Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/620229
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 DECEMBER 2015 29 ADRIAN GRIMA HERE is no such thing as 'captur- ing the essence' when it comes to writing about 50 years of sumptuous poetry distilled in 59 visually dense and rhythmically sensuous compositions. This is Daniel Massa's first complete, and I suppose definitive collec- tion of poems in English. Some are mostly free English versions of his poems written in Maltese but many others were written originally in English. Apart from his penchant for versioning rather than translat- ing, this is one of the reasons why this book of 134 pages, contain- ing more poems than those in his Maltese collection Xibkatuliss (1989), is not a bilingual edition. Barefoot in the Saltpans defini- tively establishes Daniel Massa, one of the richest, deepest voices of Maltese-language Modernist poetry, as an English-language poet in his own right. This carefully constructed book of strong emotions, with its rath- er unassuming and inconspicu- ous name, comes with an intrigu- ing, almost provocative subtitle: 'Poetry Mediterranean'. The poet clearly wants us to engage with this apparently elliptic epithet. He doesn't want to associate his poetry with the Mediterranean. These are not poems about, from or even of the Mediterranean. Daniel Massa wants to identify them with the Mediterranean, as if his poetry and the Mediter- ranean were one and the same thing. Placing the two nouns next to one other, or inverting the po- sition of the adjective, is his way of replacing the sequence of lin- earity with identification. This book takes the reader into Massa's alternative "republic" of the Mediterranean sea and coast. Unlike much of Maltese litera- ture, which stands in awe of the sea and observes it strictly from a distance, Daniel Massa's poetry is often written from within the sea. Jim Crace describes it in his foreword as "wind-blown, salty, sun-kissed and unambiguously Mediterranean". The rhythms are seductive and the free unpredictable internal rhymes always semantically sig- nificant. Massa revisits his key images in various poems and slowly builds an unmistakable and irresistible visual tempo. In an essay about 'The Mediter- ranean and Poetry', the Lebanese poet and essayist Salah Stétié suggests that "there has always been a kind of pact" between the Mediterranean and poetry. "Perhaps because the sea, and precisely that sea, sufficiently en- gaging and familiar to the man of the dawn of time to dare to ven- ture upon it, was the first to open up the space of travel to human reverie." Stétié describes poetry itself as 'journeying' and 'return'. "Perhaps because through the risks journeying entails, and the inevitable disillusionment, that sea also opens up, like a ship's wake forming, the nostalgic space of a return." There is much journeying and return in Daniel Massa's poetic world. There is much exploration of both the present and the begin- ning, 'ages ago', as he slips into 'the depths off Delimara', sliding 'head first' as from his 'mother's womb / gliding over blue-green algae' ('Delimara Bay'). if in some alarm I should run out of oxygen I think I could almost stay I will not go for these rocks and this seine and these algae know that I've been here before. The 'translation' of 'Delimara' ('Delimara Bay'), one of Maltese literature's best-loved poems because of the captivating, rit- ual-like flow of its rhythm and imagery, is a good example of Massa's 'versioning'. Some crit- ics and poets, like Christopher Whyte, have argued convinc- ingly 'Against Self-Translation' (in Translation and Literature) which is 'a much more wide- spread phenomenon than one might think'. Translations are 'inevitably', in Whyte's words, 'interpretations which reproduce only one of the many resonances of the text', and the intervention of the au- thor-translator (wrongly) lends more 'authority' or 'authenticity' to their interpretation. In the process, the self-translating poet stands in the way of other close readings and interpretations. The kind of versioning Daniel Massa carries out when he re- writes his Maltese poems avoids the problem that Whyte talks about. Because Massa's English versions of his poems in Maltese are, in some ways, something new altogether. These poems are written for a different, generally non-Maltese audience. And above all, they are written into a new literature. 'The distinctive triumph' of Daniel Massa, writes Jim Crace, 'is that unfailingly throughout this current collection of a life- time's work he demonstrates his exceptional skill at writing in English with the intimacy of a native speaker but without sti- fling the cadence and percussion of his home language.' But there is another, perhaps more fundamental difference, between the now almost iconic poems of Xibkatuliss published 26 years ago and the poems in Barefoot in the Saltpans. Not only is the Daniel Massa of this more recent book different, but so is Malta. The context in which he is publishing these poems is not the same as that in which he published his poems in Maltese in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. He is looking back on his work and on his life, but he doesn't sanitize or even patronize the past in order to make it conform with his present. This is a less overtly po- litical collection of poems, but then the Malta he is writing in today is less po- larized, less politicized than it was until the end of the 1980s, a healthy process of 'secularization' that a fellow writer, Alfred Sant, had a lot to do with. This is a collection of sto- ries rich in both literary allusion and references to historical figures and events, from Dom Mintoff and his inimitable rhetoric ('First Mate's Lament'), to Jack Sm- edley, the English Dockyard instructor who was fatally at- tacked by a great white shark in July 1956 ('Waiting for the Great White Breach'). It is a col- lection that is both 'Wild and Gentle,' as the title of one of the poems from 2007 suggests, both classic and modern. This is a journey deep into the layers of language. 'Now dare,' as in 'Midnight Swim', to 'dive again with me.' Adrian Grima is a poet and lec- turer in Maltese literature at the University of Malta This Week This Week COURT NOTICE The Registrar, Civil Courts and Tribunals notifies that the First Hall of the Civil Court ordered the sale by Judicial Auction of the following property to be held in the corridors of the Courts of Justice, Republic Street, Valletta. Date and Time Judicial Sale No Property 12 th January 2016 47/14 – 11.30am PP Apartament officially numbered two (2) on the first floor in a block of apartments numbered thirty five (35) named 'Falcon Forge', subject to an annual ground rent of thirty Euros and fifty four cents only (!30.54),accesible from Triq It- Torri, Msida. The tenement includes an undivided share of the common parts that provide access to the appartments that is the door, entrance, stairs and lift. The property includes the right to hold a water tank on the roof of the same block valued at Two Hundred and twenty thousand Euros (! 220,000). 12 th January 2016 101/13 – 12.00pm PP The following undivided portions of land in Gozo,limits of G"ajnsielem forming part of a land known as 'Th San #wann', Portion of land marked number three (3) measuring circa one hundred sixty eight metres squared (168m 2 ), bordering from the north with a projected private street, from the East with a property of Three Jays and from the west with plot number four (4) property of Small Properties Limited, the right of a passage over that portion of land measuring circa three hundred and forty two metres squared (342m 2 ) marked in blue, an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in purple of circa thirteen metres squared (13m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane marked in green, free and unencumbered valued at one hundred and fifty thousand euros (!150,000). Portion of land marked number four (4) measuring circa one hundred sixty eight metres squared (168m 2 ), bordering from the north with a projected private street, from the East with plot number three (3) property of Small Properties Limited,from the South with plot number six (6), property of Three Jays Limited and from the other sides with properties of Mariella Mercieca right of a passage over that portion of land measuring circa three hundred and forty two metres squared (342m 2 ) marked in blue, an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in purple of circa thirteen metres squared (13m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane marked in green, free and unencumbered valued at one hundred and fifty thousand euros (!150,000). Portion of land marked number twelve (12) measuring circa one hundred and sixty five metres squared (165m 2 ), bordering from the west with a projected private street, from the North with properties of Mariella Mercieca and from the South with property of Three Jays Limited, an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane marked in green, free and unencumbered, valued at one hundred and ten thousand Euros( !110,000 ). Portion of land marked number twenty seven (27) measuring circa one hundred sixty eight metres squared (168m 2 ), bordering from the East with a projected private street ,from the North with plot number twenty six (26) property of Three Jays. Ltd and from The South with plot number twenty eight (28) property of Small Properties Limited, an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane marked in green, free and unencumbered, valued at one hundred and thirty five thousand Euros ( !135,000 ). Portion of land marked number twenty eight (28) measuring circa one hundred sixty eight metres squared (168m 2 ), bordered from West and East with a projected private street,from the North with plot number twenty seven (27) property of Small Properties Limited an undivided share of 1/37 from every part of land projected for a street and an undivided share of 1/37 of a lane, free and ununcumbered and an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in blue of circa seven hundred and thirty three metres squared (733m 2 ), an undivided share of 1/37 of a land projected for a street marked in pink of circa three hundred and seventy eight metres squared (378m 2 ) and an undivided share of 1/37 of 21 st January 2016 46/15 – 11.30am PP The Property named DVM Showroom officially numbered two hundred sixty four and two hundred sixty five (264/265) in Triq Fleur de Lys, Birkirkara. This property consists of a block of offices on two levels, a cellar under the ground floor level, a washroom and a roof with its airspace in the second level. The ground floor level is subject to an annual and perpetual ground rent of three Euros and eighty two cents (!3.82), and the first floor including its own airspace is subject to an annual and perpetual ground rent of seven Euros and sixty five cents (!7.65). The property is valued at three hundred and ten thousand Euros (!310,000). 28 th January 2016 5/14 – 10.30am PP Penthouse, with its own airspace, number six (6), located on the left hand side on the third (3) floor level when facing the block with the letter 'A' named 'Oak Leaf Apartments', in Main Street, Mosta. The said penthouse is overlying apartment property of successor in title of Ba"rija Properties Development Limited and including the uninterrupted perpetual use of the common parts of the said block, including staircase, stairwell, lift well, lift, shafts, drains, landings, corridors, main hallway and entrance, and main door, and internal courtyards of the complex. The rest of the apartments in the block have access to that penthouse roof to install a water tank, satellite dish or television aerial common motors air conditioning and in some cases installation of solar heaters, with their respective right of access to it, after giving purchaser reasonable prior notice, for the purposes of maintenance and repairs of such services and utilities. The penthouse enjoys and is subject to active and passive servitudes resulting from its position, otherwise free and unencumbered with all its rights and appurtenances valued at one hundred and sixteen thousand and eight hundred euro (!116,800) 28 th January 2016 21/14 – 11.00am PP Tenement numbered one hundred and fifty B (150B), in Triq il- Kappillan Magri, Mellie"a. The property has a width of circa four point two (4.2) metres and a length of circa thirteen point five (13.5) metres. The property is free and unencumbered valued at forty five thousand Euros (!45,000). Tenement named 'Mellie"a Garage' numbered one hundred and fifty one (151) fi Triq Borg Olivier, Mellie"a. The property has a facade on the street of circa five (5) metres and on the back has a width of circa eight point five (8.5) metres and a length of circa twenty seven point five (27.5) metres subject to a lease valued at eighty five thousand Euros(!85,000). Tenement named 'Josephine House' numbered one hundred and forty nine (149) in Triq Borg Olivier, Mellie"a. The property has a facade on the street of circa seven (7) metres and on the back has a width of circa nine point five (9.5) metres from the first floor, and a length of circa sixteen point six (16.6) metres. The property is free and unencumbered valued at one hundred and eighty five thousand Euros (!185,000). 28 th January 2016 54/14 – 11.30am EM The tenement number thirty four (34), named 'Simon', Triq l-Annunzjata, Tarxien, subject to annual and perpetual ground rent of one euro and sixteen cents (!1.16c) offers should begin from forty eight thousand (!48,000). 28 th January 2016 57/15 – 12.00pm PP Apartment without its airspace shell form internally numbered one (1) ground level in a block without number and name and built on plot number forty four (44) in Triq il-%bit mill-Arju, Kalkara with all its rights and appurtenances, bounded on West by property of George Falzon, East with property unofficially numbered forty- five (45) and North with property unofficially number nine (9) exempted from any payment rates of future perpetual ground rent. The property enjoys access servitudes and uninterrupted perpetual use and access from the common part and services of the block from which the property forms part. Furthermore on the high roof the buyers or successors in title shall enjoy the right of installation and maintenance of water tank of a capacity not exceeding five hundred liters (500L), the right of installation and maintenance of solar water heater not greater than three hundred liters (300L) and the right of installing a satellite dish that does not exceed one point one meters diameters (1.1m) and/or aerial and both must be common with the rest of the block . Further details can be obtained from the website: http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/courtservices/JudicialSales/search.aspx The bidders taking part in the auction must present their identity card. Rudolph Marmara' For the Registrar of Civil Courts and Tribunals Dive again with me Barefoot in the Saltpans by Daniel Massa (Allied Publications, 2015)