Formigues [English translation]

A beautiful plain

I had as a birthplace

Like the watchman,

the sun doesn't see another.

I was the ant

of plain and scrubland

of swallow farmhouse,

of nightingale fields.

I saw beautiful lands,

more than a city,

I climbed the peaks

of high Montserrat.

I went down to Barcelona,

the pearl with which the wave

enriched the Principality

many centuries ago.

In my house, I have ants.

I found them one morning

under the marble of the kitchen

and no products have made them go away.

In the crack where they came from

I scattered a deadly poison,

and, when I covered it with putty,

they came out of the bathroom sink.

So, with a jet of water I could remove them

they lost everything, disoriented in a whirlpool.

There remained a few lonely ones,

and it was almost funny

as soon as I pardoned them,

I tortured them between two fingers.

But as days became weeks,

I surprised commandos

on the pothus on the table

toughening themselves up inside of some apricots

and it no longer gave me any pleasure, cleaning in the kitchen

silverware that was lost over the balcony.

And today, when I laid down,

the darkness brought a murmur,

a silence of ants

has broken the calm of the night.

The couple on my right hand

were the first that I noticed,

the couple that climbed the right, the ones that worried me.

And I wanted to sit up

and now I'm here, sitting straight

The square stone tiles are slipping,

the living plaster eats the walls.

I hear as they work, they've taken the hallway.

They've blocked the door, they won't let me leave.

They have more than enough energy, they persevere in their nests

They come out of my ears, my lips and my nostrils.

At home, I have ants, they appeared one morning.

They don't respect me, they must leave me alone!

Logic doesn't cheat, Science drives us here,

I've swallowed a lot more than I can handle.