Lorca, Federico Garcia - Poem of the Deep Song

POEM OF THE DEEP SONG POEMA DEL CANTE JONDO

8 POEM OF THE DEEP SONG

POEM OF THE DEEP SONG POEMA DEL CANTEJONDO by

Federico Garcia Lorca Translated by

C arlo s B au er

T

City Lights Books San Francisco

© 1987 by City Lights Books Translation © 1987 by Carlos Bauer Poema del cante jondo was first published by Ulises: Madrid, 1931. Cover design by Gent Sturgeon

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Garcia Lorca, Federico, 1898-1936. Poem of the deep song Translation of: Poema del cante jondo. I. Title PQ6613.A763P613 1987 861'.62 87-11806 ISBN 0-87286-205-4 10987

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CONTENTS Introduction by Carlos Bauer

Baladilla de los Tres Rios / Little Ballad o f the Three Rivers

i 2

POEM A D E LA S1GUIR1YA GITANA Paisaje / Landscape La Guitarra / The G uitar El Grito / The Cry El Silencio / The Silence El Paso de la Siguiriya / The Passing Stage o f the Siguiriya Despues de Pasar / After Passing By Y Despues / A nd A fter That

6 8 10 12 14 16 18

PO EM A D E LA SO LEA Evocation / Evocation Pueblo / Village Punal / D agger Encrucijada / Crossroads jAy! / Ay! Sorpresa / Surprise La Soled / T he Soled Cueva / Cave Encuentro / Encounter Alba / Dawn

20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38

PO EM A D E LA SAETA Arqueros / Archers Noche / Night Sevilla / Sevilla Procesion / Procession Paso / Stage Saeta / Saeta Balcon / Balcony M adrugada / Before the Dawn

40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54

G R A FIC O

d e la

petenera

C am pana / Bell Camino / Road Las Seis Cuerdas / The Six Strings D anza / Dance M uerte de la Petenera / Death o f the Petenera Falseta / Guitar Flourish De Profundis / De Profundis Clamor / Death Knell

56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70

DOS M UCHACHAS L a Lola / Lola Amparo / A m paro

72 74

V1NETAS F L A M E N C A S Retrato de Silverio Franconetti / Portrait of Silverio Franconetti Juan Breva / Juan Breva Cafe Cantante / Flamenco C abaret

76 78 80

Lamentacion de la M uerte / Lam entation o f Death Conjuro / Incantation Memento / Memento

82 84 86

TRES C IU D A D ES M alaguefia / M alaguena Barrio de Cordoba / Neighborhood in Cordoba Baile / Dance

88 90 92

SEIS CAPR1CHOS A divinanza de la Guitarra / Riddle of the Guitar Candil / Oil Lam p Crotalo / Castanet Chumbera / Prickly Pear Pita / Maguey Plant Cruz / Cross

94 96 98 100 102 104

ESC EN A D EL T E N IE N T E C O R O N E L D E LA GUARD1A CIVIL Cuarto de Banderas / G uardroom Cancion del Gitano Apaleado / Song of

the Beaten Gypsy

106 114

D IA L O G O D E L A M A R G O Campo / Countryside Cancion de la M adre del Amargo / Song o f A m argo’s Mother

116 131

Translator’s Notes

133

INTRODUCTION In 1921, Federico Garcia Lorca wrote his first major work, Poem of the Deep Song. With this short book of poem s, the twenty-three-year old poet had crystallized the themes that would run through all his great works: love, death, and alienation. For Lorca, this book repre­ sents a first step o f exploration into the existential character o f the Andalusian soul. Lorca em ployed the same outlet — though in a som ewhat different way — that the A ndalusian people had tradition­ ally used to express their feelings: deep song. A few words about deep song or cante jondo. Lorca’s own ideas about its origins were influenced by the research o f his friend, the com poser Manuel de Falla. Lorca: “The historical events Falla [says] have influenced [our] songs are three: the Spanish Church adopting the Byzantine liturgical chant, the Saracen invasion, the arrival of num erous ban ds o f Gypsies. They are those mysterious, wandering folk who gave deep song its definitive form.” Ten years later, after new studies had been published in Spain, Lorca would speak o f the Sephardic influence on deep song. M ost students o f Spanish folk music believe that an antecedent to deep song — com bining native A n d al­ usian, A rab and Hebrew elements — existed prior to the arrival o f the Gypsies from India in 1477. What they maintain is that each succeeding immigration — especially Jew, Moor and Gypsy — grafted onto the primitive A ndalusian folk song parts o f their own musical traditions. Critics hold flamenco in lesser esteem than deep song, viewing flamenco as a mere shadow o f deep song, which has a far greater em otional and lyric impact. (An analagous situation in American music might be the relationship between blues and rock and roll.) O r as Lorca him self put it: “Local color [flamenco] as opposed to spiritual color [deep song] — that is the profound difference.” Cante jondo, in the 1880s, went from the seedy tavern to the caba­ ret and, in the process, changed from the plaintive, solitary cry o f the A ndalusian soul into the musical hall spectacular o f flamenco, where flashy commercialism gradually prevailed.

Lorca presents the four major songs that comprise cante jondo: The Gypsy Siguiriya. Lorca believed this song to be the “genuine, perfect prototype” o f deep song, the one that most preserved its ancient oriental origins. Siguiriyas are sung with a rising emotional tension, interrupted by sudden cries of anguish (the ay\), and unex­ pected silences. The song ends with a gradual fading away o f both voice and guitar. The lyrics express life’s most tragic dram as, its intensest moments. Because o f its extreme emotional dem ands, mastering the siguiriya is the apex o f a singer’s quest. The Soled. Soled is an A ndalusian corruption o f soledad, solitude. This song looks back to a tragic past. The mood is melancholy, and the lyrics show a resignation to fate. T he soled is also intended for dance. The Saeta. This song is a musical prayer that is sung during Holy Week in Sevilla. It is always sung without guitar accom panim ent, and always sung to Christ or the Virgin, representations o f whom are carried through the streets on hand-held floats (the Stages o f the Passion). When the procession stops, a saeta is sung as an offering. Saeta means arrow or barb, and Lorca plays on its double meaning; the piercing cries o f the saeta becom e arrows, and the singers o f saetas becom e archers. The Petenera. T he petenera is not usually considered to be part of cante jondo but rather an intermediate song, halfway between cante jondo and flamenco. Derived from A ndalusian folk song, it was later given its final form by Sephardic Jews. It is intended for dance, and has guitar accom panim ent. Its themes resem ble those o f the soled, as does its m ood o f bitter fatalism. For years it had been assum ed that Lorca wrote Poem of the Deep Song specifically for the “Com petition o f D eep Son g,” which was organized by Lorca and Manuel de Falla, and held in G ranada during June o f 1922. Recent scholarship, however, has shown that the seeds — if not the actual writing o f this book — were germinating long before the idea o f a com petition had even been suggested. The group to which Garcia Lorca and Falla belonged were concerned that deep song would disappear, as were many other Spaniards. (Lorca would later say: “T he artistic treasure o f an entire race is on the road to oblivion. . .O ld men are taking to the grave priceless treasures of

past generations. . . . ”) A lthough the group had originally wanted to start a cafe cantante dedicated to the preservation o f deep song, the project was never realized; but near the end o f 1921 the idea of the competition began to take shape. More than likely, Lorca began writ­ ing parts of “ Poem o f the Saeta” not long after a Holy Week excursion to Sevilla he m ade with Falla in the spring of 1921, that had affected him profoundly. Poem of the Deep Song was first published in 1931, a decade after it was written; however, it is not far different from the 1921 manuscript. In readying the work for publication, Lorca restructured the end of the book, m ade some final corrections, and added two dramatic dia­ logues (written in 1925) to fill out a very short volume o f poem s. He also eliminated some fourteen poem s from the book, though some had already been crossed out in pencil in the original manuscript. Poem of the Deep Song is in no way a book of imitation cante jondo lyrics, rather it is an exploration into the soul of this Gypsy-Andalusianflamenco cosmos: the poem s are images provoked by deep song, the emotions produced within the listener. Yet while Lorca strove to capture essences, his poem s express the same themes and world view as cante jondo, and they recreate a tapestry o f A ndalusia’s mystery and pain. The true A ndalusia, the one lying just beneath its sun­ drenched landscape. What we have here is not some tourist A ndal­ usia filled with happy-go-lucky Gypsies and picturesque whitewashed villages. Lorca has given us a corner of the earth that is populated by dead lovers and lost, wandering souls; where the blade of a knife flashing in the black, the desolate cry, and a millennium o f tears expose A n dalusia’s almost erotic passion for life, and for death. C a r lo s B a u e r

SB POEM OF THE DEEP SONG

B A L A D IL L A D E L O S T R E S R lO S A Salvador Quintero

El rio G uadalquivir va entre naranjos y olivos. Los dos rios de G ranada bajan de la nieve al trigo. /Ay, amor que se fue y no vino! El rio G uadalquivir tiene las barbas granates. Los dos rios de G ranada, uno llanto y otro sangre. jAy, amor que se fue por el aire! Para los barcos de vela, Sevilla tiene un camino; por el agua de G ranada solo reman los suspiros. ;Ay, amor que se fue y no vino! Guadalquivir, alta torre y viento en los naranjales. Darro y Genii, torrecillas muertas sobre los estanques.

2

L IT T L E B A L L A D O F T H E T H R E E R IV E R S To Salvador Quintero

The river G uadalquivir winds through orange and olive trees. The two rivers of G ranada descend from the snow to the wheat. Ay, love that went away and never returned! The river G uadalquivir has whiskers o f garnet. The two rivers o f Granada, one weeping and the other blood. Ay, love that went away through the air! For ships with sail Sevilla has a route; in the waters of G ranada only sighs row about. Ay, love that went away and never returned! Guadalquivir, a tall tower and wind in the orange groves. Darro and Genii, dead little towers rising from the lakes.

3

jAy, amor que se fue por el aire! jQuien dira que el agua lleva un fuego fatuo de gritos! jAy, amor que se fue y no vino! Lleva azahar, lleva olivas, A n d alu da, a tus mares. jAy, amor que se fue por el aire!

4

Ay, love that went away through the air! O n e c o u ld say th at the w ater carries a w ill-o’-th e-w isp filled w ith cries!

Ay, love that went away and never returned! C arry o ra n g e b lo sso m , carry oliv es, A n d a lu sia , d o w n to y o u r seas.

Ay, love that went away through the air!

5

93 POEMA DE LA SIGUIRIYA GITANA A Carlos Morla Vicuna

PAISAJE

El cam po de olivos se abre y se cierra como un abanico. Sobre el olivar hay un cielo hundido y una lluvia oscura de luceros frios. Tiem bla junco y penum bra a la orilla del no. Se riza el aire gris. Los olivos estan cargados de gritos. U n a bandada de pajaros cautivos, que mueven sus larguisimas colas en lo sombrio.

6

® POEM OF THE GYPSY SIGUIRIYA To Carlos Morla Vicuna

L A N D SC A P E

The field of olive trees opens and closes like a fan. Above the olive grove there is a sunken sky and a dark shower of cold stars. Bulrush and twilight tremble at the edge of the river. The grey air ripples. The olive trees are charged with cries. A flock of captive birds, shaking their very long tail feathers in the gloom.

7

LA GUITARRA

Empieza el llanto de la guitarra. Se rom pen las copas de la m adrugada. Empieza el llanto de la guitarra. Es inutil callarla. Es imposible callarla. Llora m onotona como llora el agua, como llora el viento sobre la nevada. Es imposible callarla. Llora por cosas lejanas. Arena del Sur caliente que pide camelias blancas. Llora flecha sin bianco, la tarde sin m anana, y el primer pajaro muerto sobre la rama. jOh guitarra! Corazon malherido por cinco espadas.

THE GUITAR

The weeping o f the guitar begins. Wineglasses shatter in the dead o f night. The weeping of the guitar begins. It’s useless to hush it. It’s im possible to hush it. It weeps on monotonously the way water weeps, the way wind weeps over the snowdrifts. It’s im possible to hush it. It weeps for things far, far away. For the sand o f the hot South that begs for white camellias. Weeps for arrows without targets, an afternoon without a morning, and for the first dead bird upon the branch. Oh, guitar! Heart gravely w ounded by five swords.

9

EL GRITO

La elipse de un grito va de monte a monte. Desde los olivos, sera un arco iris negro sobre la noche azul. iAy! C om o un arco de viola, el grito ha hecho vibrar largas cuerdas del viento. iAy! (Las gentes de las cuevas asom an sus velones.) iAy!

10

TH E CRY

The ellipse o f a cry travels from mountain to mountain. From the olive trees it appears as a black rainbow upon the blue night. Ay! Like the bow of a viola the cry has m ade the long strings o f the wind vibrate. Ay! (The folks from the caves stick out their oil lamps.) Ay!

11

EL SILENCIO

Oye, hijo mio, el silencio. Es un silencio ondulado, un silencio, donde resbalan valles y ecos y que inclina las frentes hacia el suelo.

12

TH E SILEN C E

Listen, my son: the silence. It’s a rolling silence, a silence where valleys and echoes slip, and it bends foreheads down towards the ground.

13

EL PASO DE LA SIGUIRIYA

Entre m ariposas negras, va una muchacha morena junto a una blanca serpiente de niebla. Tierra de luz, cielo de tierra. Va encadenada al temblor de un ritmo que nunca llega; tiene el corazon de plata y un purial en la diestra.