Granada, Spain

WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 5 Notebook A GRANADA IN SPANISH IS a pomegranate in English, and I can’t think of a better metaphor for Granada: just as a pomegranate is packed with sweet, juicy seeds, Granada is packed with histories, stories, people, and places that make it a unique literary attraction. I lived there in 2014; the city left its mark. A city in Andalusia, Spain’s southern province, Granada is simultaneously welcoming and challenging to newcomers. Any student of Spanish who has visited—as well as a good many Spaniards—can attest to the unintelligibility of granadino Spanish at first contact. Sentences are compressed into split-second outbursts, and sounds are persistently “eaten” in the local dialect. There’s a particular aversion to the letter “d”—a true granadina from Granada will always identify herself as a granaína from Graná. The city itself can be as confusing as the accent, but also just as endearing. Countless writers have praised the beauty of Granada’s architecture, with the ethereal Alhambra a constant reminder of the city’s Islamic past. The streets themselves are a testament to a complex history. Wandering through the alleyways of the Realejo (the old Jewish quarter), I would often dip down an unknown route only to turn up in a familiar plaza. Granada may take pedestrians on roundabout paths, but it has the courtesy to drop them off somewhere they know. One such plaza was the Plaza BibRambla , a major site of the city’s literary history. In 1502, a decade after the Christian reconquest of Granada, soldiers of the Inquisition piled mountains of Arabic texts in the square and set them alight, hoping to eliminate the language of Islam along with the religion itself. Some Christians, reluctant to destroy such beautiful objects, dropped a few volumes by the doors of the city’s residents, and secret libraries sprung up that would keep a culture alive, if only as a shadow of its former self. Granada now stands as an international capital of poetry. The charming house of Federico García Lorca reminds visitors of his towering presence in his native region, and his verses seem manifested in the ironrailed balconies and the low ebb of the Río Genil. García Lorca would be delighted by the city’s current literary culture: it hosts a Feria del Libro and the Festival Internacional de Poesía every May. During the Feria, bookshops set up stands along the sidewalks against a background of jazz, and passers-by peruse their wares, chatting about new authors. Granada offers free tapas with any drink, an invigorating nightlife (a club called Mae West is the envy of Spanish discotecas ), and inviting cafés (I suggest a spot called Damasqueros, or the requisite Café Fútbol on Plaza Mariana Pineda). The city is literary and historical, sweet and sour, and alluringly unpredictable. As a traveler hoping to return, I know the pomegranate still holds plenty of seeds I’ve yet to taste. Arthur Dixon is interested in history, language, translation, and comic books. city profile Granada, Spain by Arthur Dixon photo : pilar flores WHAT TO READ IN THE PLAZA BIB-RAMBLA Tariq Ali, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree Gerald Brenen, South from Granada Federico García Lorca, Collected Poems Washington Irving, Tales of the Alhambra Andrés Neuman, Traveler of the Century Chris Stewart, Driving Over Lemons ...

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