34 years, 35 in May.

And I don't have an e-book yet. I say that if someone is thinking about what to give for my birthday … I think nobody gives me because everyone thinks I have it for a long time. That is why I take this opportunity to ask for it in the talks and in all public places.

Do you want one of them?

Yes. On the other hand, I would need two days to read all the paper books around me. I wouldn't care, though, if I had to ask for more lives for it.

Isn't it strange or uncomfortable to read on this electronic medium?

Paper books have a geography that we know and, in that sense, we can walk comfortably. It's a known path, and we can move forward and backtrack because we're used to it. However, we must not be afraid of the new spaces. Umberto Eco was recently asked about this, because in an earlier interview he had already said that the Internet and e-books were going to lead to a decline in culture. (They asked him about the same thing, because normally the interviewers want the interviewee to repeat what has already been said in the previous interviews) And then Umberto Eco had to rectify saying that it's actually not for that much, and so on. Maybe someone would give you an e-book, not like me. Care must be taken when we talk about the decline of culture.

And write? On the computer or hand?

Usually by computer, because it is very comfortable to make corrections, etc. Anyway, those of us who didn't have tablets and electronic slate in school have the habit of writing by hand. Furthermore, as for old age, I forget the ideas so as not to point them to the moment, although then I see what I have written and understand what I have written in a much better percentage than I have forgotten those ideas. It can be a poetic Darwinism.

Study Law, but without vocation. Why?

For practical reasons. Especially for comfort, which is usually the worst option. But also the most chosen. I wanted something that could be studied in Pamplona, I didn't want to go to the university of Opus, and at the UPNA it was the thing that dragged the letters the most. In addition, at home they wanted a practical thing. I don't regret it. It would serve for something. To confirm my seriousness, for example, to remain a serious man. I also told myself that many writers had studied law, for example, Igor Estankona. I saw it clear instantly, and as soon as I finished I turned to literature.

He studied Basque Philology in Vitoria and began preparing his doctoral thesis. Do you intend to end?

Not in this life or, in any case, at the time of retirement.

In 2002 in Harkadia I and in 2005 in Body Humors.

No more books, for the moment. I'm aware that I've been missing a book for a long time. And I miss it because people ask me and journalists as well. It's not nice to do interviews, but it also has its morb. I think this conversation takes my ankle off for about eight more years and, as a result, the publication of the next book will be delayed. And even more, if I realize that you don't need to do anything to be interviewed, maybe I don't have to draw any books all my life.

But is it necessary to publish a book today to be a writer?

Less and less. For example, today I believe that a hidden struggle has been established between the Basque poets to see who leaves the greatest distance between one book and the next. Jon Benito published his latest work after nine years of silence or Rikardo Arrangi Diaz de Heredia published it after fourteen years of silence. Perhaps this is a form of discouragement for poets: if it is a value to take the books out as late as possible, they can enter the path of disappearance. Well, this is silly.

There is no new book, but there are media and social networks in which you do not stop working.

Nobody knows what will remain of this memorable time for the future. It may be that, always in the field of literature, what futures value is an area that we do not now consciously address. Probably in the seventeenth century writers would work thinking that this was what they were worth and that it would be what would take them to the Basque paradise, leaving in the background works of fiction and that they were left out of the canons. And they were making a lot of mistakes. It's my little comfort. Maybe Twitter entries are the only thing that's going to be picked up in the books that will remain in the 21st century. Or TV ads like Shakespeare's are praised. There is no need to underestimate anything and that is why I pay close attention to the articles I write for the Light and other means.

You're a great linguist: English, French, German… and Latin, also a little Greek, of course.

Yes, but all at a discreet level. Anyone who does not believe me would be invited to go with me to Sanfermin to check it, since that week there are an au-pair event in Pamplona and people here do not have to go anywhere with an Erasmus scholarship to practice languages. Words are nice in all languages. If you like words, the more languages you know, the more background you see. It ceases to be a superficial relationship and becomes a passionate lover.

In his two books and many articles, he recovers and brings the classics closer to current readers. Is this one of your main contributions?

My "Trapem diem." A friend calls me the classic. It's true, but I don't know if it is, or because the first public appearance is like this, because I put that stereotype and then I kept feeding the topic without realizing it.

In this systematic exclusion of classics, can one think that something also fails in teaching?

Maybe a bad selection is made. I don't know, I don't remember what we were given to us, but I can get the impression that it may be because in other areas they fail the same thing, that the choice that young people are given is to be consumed by adults or, on the contrary, very fossilized and infantilized.

What are you interested in about these authors?

There's some kind of prevention or fear of classics, or maybe just bad fame, but at least they have one side: time. A sieve that isn't made in today's stuff, it's made with its work. It has gone through the hands of many people and has forgotten all that needs to be forgotten, so not counting those people can be a pride. Classics can serve, among other things, to destroy some topics, such as thinking that we are the best or coolen. We run the risk of losing ourselves with that crazy tendency to follow the latest trend.

Is humor one of your main ingredients?

To compensate the other, in a way, if not, I would have to change the century or enter as a cure and I have no intention. But you have to be careful about humor. You can't say of yourself, "I'm ironic," or "I try to put humor into my work," because people can look at your writings and find nothing funny. I have already committed that sin. In my second book, Humors of the body, I said I was referring to humor. However, many people thought it was more serious than the previous book. You can make humor involuntarily or deliberately. In any case, if history has taught us that humor, like salt, is a good preservative, one way or another. I would say that in almost all literary works there is a great deal of humor.

You make a great production: Argia, Nafarroako Hitza, Iruñerriko Euskalerria irratia in three different programs, social networks…

My impression is that I do nothing. Except for the unspeakable things, it takes me most of the time of the day. To leave everything for later is a very Basque trend, as the great Axular made clear to us, which probably had it projected from the youth, but which he wrote the year before his death.

There have been terrible enfants in this Volga batter gang.

The quadrillate in the legal language is abhorrent. I've had a great time. I've learned a lot and I've made great friends. We were convinced that the Basque culture needed an outbreak and we wanted to bring out serious things in an exciting way. He was born in the golden age of blogs; now I think that's happened in part.

In Euskalerria Irratia together with Iñigo Astiz and Hedoi Etxarte you have created the group of zombie poets.

Maybe a generation of poets can come out of here. You can also have results: With Iñigo Astiz, and this is kind of exclusive, I'm making a book of poems written in four hands. Maybe my poetic return. The issue is not too serious, the provocative poems around the Basque culture. Even if nothing comes out, at least we will have a good time.

Being a Basque poet, you won’t be well known to most of your compatriots. Have you never thought about writing in Spanish?

I am the first to regret that the Basque and the Basque people want to make us invisible in Navarre, but, despite that, I find it very comfortable that it can be diluted among the people. It seems to me that many people regard us as speakers of Eastern Europe and sometimes I have felt it or fantasized about it. There's no more to see how some look at you and hold onto the bag. I feel comfortable knowing that I will not be asked for a Spanish column. The Basque is a large and comfortable closet for me. I'm sure my father is going to see this interview and ask me what I'm talking about. This paragraph about which I speak about my father will not be understood by him and that reassures me. Sarrionandia said that in front of the jailers the Basque was the only free space, and I too often have that feeling.