[WATCH] Il-Blata Tagħna, Immanuel Mifsud’s ode to a Malta subdued by the force of a pandemic

Din il-Blata Tagħna, Immanuel Mifsud’s ode to Malta subdued by the force of a pandemic

MaltaToday’s collaboration with Immanuel Mifsud, Il-Blata Tagħna, is an ode to a Malta subdued by the force of a pandemic. With footage by MaltaToday photographer James Bianchi, under the production of Karl Azzopardi and music from indie band Stalko’s 2016 album ‘A Long Wave Goodbye’, watch the video, and read its words, here.

Din hija l-blata, mixħuta kważi bl-addoċċ f’nofs baħar li jsaħħar lil kulħadd;

li l-poeti tagħna qalulna li ma jixjieħ qatt.

Dil-blata hija tagħna, wilditna eluf ta’ snin ilu, għamlitna dak li aħna, għaġnitna fid-dawl ta’ qmura qodma, bis-sħana ta’ xemx antika.

Tellajna l-ħaġar b’qima kbira, u bdejna nibnu storja bil-kuluri, b’ħafna lwien: fl-imqades u l-imsieraħ, fit-toroq li wassluna lejn il-bliet.

Illum vojta, aktarx qed jistennewna ħa nkomplu b’dar-rakkont li bdewh missirijietna u ommijietna.

Dan skiet mill-aktar stramb, miksur biss mir-riħ u mill-għasafar.

Skiet li, ejja ngħiduha, konna nsejnieh u llum nistgħu ngħidu li kienet ħasra.

Dat-toroq qed jgħidulna li qegħdin jistennew li għada jew pitgħada nerġgħu lura.

U la nerġgħu ninżlu f’dat-toroq, f’dawn l-imsieraħ, f’dawn il-pjazez, se ninżlu nkomplu dak li nbeda qabel.

Se ninżlu bil-kwiet u bir-rispett, lejn ta’ qabilna, lejn din il-blata, lejn din il-blata tagħna.

This is the rock, thrown almost at random into a sea that has marvelled everybody; that our poets told us would never grow old. This rock is our home, it created us thousands of years ago, making us who we are, rendered us by the light of past moons, in the scorch of an ancient sun. We erected our stones with worship, and built a history in all colours, with many shades: in the temples and our squares, in the streets that take us to our towns, today empty, waiting for us to continue the stories our fathers and mothers told before us.

This is indeed a strange silence, broken only by the wind and birds. A silence which, let us say it, we had forgotten about and all the more pity for that. These streets are telling us they are waiting for us tomorrow or the day after. And when we will be back on the streets, these squares, we will continue what we had started before. We will come back out in silence, and with respect, to what came before us, to this rock, our rock.