This is a tale of war, written by a poet, in language that draws pictures of a situation impossible to imagine. Lee walks into Spain across the Pyrenees to join the International Brigades for the last push of the Spanish Civil War. He arrives at Figueras, a town which remained loyal to the Republicans and so was bombed heavily by Franco. “War had shrivelled and emptied it, covered it with a sort of grey hapless grime so that even the windows seemed to have no reflections.” Lee is passed from one place to another, arrested as a spy, and finally undergoes basic training [how to use a gun] at Tarazona in La Mancha. Before meeting war face-to-face, which he finally does at Teruel, Lee regards his fellow soldiers, “a harmonious gathering of oddities and shared heroic daftness.” In their tattered uniforms they look more like prisoners of war than a crusading army, he writes. “We were convinced we possessed an invincible armament of spirit, and that in the eyes of the world, and the angels, we were on the right side of this struggle. We had yet to learn that sheer idealism never stopped a tank.”
Perhaps anyone considering going to war should read this book first.
‘A Moment of War’ by Laurie Lee
5 to remember
el/la poeta – poet
la lenguaje – language
fiel – loyal
los republicanos – the Republicans
la suciedad – grime