Although little is known about the Spanish Romani poet Pedro Amaya, his poetry has established itself far beyond the borders of Spain thanks to the commitment of the French flamenco specialist Bernard to publish his friend’s work. Le monde est ma maison. Chants flamencos et autres poèmes gitans [The world is my home. Flamenco songs and other Gypsy poems], published in 1993, contains poems written by Amaya between 1977 and 1989, which appear in the original Spanish and in French translation.

As the subheading indicates, some of the texts are flamenco songs. The bulk of the collection, however, consists of ballad-like poems, all of which are fundamentally characterised by frequent appeals to the reader. The densely autobiographical and overtly worldly narrative poems describe life authentically without condemning and support the hope that a peaceful and equal transcultural coexistence is possible. Amaya’s poems are linguistically simple and without elaborate rhetorical ornamentation, but they all display a high degree of musicality. His poems are intended to be simple not least because his understanding of poetry is democratic: he aims to write for everyone.

Literatur

Amaya, Pedro. 1993. Le monde est ma maison. Chants flamencos et autres poèmes gitans. Céret: L’Aphelie.