... in remembrance.
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(Quoted text from - EL PAÍS)
Saramago regresa a Lisboa
En el primer aniversario de la muerte del escritor, Pilar del Río, su compañera durante los últimos 24 años, deposita la urna con sus cenizas bajo un olivo cerca de la Casa dos Bicos
Las cenizas de José Saramago, premio Nobel de Literatura 1998, reposan desde hoy en Lisboa. Al cumplirse el primer aniversario de la muerte del escritor, Pilar del Río, su compañera durante los últimos 24 años, ha depositado la urna bajo un olivo trasplantado de Azinhaga, pueblo natal del novelista, frente a la que será sede de la Fundación José Saramago, en la emblemática Casa dos Bicos, junto al río Tajo. Ha sido un acto sencillo, emotivo y simbólico, en el que Violante, la hija del escritor, ha colocado junto a las cenizas un ejemplar del libro Palabras para José Saramago, editado para la ocasión, y que el alcalde de la ciudad, António Costa, ha cubierto con tierra de Lanzarote, donde Saramago vivió desde 1993. Gabriela Canavilhas, ministra de Cultura del Gobierno saliente, intelectuales, familiares y amigos han estado en la última despedida. Y también, varios líderes del Partido Comunista, al que Saramago estuvo afiliado hasta su muerte.
La noticia en otros webs
El profesor y barítono Jorge Vaz de Carvalho ha leído algunos fragmentos deliciosos de Palabras para una ciudad, como el que afirma que "Basta que Lisboa sea lo que tiene que ser: culta, moderna, limpia, organizada, sin perder nada de su alma. Y si todas estas bondades acabaran por hacer de ella una reina, pues que así sea. En la república que somos siempre serán bienvenidas reinas así".
La escritora Lídia Jorge ha recordado "las miles de páginas" que Saramago escribió "sobre la utopía", y ha pedido que el rincón con el olivo y un banco con vista al río, sea un lugar de parada de aquellos que tienen prisa. Como soñó el escritor, que no pudo ver inaugurado su despacho en la Casa dos Bicos. El alcalde de Lisboa, ha destacado la combinación del olivo de Azinhaga, donde nació, y la tierra de Lanzarote, "donde pensó y escribió".
A un año de su muerte, Saramago es recordado estos días en numerosos rincones del mundo. Lisboa, Madrid, México, Italia. Mañana, el Centro Cultural de Belem, en la capital portuguesa, presentará el espectáculo Las siete últimas palabras de Cristo, con música de Joseph Haydn, interpretada por la Orquesta Sinfónica Portuguesa, y textos del escritor. "Ha sido un año sin José, pero ha sido un año con Saramago", ha dicho Pilar del Río, al recordar los numerosos actos, conferencias y recuerdos sobre el gran escritor portugués, que ha vuelto para siempre a su tierra.
Pilar del Río, viuda del escritor portugués José Saramago, deposita las cenizas del Premio Nobel de Literatura al pie de un olivo de su tierra natal, junto a la sede de su Fundación en Lisboa.- FRANCISCO SECO
(end of quote)
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| Red Square - 2007 © G. Almeida |
For this reason today I bring
three things:
a picture, a piece and a quote (Saramago)
a picture, a piece and a quote (Saramago)
- 1 piece of music remarkably performed by very young students yesterday in concert. Here it is presented in a video clip performed by others.
- 1 scented rose
- A human being is a being who is constantly 'under construction,' but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of constant destruction. - José Saramago
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It has never made any sense to me that an author be evaluated through political or religious views and/or standing. Where would George Orwell, Steinbeck, Franz Kafka, ...Dali, ...Charlie Haden, and numerous others be if their country treated them thusly..?
It took 76 years for the ban on Galileos's writings to be lifted.
Despite the wishes and intentions of grand duke of Tuscany - Ferdinando II de' Medici, to have this man burried in the main body of the Basilica of Santa Croce, in Florence... funeral rites as planned by the ruler were protested and postponed on account and his having been condemned by the Catholic Church for "vehement suspicion of heresy". It took 95 years after Galileo's death to the Grand Duke's wishes to be granted.
Although Church and State were formally separated in Portugal after the fall of the Monarchy.. and the onset of the country's First Republic ( a separation that was reiterated in the 1976 constitution ), this country's leadership (The President being the highest ranking Leader..)
upon the death of Saramago was on holidays and pretended the man hadn't existed.
They took no note, no official act was held, no homage, nothing whatsoever.
This is the same person whose government had barred 20 years ago the man's work... as can be read below.
You can read directly from this LINK
the following:
Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998, has died at the age of 87, his publisher has announced.Saramago, a communist and atheist, only began to become recognised for his work in his fifties.
One of his best-known novels is Blindness, written in 1995, which tells the story of a country whose entire population lose their sight.
He had been due to appear at Edinburgh's book festival in August.
Saramago moved to Lanzarote in the early 1990s after opposition from Portugal's right-wing government to his controversial work The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.
The administration barred his work from being entered in the European Literary Prize on the grounds that it was offensive to Catholics.
(BBC article made 1 year ago, yesterday)
Yesterday, one year later, during a symbolic ceremony his ashes were placed next an olive tree that had also been planted in front of the Foundation bearing his name.
His wife and daughter, along with the city's mayor, some of the author's closest friends, the head of one of the oppositional parties, and a vast number of anonymous people (public in general, tourists...) attended this moment laden with symbolism.
The foundation is located in one of the capital city's most significant edifices, The House of Spikes.
It's façade faces the ancient river entrance into Europe - The Tagus.
The Head of State (soon to be forgotten.. contrary to Saramago), once more was no where to be found..
Not even any of his workers were seen hobbling about..
I wonder, aren't they public service workers?
If they're paid by us, why do they find it in their right to miss a day's work without justification
Or if it be the case instead, why should they be permitted incompetence??
Unemployment keeps climbing so why doesn't it affect these people?
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