comets, corks and anchors in Atxaga

I have remarked here before that Bernardo Atxaga's work is full of imagery about the withdrawn status of Basque as a minority language.  I think it's a nice way for him to acknowledge the status of Basque as archaic and minor while avoiding the common overdetermination about Basque authors as individuals somehow dedicated to the political (and literary) advancement of the language itself.

I find this passage from "The Cork and the Anchor" to be very refreshing:

In the case of the particular individual, of a particular writer, the choice of language need not be dramatic.  It does not matter whether the language he selects to begin with is a minority language, an asteroid a hundred light years away from the inner stars, since there is an artifact, a rocket ship—an aerodynamic cork, if you will—capable of crossing sidereal space in just a few months.  The name of the artifact: at times Translation; other times Traductio; or, in its sweetest form, Traductrice.  (54)

The celestial imagery is incredible in this lecture.