Curricán [+VIDEO]

(Translated by Manuel Casal Lodeiro.)

Study says, with 95% accuracy, North Atlantic thermohaline current will come to a halt any time from now to end of century.

The Curricán(*) is the name that sailors from Corunna give to the Gulf Stream, as Emilio González López tells in his essay Las fronteras marítimas atlánticas de Galicia (Maritime Atlantic frontiers of Galicia, p. 9):

Communications from Galicia with the [other] peoples of the [European] North Atlantic are facilitated not only by the speed of maritime pathways, which find no other obstacle than bad weather, but also by marine currents, like the Great Gulf Stream, the Curricán in our Galician language (…)

(*) Curricán has various meanings in Galician. One possible etimology of this use links it to Breton korrigan (little dwarf), a mytological Celtic entity.
It could be even a cognate of current / corrente.

If we are what we are
—Atlantics, Milesians
neighbours of the Setting Sun
it’s because the sea moves
silent and powerful
in eternal return
continous and slow
from the South into the North
confining Boreas
to his winter headquarter

       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán

We are not what we were
to pretend power
absurd hominids
renegades of Gaia:
written down in the Cadastre
we got the whole of the Earth,
and we stop the sea
and spoil the air
thanks to our technique
plenty full of gadgets

       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán

I require your action
or should I say your rejection
to do what you’re told
by our enemies
so the sea does not stop
and Father Winter returns
after an ocre autumn
and the bees dance
and the rain comes
all over the asphalt

       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán

Let there be death rattles
for those who don’t allow
the Curricán to return!

       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán

Let the whales dance
to rock the Ocean
and let the Curricán flow!

       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán

Let Life and Joy
spread through the Cosmos
to the Curricán’s song!

       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán
       Cu-rri-cán