Born in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, Spain, June 5 1898; died near Granada, August 19 1936, Garc铆a Lorca is one of Spain's most deeply appreciated and highly revered poets and dramatists. His murder by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish civil war brought sudden international fame, accompanied by an excess of political rhetoric which led a later generation to question his merits; after the inevitable slump, his reputation has recovered (largely with a shift in interest to the less obvious works). He must now be bracketed with Machado as one of the two greatest poets Spain has produced in the 20th century, and he is certainly Spain's greatest dramatist since the Golden Age.
I lugged this beast across Cuba 11 years ago. I'm curious to go back the Hennepin Country Library and see if that copy still has all the sand and stains it accumulated (though if it wasn't checked in the year after I retuned it, it was probably de-accessioned).
'Guadalquivir, high tower and wind in the orange groves.'
It was very strange to be traveling in a foreign country, overwhelmed with impressions, and to be in the midst of bookish raptures at the same time. You open your book, and look down from a new world in another new world. Cuba was called 'the Andalusia of the New World,' and reading Lorca in the Cuban countryside was fitting, and disorienting.
A specter trailing restless silver, the night wind with its sighing, reopened my old wound in its gray hands, moved on, and left me there desiring.
Wound of love, source to sustain my life with blood always new and light unblemished. Cleft in which the tongueless Philomel will find her nest, her grove, her grief replenished.
Ah, so sweet a sound inside my head! I shall lie down beside the simple flower on which your soulless beauty soars.
Then the meandering water will turn yellow as my blood keeps flowing through the marshy, moist and fragrant growth along the shores.
bu kitab谋n 枚yle ac谋 hikayesi var ki ge莽en seneki fuardan 眉f. fuarda 莽al谋艧谋yorum ak艧ama ekip geldi geziyoruz. kitab谋 buldum c眉zdanda para yok, 15 tl dedi, dedim abi geliyorum. gitmedim, gidemedim, yan谋mdakilerden de para isteyemedim. bir saat sonra durdu臒um stantta kendimden 3 ya艧 k眉莽眉k patronumdan yevmiyemi erken ald谋m. gittim. K陌TAP YOK. kim ald谋ysa abv 艧u anda nadirkitapta 50tl fln kitap. nys pdfi var. kendim basar谋m asfasdfasd :((:(:(:(:(:((
South Wind. Dark and burning, Soaked with orange blossoms, You come over my flesh, Bringing me seed Of brilliant gazes.
You turn the moon red, Make captive poplars moan, But you鈥檝e come too late! I鈥檝e already scrolled up the night Of my tale on the shelf!
Without any wind -Look sharp!- Turn, heart. Turn, my heart.
Northern air, While bear of the wind! You come over my flesh Shivering with boreal auroras, with your cape of phantom captains, laughing aloud at Dante. Oh polisher of the stars! But you鈥檝e come too late. My case is musty And I鈥檝e lost my key.
Without any wind -Look sharp!- Turn, heart. Turn, my heart.
Gnome breezes and winds From nowhere. Mosquitoes of the rose With pyramid petals. Trade winds weaned among rough trees, flutes in the storm, begone! My memory is chained; captive the bird that sketches the evening in song.
Things that go away never return- Everybody knows that. And in the bright crowd of the winds there鈥檚 no use complaining! Am I right, poplar, teacher of the breeze? There鈥檚 no use complaining!
Without any wind -Look sharp!- Turn, heart. Turn, my heart.
I think this book will be on my "currently reading" shelf forever - similar to the way some people keep a Bible on their nightstand... I love picking this up - and having the Spain of the 1920s & 30s wash over me... "Dry Land, quiet land of immense nights ... (Wind in the olive grove, wind in the sierra.)....." sigh...
Lorca riesce a fondere come forse nessuno ha mai saputo modernit脿 e tradizione. Ricerca per l'immagine preziosa e complessa, una generosa vena surrealista, l'influenza dei grandi simbolisti, si legano perfettamente alle metriche tradizionali, dal sonetto alle odi fino alle metriche flamenche, alle radici andaluse, alla purezza del mito. Romancero gitano a mio parere 猫 l'opera in cui meglio si contempla questa commistione: in un'Andalusia mitica, primitiva, sotto il raggio di una luna argentina, i gitani diventano i conservatori del sogno e della musica, custodi braccati dalle barbarie franchiste e moderne. Un capolavoro. Davvero struggente 猫 anche il tenero e sommesso lamento in onore dell'amico Ignacio S谩nchez Mej铆as, l'invincibile e leggendario torero trafitto e ucciso dall'eterno nemico; come suggestivo e malinconico nel ritmo cadenzato delle metriche tradizionali del canto profondo, un canto secondo Lorca antico quanto i popoli indoeuropei, 茅 il Poema del cante jondo.
The Silence 鈥淟isten, my child, to the silence. An undulating silence, a silence that turns valleys and echoes slippery, that bends foreheads toward the ground.鈥�
And Then 鈥淭he labyrinths that time creates vanish. (Only the desert remains.)
The heart, fountain of desire, vanishes. (Only the desert remains.)
The illusion of dawn and kisses vanish. Only the desert remains. Undulating desert 鈥�
When you highlight or underline every word, phrase, sentence and stanza on a page, you might as well just put the mind that wants to hold them poems in the hand to rest.
Lorca is an incantatory force of nature.
I'm happy that I've overcome my squeamishness about reading poetry in translation. It's not that I was wrong--what I've just finished reading are NOT the poems Lorca actually wrote. All translations are poems the translators wrote inspired by the original poems. The poems themselves have slippery enough language as it is! But alas, these echoes of Lorca are enough for me. This wonderful new edition has the Spanish originals on the left side of the page and the English on the right. My Spanish isn't good enough to get the texture of the originals; I can do nothing more than look over once in a while and either do a bleak word to word translation with my rusty memory of high school Spanish (not fun), OR, just SAY the Spanish poem out loud after I've read the English version. I found this incredibly rewarding. So much of Lorca is found in sound, and this way, I could get little peaks at his voice.
This version also begins with an EXCELLENT introduction to Lorca's socio-poetic heritage, interests, and legacy. I found myself flipping back to parts of the intro when making my way through the poems because Christopher Maurer provides a fine survey/analysis of some of Lorca's most common imagery and techniques: the moon, water, green etc...
But enough. To try and "figure" these poems is to miss the point. To do so is to "order the loves that soon become photographs" Lorca sighs in "Poet In New York."
These poems have changed my life. They have changed the way I'm writing poetry. They have changed the way I wake up. They have increased my Post-It flag consumption beyond all decorum. Lorca breaks the chains of our mirrors and our language. Even with all that said, I'm glad I didn't read him until this time in my life. I wasn't ready. I'm still not really. But he was the right poet at the exact right time for me as he was for the world.
If you're ready, buy this book and love it and let it love you. If, like me, you would be coming to Lorca having only read a few scraps of anthologized poetry, I suggest beginning with the Introduction and then diving into The Tamarit Divan. I'd follow that, in order, with Poet In New York, Songs, Gypsy Ballads, then Suites. After that, just pick a page a start reading.
What remains to be said of Lorca? What insights could I possibly add? I don鈥檛 know. But I do know one thing. For my money, Federico Garc铆a Lorca is the greatest poet who鈥檚 ever lived. It鈥檚 as simple as that. For those of you who follow my rather obnoxious Instagram account, you鈥檒l probably have seen me post various pieces from this gargantuan tomb of a collection. From December of last year to last night, seven long months I have lived in this man鈥檚 shadow. One must savor Lorca, one must only read him in the waning hours or the dead of the night鈥o do otherwise would be unthinkable. I tried only to read his poems when I felt utterly-beaten or tinged with that unspeakable feeling of melancholy, Duende. It鈥檚 only from that mental reference point can the true power of Lorca鈥檚 words be unlocked (or as true of a power a reader in translation can get).
His themes revolve (almost neurotically) around sex, death, love, childhood, and memory. For many poets these themes are well traveled ground, but Lorca is able, through some kind of incantatory magick, to render them afresh. To reopen those old wounds if you will鈥ith the simplest and most unadorned choice of words and phrasing. It鈥檚 no wonder his work is and was worshipped by host of song writers the world over like Dylan, Townes Van-Zandt, and most notably Leonard Cohen, who famously said that Lorca was the poet who unlocked his own voice as a songwriter. Lorca for me, made me understand that technical and cerebral ability is useless and has no place in poetry (or art) if it not is backed up in equal measure with a genuine display emotion. This is the pathway to the soul, and all others are duplicitous and fraudulent leading to mediocrity and moral bankruptcy. I have nothing more to add. Lorca should be experienced by all sentient beings. Maybe then we might achieve something akin to transcendence and true beauty.
Wow, a massive volume with a great introduction. I don't know what it is with me but I'm always going for the collected works of any poet I'm interested in. I don't know if that is always a good idea as it can be quite overwhelming to encounter a volume such as the size of this one which exceeds a thousand pages. That being said it also features the original language on the facing page which I always like to have when I hit thorny areas, it's also great fun to occasionally try and translate a poem into English for yourself. Lorca is considered one of the great modern poets, that in itself shows that the term modern is so broad as to mean almost anything. I suppose in his attempt to find an authentic vitality rather than nostalgia, sentimentality or a long past expiry date romanticism he is definetly experimental. Yet there is no doubt that the blood that runs through his work is deep red and of high temperature. Lorca was a poet who wanted his work to feel like it had grown out of the place which was so much of what he was, in this way he's somewhat like Frost. Although they "feel" very different for both the complexity of their thought is ingeniously hidden behind what at first would appear to be rather prosaic sentiments. I absolutely love this book, I wish I had known of Lorca many years ago when I traveled through southern Spain. It would be enjoyable to read them within the atmosphere that inspired them. There is a Selected Poems of Lorca from FSG that may appeal to some who want to give him a try but are a bit wary of the heft of this volume. My only complaint is that, as often seems to be the case, FSG has bound it very cheaply. You bend the spine at your own risk as the book tends to come apart. Considering this publisher is one of the most expensive out there I find it highly frustrating that their books are often very cheaply made.
just about as awesome as i remember when i read it is a younger, teenage poet. full of dark mystery, the moon, the half moon, spikenard, adultry, horses and so forth. the love poems are longing and enigmatic and a lot of it contains ample scenery of days that are lost to me. roving countrysides and mysterious horses and horseman. yet if you read this whole thing or make yr way thru lorca's collection, watchout to when he comes to new york! the anxieties of modern life are there in full effect all of a sudden in the 'poet in new york' section. beautiful and inspiring.
I can't give a star rating because it would be unfair. I just went through and read the poems that stuck out to me the most and I was so lost. I know they're supposed to have meanings behind them or tell a story but I honestly didn't know what the point is for most of them. Poetry and me are not friends. There were 2 that I liked Some Souls on page 53 and My Souls Shadows on page 41.
Federico Garcia Lorca's voice is unique, is universal, flows like spring water, like blood, like air in a closed room: he will never not be alive. An essential collection from a transcendent poet.
The biographical and literary introduction that begins this book is worth reading in itself to familiarize readers with Garcia Lorca's life and art.
The poems themselves, provided in the original Spanish on the left-hand page and in English on the right-hand page, are both simple and rich, pastoral and passionate. They are like eating a sensually ripe, warmed fruit that is sometimes sweet, sometimes tangy.
I was only interested in Lorca's poetry just before and after his masterful Poet in New York, and this collection confirmed for me that Poet in New York is indeed my favorite work by him, and he's not quite the same afterwards, and though there are flashes of similar amazing verbal acrobatics and alchemy in his earlier works (The Gypsy Ballades), they are not as heightened, extreme, or mind-blowing than those he performs in that masterpiece of his.
In an interview during the Spanish Civil war Lorca was asked if he was revolutionary. To which he responded, "All poets are revolutionaries.". Great works from a great artist.
When I first discovered the poetry of Federico Garc铆a Lorca, I was immediately taken in by its beautiful language use. I was particularly struck by "Romance son谩mbulo," which is included in the collection known as Primer Romancero Gitano (the Gypsy Ballads), perhaps Lorca's most famous collection. It remains my favorite poem of all time. While I had read some of the poems included in this book previously, most were new to me and gave me a renewed appreciation of Lorca's artistic brilliance and linguistic mastery.
This book compiles all of the known poems by Lorca for the first time and includes many poems not previously published. The collection is impressive, as is the quality of the translations. A dozen translators contributed to this work; their knowledge of Lorca and expertise with linguistic nuance were evident throughout. The bilingual edition allows readers to enjoy the original Spanish poems next to the English translations and compare the two versions. I enjoyed seeing how the works were translated and the word choices of the translators. Equally enjoyable are the Preface and extensive notes and bibliography at the end, which provide additional context for the poems and the times in which they were written.
I decided to use this book to check off two different categories for the reading challenges that I'm working on this year. For the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, I'm using this for "Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love." Just about any of the fourteen collections contained in this edition would work perfectly for that. For the Popsugar Reading Challenge, I used this for the advanced prompt "A book that's more than 800 pages." Weighing in at 1,056 pages, that seemed like a win to me. Knowing it would take me awhile to finish such an 800+ page book, I wanted to make sure that I picked one I would want to spend a lot of time with; this definitely checked the box in that regard.
When writing in Spanish, a language where most nouns end in either an 'a' or an 'o' the greater challenge would be the attempt to avoid rhyme. In English his translators make no attempt to duplicate his rhyme scheme. I look forward to hearing this poetry read in its original Spanish. In English one gets only a sense of the poet's thought. The poems are deeply personal and reveal a rather depressive personality of one who is self-absorbed and obsessive. One begins to understand why he would not keep silent for his own good when he returned to Spain. Like so many dissidents before and after him he might have survived in exile but separation from his native soil would have been intolerable. Some men seem to be born to be martyrs.
There are notes supplied in an end appendix but since the poems are not numbered and there are only rough page references following them is not easy. I claim no expertize in Spanish but in rendering the title La balada del agua del mar rather than Seawater Ballad or Salt Water Ballad I鈥檇 have said Sea Chanty. These may be Lorca鈥檚 Collected Verse but what they most reveal is a rather undisciplined cluttered personality leaving many versions of the same poems with no definitive indications of his preference or even completed versions of most poems. An editor鈥檚 nightmare it would seem.
Lorca was born to wealth and privilege but was not ashamed to associate with the local peasants in the countryside surrounding Granada though beyond writing about it no mention is made of his efforts to improve their lot.
Everything about this book is monumental including the sixty-four page introduction. In paperback the binding cannot survive the reading of it.
A behemoth of a collection, physically and lyrically, this includes pretty much everything of worth of Lorca you could want. Poetry, like children's literature, has no business being reviewed, so I'll leave it at this: if you love Lorca, you'll probably pee a little when you get this; if you love poetry and have no idea who Lorca is (simple version: gay socialist-poet shot by his own countrymen), you probably won't go wrong blind-buying it. A nice introduction and copious notes, of course, but who wants to read those?
read these poems with the idea that some of them would become puppet shows! they are beautiful in their imagery alone, but thinking in terms of literal illustration made me focus on them in a way that i might not other wise have. tom! i want this book back!!!
a cock blooms in a well. it is small and bright. then it gets big. it shoots up the well & kisses children yelling down. they retain the memory of this flashing cock forever. the word "oblong" is beautiful to them forever.