The Guitar by Federico García Lorca for National Poetry Month

[dragonyphoenix]

The Guitar by Federico García Lorca
Translated by Cola Franzen

The weeping of the guitar
begins.
The goblets of dawn
are smashed.
The weeping of the guitar
begins.
Useless
to silence it.
Impossible
to silence it.
It weeps monotonously
as water weeps
as the wind weeps
over snowfields.
Impossible
to silence it.
It weeps for distant
things.
Hot southern sands
yearning for white camellias.
Weeps arrow without target
evening without morning
and the first dead bird
on the branch.
Oh, guitar!
Heart mortally wounded
by five swords.

Comments

[mostly-irish.livejournal.com]

Oh I just LOVE this.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It really is beautiful. I had thought the last two lines were a tarot card image but it is the three of swords that has swords through a heart. Vivid image either way.

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

José Thomas, Eliot Fisk, and many others, and that's on recently. Classical guitar: beauty incarnate.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

That sounds beautiful. I spent the evening watching the best version (Masterpiece theater) I've seen of Sense and Sensibility. I wish my Mom were still alive so I could share it with her; she'd have loved it.

Lorca

[jeffery forney (from livejournal.com)]

I think it is a Tarot reference. The goblets of dawn represent happiness (X Cups). The three of swords represents heartbreak and the five of swords the cause of the heartbreak--hostility among friends. Maybe a reference to Lorca's friendship with Dali and the falling out they had with Luis Buñuel.

Re: Lorca

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Wow, you know both Tarot and poets. Interesting.

It weeps monotonously as water weeps I could also make a case for this being a Tarot reference, at least (I think) in the Crowley deck. There was one card depicing cups overflowing into water, an excess of water. I'd have to look it up to get more; it's late and I'm not sure where that book is.

Re: Lorca

[jeffery forney (from livejournal.com)]

http://www.losarcanos.com/cartas-tarot-def.php?c=c&n=1

Tal vez sea ésta la imagen.

Re: Lorca

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking, based on the cards I found online, it was the 7 of cups (http://tarot.com/tarot/decks/index.php?deckID=5&cardID=42).