Equinoccial

At the start of the Covid pandemic, the composer Antoni Ros Marbà asked the poet Miquel Desclot to write a poem expressing the uncertainties of the situation so he could prepare a musical composition for choir and organ through which he could express his deep feelings of sadness and convert them into a positive and creative message.
Miquel Desclot suggested using his unpublished poem Equinoccial. Although it does not speak directly about the pandemic, it is an allegorical piece which embodies the dramatic sensations we began to experience back in spring 2020 at the outbreak of the pandemic.

Ros Marbà composed a musical piece for choir and a small symphonic orchestra.

De set en set arriba l’infinit,
on la ratlla es dissol entre dos blaus;
de dit en dit s’engruna l’esquelet,
on naufraga el record entre dos rius;
de segle en segle es gasten els planetes
per reunir-se al conflent de les partícules;
de pou en pou es fonen les pirites
per alçar el vol en curses parabòliques.
A la gàbia del tòrax, el parrup
del colom de la mort
i els cops de cap contra els barrots calcaris
no esmorteixen el bram de salvatgina
que descalça l’arrel i amaga l’ona
en revenir d’enllà les aus primeres.

Week by week, you reach infinity
The line where two blues meet;
Bone by bone, the skeleton crumbles,
Where memory flounders between two rivers;
Century by century, planets wear down
To meet up again in the confluence of particles;
Well by well, pyrites melt
To fly away in parabolic curves.
In the rib cage, the sound
Of the dove of death
And banging against the bars of the cage
Cannot quieten the wild screams
That lift roots and hide waves
When the first birds return once more.

Miquel Desclot