his apprenticeship. In the two short months he was in Spain, he managed to strike a connection with an impressive portion of the melting pot of twenty-somethings in the city.

Don't worry! I'm not going to leave you to butcher the poem by copying and pasting to translator.com. Here's the English version translated by the author himself:

The wind changed. I’m leaving this sandy wind for the coolness of the ocean. In leaving you Andalusia, I lost a part of myself in the labyrinth of Jerez… Would I lose the memory of oriental music of Jookoo? Would I remember Gypsi dancings of the lovely girls? I’m looking for the last time this Sun, wounded and melancholic. It’s the ripe and soft fruit of this land, the enchanting warmth of the long nights of parties and pleasures. I’m leaving the Beautiful of the south, my dreams of heaven are dulling. Tonight, stars in the sky are shining in my eyes. I say, I would watch the same in France, my dear Andalousian. To see you again and die with you, it’s a soft phrase ringing in me, a love song which we separate in crying but which we promise to meet you again, quickly.

Thanks, Sylvain! Te echamos de menos. Bisous