No Comment, Quotation — June 28, 2009, 10:57 am

García Lorca — For the Love of Green

cezanne-lauves

Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura
ella sueña en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Bajo la luna gitana,
las cosas le están mirando
y ella no puede mirarlas.

Verde que te quiero verde.
Grandes estrellas de escarcha,
vienen con el pez de sombra
que abre el camino del alba.
La higuera frota su viento
con la lija de sus ramas,
y el monte, gato garduño,
eriza sus pitas agrias.
¿Pero quién vendrá? ¿Y por dónde…?
Ella sigue en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
soñando en la mar amarga.

Finish reading the poem here

Green, how I desire you, green.
Green wind. Green branches.
The ship upon the sea
and the horse in the mountains.
With the shade wrapped about her waist
she dreams on her balcony,
green flesh, a green coat,
with eyes of cold silver.
Green, how I desire you, green.
Beneath the gypsy’s moon,
all things follow her
yet she sees them not.

Green, how I desire you, green.
Big stars of frosted vapors
come with the fish of the shadows
that opens the path of daybreak.
The fig tree fondles its wind
with the sandpaper of its branches,
and the forest, cunning cat,
bristles its acrid thorns.
But who will come? And from where?
She remains on her veranda
green flesh, a green coat,
dreaming in the bitter sea.

Read the translation of William Logan here

Federico García Lorca, Romance sonámbulo first published in Romancero Gitano (1928)(S.H. transl.)

Listen to a reading of the poem here:

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Listen to Andrés Segovia perform the fandanguillo from Frederico Moreno Torroba’s Suite castellana:

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