Telephone –and it’s a rarity, to do so– to the organizer of a literary festival where I will have to “participate” with other colleagues. I have lost the tickets she sent me on my mobile and I wanted to ask for them again. From the other side of the phone, and of the sea, she tells me: “Don’t worry, you’ll have them right away”.
Don’t worry. An expression that I had completely buried in the sandy soil of memory. I have never said it, it is not in my basic vocabulary, but I have read it extensively in the stories of Folch i Torres, where all the characters, kind and obliged, usually say it. My grandparents said it naturally. But this organizer seems young and I understand that the expression must be very much alive in Mallorca, where she is from. Don’t worry. It is a “no te preocupes”, but more intense. The expression comes to suppose that this concern that you have, however slight, would in any case make you anxious, would torment you. Folch i Torres uses it, for example, when a character has to give an errand to another. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell him”, he would say. He could also say “Don’t be anxious”, but that would be more active. It could be said, especially, if a character suffered because the other had to travel. “Let us know when you have arrived, don’t make us anxious”.
So I find myself with the youth, I try an experiment. When I am asked if I will go to buy various sweets, I say: “Don’t worry, you’ll have them”. The youth remains unfazed. It means that the expression is understood and integrated, vibrantly, into the conversation. This expression, which I keep, I don’t have to worry, because I will make it spread.
