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El laberinto griego (“An Olympic Death”) by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (published 1991) is set in Barcelona, while the city is preparing itself to host the Olympics the following year. The detective, Pepe Carvalho, is trying to locate a Greek sculptor, and the search takes him to an area of derelict warehouses that are being used by artists, just prior to the buildings‘ demolition in the process of the city’s abrupt gentrification. He comes across one such warehouse being used as a sculptor’s studio, and has the following conversation with the artist working there:

We are looking for a Greek, by name of Alekos.

You look a bit like a cop to me. Are you a cop?

No. I’m Anselm the First*, a friend of the family.

I have a painter friend who’s crazy about poetry, and he knows a poem about Anselm the First

(1992 translation by Ed Emery).

Pepe introducing himself as “Anselm the First” is clearly intended to be a humorous/sarcastic riposte, but I cannot help feeling there is some joke or witticism that I’m not getting. The artist goes on to recite the poem in question:

This hunchback who is putting himself through the keyhole
Is sticking needles in my eyes.
Is playing with your buttocks, your breasts
Is pissing in a book of Mao.
It seems to be Volume Two
He eats a painted pheasant
He belches and regathers the air with his hand
While he defecates slowly, gently
On your chocolate mousse:
It’s Anselm the First.
Do you remember
How could you not?
Manolo has told me so much about you.

The “Manolo” in the final line is probably a reference to the author himself, Manuel (“Manolo”) Vázquez Montalbán Searching for “Anselm” (or “Anselmo” in Spanish) turns up a number of saints and bishops, but I do not see any with a particular connection to the scene. I have a number of related questions:

Who and why is the Anselm being referenced?

Is the surrealist poem about him a genuine poem, published elsewhere?

* Checking the original Spanish text reveals that Carvalho introduces himself as “el primo Anselmo”. I would be inclined to translate this as “cousin Anselm” rather than “Anselm the First” - “primo” usually means “first cousin”.

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  • It seems that Ed Emery is better known for his translations from Italian. Could there have been confusion between Italian and Spanish? In Italian, "Anselmo primo" ("primo Anselmo" doesn't sound natural in Italian) would translate as Anselm the First. Commented 2 days ago
  • @Charo Maybe... even so I find it strange that a translator would make such an elementary error. Commented 2 days ago

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Thanks to details provided by Charo in asking the question "Are there autobiographical aspects in the poem "Morirá esta historia en la Historia" from the book "Praga" by Vázquez Montalbán?", I have been able to locate the surrealist poem quoted in An Olympic Death.

As hinted by the final line of the poem, "Manolo has told me so much about you", the poem was indeed written by Montalbán himself. He seems to have had the habit of inserting pieces of his poetry into his other works: see here for another example. The poem is entitled "Es el primo Anselmo" and was published in Montalbán's 1973 collection of poetry A la sombra de las muchachas sin flor, the title of this collection being inspired by the second volume of Proust's A la recherche... ("À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs"). The collection is divided into two parts - poems of love and poems of terror - and "Es el primo Anselmo" is the first poem in the "terror" part.

This answers the question "Is the surrealist poem a genuine poem?", but unfortunately I do not have any further insight as to who Anselm was.

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