Bertsolaritza

Bertsolaritz is a Basque oral tradition, a sort of formal, culturally-embedded poetry slam, where a bertsolari (poet-musician) composes and sings a bertso, coming up with words (improvised) to go with any number of traditional tunes. There are ritualized challenges and competitions, a number of different types and ways to perform.

It's unclear how old the bertsolaritz is; there are records back to the start of the 1800s, but since it was oral and not written, and the Basque country and culture is so ancient, it could be older than that. The best-known cultural peak is the early 1900s, when "bertso papers" were published. There was a dip in bertsolaritz during the 1930s and 40s during the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent repression of non-Spanish cultures within Spain--regions with a history of autonomy, often their own individual language (Basque/Euskal, Catalan, Valenciana, Gallician/Gallego) and a distinct cultural identity.

This can still be seen in modern Spain, where you have regionalism instead of nationalism--unless maybe the national soccer team is doing especially well that year. I lived in Navarra for a year, one of the last regions to pledge allegiance to Spain: the crest of Navarra makes up a quarter of the crest of Spain, the lower right-hand corner. A citizen of Navarra is more likely to fly a Navarran flag than a Spanish one, likely to consider themselves Navarran than Spanish--while if you asked someone from my home state, Washington, what they are, they'd almost definitely label themselves American. It's a very different mindset.

To go back to bertsolaritza, there was another upswing in its practice and popularity during the 1950s. At this point Ferdinand Aire Etxart, called Xalbador, was a practicing bertsolari, very famous. He represented the lower/Southern Basque Region, in Spain: he was born in a Navarran village. At some point in his life he left for the mountains and dedicated his life to bertsolaritza.

Xabier Lete (Oiartzun), a Basque poet, singer and writer widely respected for his contributions to Basque literature (posthumously winning a Spanish national prize for literature in 2009), wrote a bertso for Xalbador on his death in 1976. The following is the Basque-language version:

Adiskide bat bazen
orotan bihotzbera
poesiaren hegoek
sentimenduzko bertsoek
antzaldatzen zutena.

Plazetako kantari
bakardadez josia
hitzen lihoa iruten
bere barnean irauten
oinazez ikasia...ikasia

Nun hago, zer larretan
Urepeleko artzaina
mendi hegaletan gora
oroitzapen den gerora
ihesetan joan hintzana. [Repeat]

Hesia urraturik
libratu huen kanta
lotura guztietatik
gorputzaren mugetatik
aske sentitu nahirik.

Azken hatsa huela
bertsorik sakonena
inoiz esan ezin diren
estalitako egien
oihurik bortitzena... bortitzena

Nun hago, zer larretan
Urepeleko artzaina
mendi hegaletan gora
oroitzapen den gerora
ihesetan joan hintzana. [Repeat]

I was able to find a (quite probably unreliable) Spanish translation, which I then translated (roughly and ham-handedly) into English:

I have a friend soulful and sensitive
Transformed by the wings of poetry,
By the verses arisen from a profound emotion--
A singer that left plazas frozen with loneliness,
That learned from pain
To weave words and to speak contentedly
From the incorruptible truth of his inner self.

Where are you now, in which meadows,
Shepherd from Urepel?
You who fled
To the high peaks,
To the tomorrow that persists in memory.

You freed your song, escaping the fence,
Searching for freedom
Beyond the shackles and limitations of your body,
Turning your last breath to the truest verse,
The most convincing shout
Of the hidden truths that can never be spoken of [by others].