A review by emilyinherhead
When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà

5.0

This is a beautiful book. I recommend it wholeheartedly, even if just for the single chapter written from the perspective of a dog, which completely made me cry.

A few of the quotes I wrote down:

They don’t tell a woman that she can choose things that aren’t small. (23)

Poetry is a serious matter, among the most serious. More serious than death and life and everything. A profound and vital matter. And precisely for that reason we poets have to know how to play and we have to know how to laugh and we have to know irony. (77)

Nothing lasts very long. Not a thing. Not stillness. Nor calamity. Nor the sea. Nor your ugly little children. Nor the earth that tolerates your puny little feet. (93)

These two are from the dog’s point of view:

That’s why I run, mercilessly, to save her, because she’s called me with a whistle and I understood her. Because I love her. Because when I get to her, I’ve saved her. And sometimes, when I get there, panting, she gently touches my forehead, and my back, and tells me I did good, and tells me sweet things I don’t understand but I do understand. And all her love is in that touch, and all my love is in my running to save her. (140)

The days when she’s not here are so long, so long they feel like a whole life. She always comes back, and I’ve learned that already, that she always comes back, but sometimes I still imagine she won’t come back and then I worry. Then I cry alone. I cry and cry and cry and no one hears me. (141)