I was asked by José to make this pen and watercolour drawing as a wedding present for Blaise and Letitia, to celebrate their first ever meeting.
José wrote this poem to go with the drawing
Se dice que fue como un relámpago,
en cosa de un segundo,
segundo y medio a lo sumo,
un estallido de rosas cayendo de su pecho
al albur de unos ojos,
un traqueteo de piernas,
el suspiro de un miedo
y un miedo vencido con solo una palabra.
Se dice que alguien se enamoró aquel día
como tantas otras veces otras gentes
pero yo que he visto conozco esta historia
puedo dejarla escrita en estos versos
puedo decir seguro
que mereció la pena.
Which translates as
It is said that it was like a lightning bolt,
a matter of a second,
a second and a half at most,
an explosion of roses falling from his chest
to the fate of eyes,
a quiver of legs,
the sigh of fear
a matter of a second,
a second and a half at most,
an explosion of roses falling from his chest
to the fate of eyes,
a quiver of legs,
the sigh of fear
and fear overcome with only one word.
It is said that someone fell in love that day
like so many other people at other times
but I’ve seen, I know this story
I can leave it written in these verses
I can say for sure
that it was worth it.
Obviously it was impractical for me to travel to Mallorca to draw the bar so I worked from a photo that José found on the internet, rendering the outline first in pencil then in pen (above left and right) before applying the watercolour (top).
