00:00:00.000 - 00:00:03.300

Gabriel Berns: CANCION TONTA Mamá, yo quiero ser de plata. Hijo, tendrás mucho frío. Mamá. Yo quiero ser de agua. Hijo, tendrás mucho frío. Mamá. Bórdarme en tu almohada. ¡Eso sí! ¡Ahora mismo!

00:00:05.880 - 00:00:28.650

Morton Marcus: And the English of that poem is: Mama, I wish I were silver. Son, you'd be very cold. Mama, I wish I were water. Son, you'd be very cold. Mama, embroider me on your pillow. That, yes! Right away.

00:00:31.410 - 00:00:51.480

Gabriel Berns: The next one is somewhat typical of this early book in that it talks about a little animal, lagarto, and uses the diminutives. This one is called, "Lagarto Esta Llorando," the lizard is crying. In Spanish, it goes something like

00:00:51.480 - 00:01:04.110

this: LAGARTO ESTA LLORANDO El lagarto esta llorando. La garta esta llorando. El lagarto y la lagarta con delantalitos blancos. Han perdido sin querer

00:01:04.440 - 00:01:26.580

su anillo de desposados. Ay, su anillito de plomo, ay, su anillito plomado! Un cielo grande y sin gente monta en su globo a los pajaros. El sol, capitan redondo, lleva un chaleco de raso. Miradlos que viejos son! Que viejos son los

00:01:26.580 - 00:01:40.730

lagartos! Ay, como lloran y lloran, ay! ay! como estan llorando! Morton Marcus: THE LIZARD IS CRYING The he-lizard is crying. The she-lizard is crying. The

00:01:40.730 - 00:02:00.230

he-lizard and she-lizard with little white aprons have lost, without wanting to, their wedding ring. Their little leaden wedding ring, ah, their little ring of lead. A large sky without people carries the birds in its balloon. The sun, rotund

00:02:00.230 - 00:02:21.840

captain, wears a satin veskit. Look how old they ar , how old the lizards are. Oh how they cry and cry. Oh, ho they go on crying. And if we can skip, or do one more of this group, which is

00:02:21.840 - 00:02:38.300

called, "The King of Hearts," and maybe it should have been called, "The Silly Song." Gabriel Berns: I'd like to just mention one thing here that you started by saying that Lorca refused to acknowledge the real

00:02:38.300 - 00:02:52.400

date of his birth, there is not only vanity there but there is something about in Lorca, it seems to me, you find it in the plays, you find in the poetry, this whole idea of not really fully wanting to ever grow up. And I think that's one of the

00:02:52.430 - 00:03:00.980

charming things about Lorca and you find it particularly in the letters that he writes and maybe later on, we can look at some of these letters that he writes to all his friends, his poet friends.

00:03:01.080 - 00:03:15.420

Morton Marcus: Let's read this poem and then go to one of the letters that shows that, okay? Gabriel Berns: LOS REYES DE LA BARAJA Si tu madre quiere un rey, la baraja tiene cuatro: rey de

00:03:15.420 - 00:03:31.830

oros, rey de copas, rey de espadas, rey de bastos. Corre que te pillo, corre que te agarro, mira que te lleno la cara de barro. Del olivo, me retiro, del esparto yo me aparto, del sarmiento me arrepiento de haberte querido

00:03:31.830 - 00:03:44.490

tanto. Morton Marcus: Now you're going to see how the translation loses this because the rhythm in that, the back and forth rhythm really, well let's see, maybe we can get some of it in. These

00:03:44.490 - 00:03:55.590

translations, by the way that we've been reading from are by many hands. The one I'll be reading from now is by Will Kirkland. And the poem that Gabe has read is: THE KINGS OF THE DECK

00:03:57.100 - 00:04:12.700

If your mother wants a king, the deck of cards has four: the King of Cups, the King of Clubs, the King of Swords, the King of Gold. Run or I'll catch you, run or I'll squeeze you, watch out or I'll give you a mud pie– a faceful. From the olive tree I

00:04:12.700 - 00:04:26.580

retreat, from the esparto grass I move apart, from the vine shoots I repent of having loved you so. Gabriel Berns: In the Spanish, it sounds even more like the kind of poems that children will recite as they're jumping rope

00:04:26.580 - 00:04:39.290

or playing street games. It seems that way to me. Morton Marcus: Yeah. Well, the way you read it, it's certainly lost that wonderful contrapuntal rhythm, right? Gabriel Berns: Talking about contrapuntal rhythm, that sounds

00:04:39.290 - 00:04:55.220

a bit like an academic statement. And here in this letter that Lorca writes in 1926, from Grenada to Jorge Guillen, who was a poet, really of his generation, but a bit older, and became a poet professor, and actually taught

00:04:55.220 - 00:05:08.930

in this country, taught at Johns Hopkins and at Harvard. And he writes to him when Guillen was in [unidentified], and says the following, and I think this is kind of interesting and worth citing:

00:05:09.620 - 00:05:23.070

My dear George, in spite of your promise, I have not yet received a letter and know nothing's of your doings this summer. I have decided to take exams for a professorial post in literature- [Comment] kind of hard to think of Lorca as being a professor of

00:05:23.070 - 00:05:36.050

literature. Because I think I have the vocation. It is slowly growing in me and the capacity for enthusiasm. Besides, I want to be independent and to affirm my personality within my family,

00:05:36.530 - 00:05:48.860

who gives me naturally everything I need and require. The minute I mentioned it in the house, it made my parents extremely happy, and they've promised me if I begin to study promptly, to give me money for a trip to Italy, which I've

00:05:48.860 - 00:06:04.790

dreamed about for years. I am decided and want to be even more decided, but I don't know how things are done. Of course, I'll have to bang my head against the wall in order to accomplish this because I don't eat or drink or understand anything but poetry

00:06:05.450 - 00:06:22.490

and that's why I turn to you. What do you think I ought to do in order to begin in earnest my preparation for a professorship? Yes, professor of poetry. What must I do? Where do I go? What should I study? What disciplines would be suitable for me? Answer

00:06:22.490 - 00:06:37.300

me, I'm in no rush but I want to do this in order to justify my poetic attitude. Be good, and answer me immediately. So Lorca thinks there's a secret to being a professor. Morton Marcus: Lorca, as I said, was raised near Granada. He

00:06:37.370 - 00:06:53.870

always loved the land and at about the age of nineteen or twenty, he went to Madrid to college. And it's interesting though he always felt himself a part of Granada, he actually left the area and would live in cities, would live in Madrid for

00:06:53.940 - 00:07:10.790

the rest of his life, coming back to Granada very tragically in that last month, or several months before his death, which of course has really martyred him and made him such a romantic figure, I think, to everyone. But what we are now going to do

00:07:10.860 - 00:07:23.550

is we're going to talk about and read from the Lorca, who is the Well, the cante jondo, it's kind of a complicated subject and I'm other Lorca that we gave you the light Lorca. Now, this man who was very mad cap, who was the life of the party, and very

00:07:23.620 - 00:07:39.640

joyous, had this other side and really had a tragic vision of life in which he felt, obviously, everything comes to death, that we are moved by passions inside us that we cannot control, and we are moved by outside forces also, that we

00:07:39.710 - 00:07:56.020

cannot control, and that everything in the end leads to death, violence, and sexuality. Let us read, before we even go on with some of those ideas, let us read his- from his collections that around 1921, he started to collect cante jondo.

00:07:56.080 - 00:08:09.520

Why don't you, Gabe, tell us a little bit about cante jondo and these collections and- Right and it is something that has gone on for centuries and not a musicologist, but the cante jondo is basically the

00:08:09.520 - 00:08:20.560

Gypsy song. It means "deep son ," and the jondo is the hondo, i 's the depth. And there are ll kinds of theories as to wh centuries and centuries, as Gabe said, so we don't know re this music comes from, that it came by way of India, that

00:08:20.560 - 00:08:37.150

it came by way of Egypt. And it' a kind of music that is tremendously melancholy, m re than melancholy, it se ms anguished, it's filled with anguish, and there are shou s of "ay" constantly, and s outs of longing for something th

00:08:37.150 - 00:08:52.930

t isn't exactly definable, that is, the singer always seems o be in search of something that he can't possibly find and at times doesn't even know what it is he's looking for. Th guitar poem that I think you' e going to read now has th

00:08:52.930 - 00:09:12.040

t whole quality to it. It's guitar music according to Lorca in this poem seems to a ways be searching for something that he can never possibly fi d, it's kind o necessarily where it comes from. Lorca loved the Gypsy culture

00:09:12.070 - 00:09:27.610

and in around 1921, he started to collect cante jondo, which he thought, and Manuel de Fall thought, were going to die out And as we will see, this- so e will read two poems from, Conte Jondo," which was written robably and finished by 1921,

00:09:27.640 - 00:09:40.210

hough I've also read- I'll keep hat; Gabe's nodding, so I'll eep that. But it was not publi hed until 1931, and I don't wa t to go into that, whether h was happy or unhappy with the ook, but whatever the case was the book was not published

00:09:40.210 - 00:09:54.100

ntil 1931. We're going to rea two poems from, "Cante Jondo, and one of them is going to b "The Guitar" and the other s on a singer of [unidentifi d]. Is that how you pronou Gabriel Berns: More or less.

00:09:54.570 - 00:10:02.380

Morton Marcus: Give me the more. Gabriel Berns: I will when it's time to read. Morton Marcus: Okay, great, great. Here's: THE GUITAR, we're going to read this in English first and then

00:10:02.380 - 00:10:20.430

Gabe is going to read the Spanish. The cry of the guitar begins. The crystals of dawn breaking. The cry of the guitar begins. It's useless to stop it. It's impossible to stop it. It's cry monotonous as the weeping of

00:10:20.430 - 00:10:36.780

water, as the weeping of wind over the snowfall. It's impossible to stop it. It cries for distant things, sand of the scalding South seeking white camelias, it mourns the arrow without target, evening without morning, and the first bird dead

00:10:36.780 - 00:10:57.810

upon the branch. Oh guitar, heart wounded, by five shadows. Gabriel Berns: That really is a wonderful tone. Let's see if I can do it justice in Spanish. Empieza el llanto de la guitarra. Se rompen las copas de

00:10:57.810 - 00:11:21.330

la madrugada. Empieza el llanto de la guitarra. Es inútil callarla. Es imposible callarla. Llora monótona como llora el agua, como llora el viento sobre la nevada Es imposible callarla, Llora por cosas lejanas. Arena del Sur caliente que pide

00:11:21.360 - 00:11:42.600

camelias blancas. Llora flecha sin blanco, la tarde sin mañana, y el primer pájaro muerto sobre la rama ¡Oh guitarra! Corazón malherido por cinco espadas Morton Marcus: And then there were the singers of these songs

00:11:42.600 - 00:11:54.150

and of course you probably know some of the songs of course soleares, for example, and you people out there who know anything about flamenco guitar playing, these are all the names of Gypsy flamenco songs, which are the same thing. There's the

00:11:54.150 - 00:12:10.030

saeta, for example, he wrote a long poem called "Saeta," that is again merely a Gypsy song without guitar accompaniment. Do you know the, "Saetas," too? This is a very interesting thing because anyone who's been to Sevilla, for example, or Malaga

00:12:10.030 - 00:12:28.510

during Holy Week, during Semana Santa knows that as the procession comes down the streets, these things sometimes that weigh a ton where all these men are underneath these very, very heavy platforms, carrying the Virgin or carrying Jesus on

00:12:28.510 - 00:12:45.190

the cross, suddenly a voice will come from nowhere, singing the, "Saeta," which really means an "arrow." And the whole procession stops dead in its tracks, the men lower the platform to the ground until the song is over. So, it really is

00:12:45.190 - 00:12:58.950

like an arrow that's shot from a balcony or from the heavens, singing in praise of the person being carried. It's very, very impressive, there's an absolute silence. Let me say as I look at, you know, one religious group, one

00:12:59.760 - 00:13:13.470

race trying to destroy another in this world, that one of the great ironies - and I lov flamenco music - one of t e ironies that whenever I hear a flamenco singer, especial y singing a saeta is, my Lord how cantorial and Jewish it is

00:13:13.740 - 00:13:32.190

my Lord, how Arabic and Musli it is. And it's all everything Spain, the Arab world, th Jewish world, all knotte together in maybe the greates of the medieval countries i Europe, in Europe certainly. An it is just such an irony tha

00:13:32.190 - 00:13:44.460

people now have to go killin each other for the things tha they have mutual strength an roots from Gabriel Berns: That's a great point. Actually, according to the greatest story in Américo Castro, the Spanish historian,

00:13:44.490 - 00:13:55.790

Spain really didn't begin to exist until these three cultures meshed and that's why Spain is different as all the posters will tell you. Morton Marcus: Well, I'm still going to say it wrong because he

00:13:55.790 - 00:14:11.750

refuses to correct me. The saeta singers are a point in which Lorca- he's fascinated by them. And we're going to read his portrait of what he considers, I think he considers Silverio Franconetti the greatest of them. He said about all these

00:14:11.750 - 00:14:26.870

singers, they sing their anguish and they sing their hearts. Their bodies are controlled by duende. And people say well, duende means blues, duende means feelings. And stop me if I'm wrong on this one, Gabe, because I think I know what it means.

00:14:27.950 - 00:14:39.890

Lorca said in a wonderful little book, which I would suggest to everyone out there and I just learned is still in existence in a paperback by New Directions, which is called, "Federico Garcia Lorca: Deep Song and Other Prose." He talks about

00:14:39.890 - 00:14:56.030

duende, and he says, "when we hear an angelic voice, it comes from without us." And when we hear, when we are inspired by a muse, it comes from without us. So there's sort of something heavenly and otherworldly about those two things, but when I

00:14:56.030 - 00:15:09.830

talk about duende, he said, I'm talking about something inside us, something that erupts out of us, something that we can't control. So you can look at this as the demonic, the satanic, and it will control us in passion, it will control us in feelings,

00:15:09.830 - 00:15:22.330

it will in control us in violence, but it is also the very root of the mystery of art. And it almost gets indefinable from that point. Gabriel Berns: It almost sounds, I mean, you put it in a way that

00:15:22.330 - 00:15:37.600

Lorca himself would have put it. I think, coming from within is absolutely the case but also, Lorca, in speaking about the duende, says that it very often rises up through the soles of the feet, in other words, your feet- and this is also very

00:15:37.600 - 00:15:51.340

Spanish, your your feet in contact with the soil, if you have what it takes, the duende will come up from the soil through your feet. So it has a lot to do with the Spanish culture itself and with being this big word that's used all

00:15:51.340 - 00:16:10.510

the time, [unidentified] that is having to do with the earth. And he also says when people shout "Olé" when they hear a great flamenco singer or even when they watch a great Gypsy Toledo bullfighter, they shout "Olé" according to Lorca, that's the

00:16:10.510 - 00:16:21.180

recognition that the duende has entered into the body and into the very being of that character or that person. So it's a fascinating idea. Morton Marcus: Well, let's read this one poem, and then we're

00:16:21.180 - 00:16:36.030

going to go on to poems that just have duende gushing blackly out of them. And this anyway is the portrait of Silverio Franconetti and the other thing that Lorca said about these people, almost as an aside, but of course, it's one of those

00:16:36.030 - 00:16:47.850

things that capture imaginations, so much do they sing their souls, their duende, that many of them die of stroke or heart attack in the middle of the song. Now, whether that is romanticizing the situation, I don't know. But here is his

00:16:47.850 - 00:17:04.760

picture of Silverio Franconetti. With what the Italian and the flamenco, how would he sing the Silverio? The thick honey of Italy flowed with our lemon in the deep lament of the siguiriyero. His cry was

00:17:04.760 - 00:17:20.060

terrible. The old people say he used to make your hair stand on end and split the quiksilver from the mirrors. He passed through the notes without breaking them and he was a creator and a gardener, a creator, of bowers for silence.

00:17:21.350 - 00:17:40.220

Now his melody sleeps with the echoes, final and pure, with the last echoes. Gabriel Berns: It is a wonderful translation actually. Morton Marcus: That's by William O'Brien, the translations.

00:17:41.870 - 00:18:02.630

Entre italiano y flamenco, ¿cómo cantaría aquel Silverio? La densa miel de Italia con el limón nuestro, iba en el hondo llanto del siguiriyero. Su grito fue terrible. Los viejos dicen que se erizaban los cabellos, y se abría el azogue de los

00:18:02.630 - 00:18:25.400

espejos. Pasaba por los tonos sin romperlos. Y fue un creador y un jardinero. Un creador de glorietas para el silencio. Ahora su melodía duerme con los ecos. Definitiva y pura. ¡Con los últimos ecos!

00:21:20.380 - 00:21:33.070

This is the Poetry Show and this is Mort Marcus again, and today with Gabriel Berns, Professor of Spanish literature at the University of California here in Santa Cruz, we are celebrating the day before it happened eighty-eight years ago, the

00:21:33.070 - 00:21:46.930

birth of Federico Garcia Lorca. But before we get back to the show, I know we have not, let me assure you, got nearly where we intended to and we really have to make the show five hours long, folks. But let me give you two announcements that I do

00:21:46.930 - 00:22:06.820

have: again, submissions are being accepted for In Celebration of the Muse which will begin September 6th but the work that you send in has to be in by, let's see if I can find it here, July 15th, 1986. Call Patrice Vecchione at 462-1176 if

00:22:06.820 - 00:22:21.790

you are a woman poet who lives in Santa Cruz County and wants to take part In the Celebration of the Muse readings. The sixth year for this annual event, and it has been a very fine one in all past six years, not only having some of the finest women

00:22:21.790 - 00:22:34.900

poets in the area, but introducing us to new and young poets and sometimes new women poets who have just moved into the area. So, if you want to take part in the Celebration of the Muse readings, call Patrice Vecchione, the telephone number

00:22:35.110 - 00:22:57.520

462-1176, or Amber Coverdale Sumrall, 335-4084. The only readings I have to tell you about actually are next Wednesday, and that's at Sweet Williams on June the 11th when B.J. McGrath, Ken Weisner, and yours truly, Mort Marcus will be

00:22:57.520 - 00:23:11.020

reading and I will be reading some new poems that I have never read before and we'll be trying them out in the audience. So please come, bring some rotten tomatoes and hopefully we'll see you there. Joe will announce that next week as you know,

00:23:11.200 - 00:23:25.360

Sweet Williams is on Seabright Avenue and holds readings every other week, 538 Seabright Avenue, so just put it on your list, and Joe will tell you more next week. Well, we are once more listening to some Gypsy guitar in the background and we

00:23:25.360 - 00:23:39.840

are going to launch into the book and when it came out in 1927 I do believe. Was it 27? 28? Yeah. Gabriel Berns: [Inaudible] Morton Marcus: So you would say what?

00:23:39.900 - 00:23:55.430

Gabriel Berns: I would say '28 for the "Gypsy Ballads." Morton Marcus: Okay. When it came out, he was the instant darling of both the intellectuals and very, very shortly thereafter, the common people of Spain, and he was the

00:23:55.430 - 00:24:09.860

poet therefore who, unfortunately to many of the other fine wonderful Spanish poets, who Western Europe and the United States knew. Added to this would be his death, which I hope we'll have time to talk about, in '36. What he did in

00:24:09.890 - 00:24:25.370

these wonderful little poems- and we are listening to the guitar of Manitas de Plata, or Little Hands of Silver, in the background when he was a great flamenco guitarist before the world discovered him and he discovered the world. And now

00:24:25.370 - 00:24:45.980

listen to some of this. I will let that continue in the background. Anyway he collected or it seems like he actually wrote his own ballads in old medieval form. And he injected into them this new twin path

00:24:46.010 - 00:24:59.210

hat was going on in Spanish iterature, discover the roots, iscover the traditions, which or him were the Gypsies, and he other was to look towards he European reaction to the ar. And that meant the avant- arde literature that was

00:24:59.210 - 00:25:17.300

appening mostly in France, e're talking about Ultrai mo, a very violent, Ultraismo, very violent use of metapho , which he employs, and also S rrealism, or the language of dre m, the language of the uncons ious, a lot of the investigati

00:25:17.300 - 00:25:35.240

n of the psyche, and Freudian i eas come into this. So, what we find in these wonderful bal ads, and I'll let Gabe take ver and make some comments on th s, is an old folk form, and in e sence, he is using the old folk allad stories, which- and

00:25:35.240 - 00:25:50.720

the images therefore are image out of folklore, not neces arily Surrealism. But on he other hand, you've got th s avant-garde poet writing hese things, very much aware of reudian truths that are goi g on, as we will read in the fi

00:25:50.720 - 00:26:06.500

st poem that I'm going to read. nd then this real sense of a uni ersal life that is even beyond the Andalusian life and a life that reflects his ideas, as I talked before about the tr gic vision in duende, in which love becomes destruction, violen

00:26:03.680 - 00:26:15.950

[Music] e erupts out of us, and death is everywhere, but [unintelligible . Gabriel Berns: I think what we really should remember is that

00:26:16.070 - 00:26:26.720

folk poetry has always been filled with surrealism, and folk poetry isn't afraid to use images that don't have any Morton Marcus: Didn't he write to Guillen about that? logical explanation. So that Lorca in being not a folk poet,

00:26:26.720 - 00:26:43.220

although a lot of his poetry may sound like folk poetry, he is taking from the people and giving back to the people. And in fact, it's been said, and I'm sure it's true, that many of th ballads that people sing in outhern Spain have- were written

00:26:43.220 - 00:26:56.660

by Lorca, but the people singing them haven't the slightest idea. They assume that it's part of the old culture and folk traditi n. And these poems of the Gy sy Ballads, "Romancero Gitano," ave a bit of everything. I mean, they have death, they have sex,

00:26:56.660 - 00:27:12.110

they have drama, they have dirt old man, they have it all, and hey are probably the most dramat c of Lorca's poems. He lived t rue the day, by the way, t at he became so famous because f them because he was afraid e was going to be considered f

00:27:12.110 - 00:27:28.320

rever a poet of the popular, r poet of the Gypsies, it reall bothered him a lot. Gabriel Berns: Yes, he did. He said, I am not a Gypsy poet and I will never write about this subject again, so he claimed.

00:27:28.470 - 00:27:38.310

And the Gypsies he's writing about are not necessarily real Gypsies, they're somewhat mythologized, they're kind of mythic Gypsies in many ways. Morton Marcus: I'm glad you're getting to that. There are two

00:27:38.310 - 00:27:49.770

other things that I want to say for those people out there who are tired of all this definition. I think it's important. One we're going to talk about is the imagery, the other is why the Gypsies become so idealized. The subject for

00:27:49.770 - 00:28:05.880

these poems were always the freedom of the Gypsies who are many times smugglers and their fight with the established order, the Guardia Civil, who are the police, and even now, Guardia Civil de Carboneras, I think they were called the tax

00:28:05.880 - 00:28:27.330

police or, you know, the anti-smuggling police. What Lorca does with that, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, is that he makes the essential drama, or dresses in the costume of his great theme, which was primitivism versus civilization.

00:28:28.380 - 00:28:46.620

And what I mean by that is the force, the life force that is in us, you see, gets warped, gets bent, and finally gets destroyed by civilization. And that is all the rules of middle class society, all the rules of society in general. And that is

00:28:46.620 - 00:28:59.610

what is going on in one poem after another, and the carriers of this primitivism, the characters of this duende, which comes to the surface are the Gypsies. And when he goes to America, it's the blacks, all right, who again are

00:28:59.610 - 00:29:09.720

romanticized by him. Gabriel Berns: Right, I think that's true. I think also it's the margin, that means the marginal people. And then u until very recently, I remembe being in Spain, in Toled

00:29:09.720 - 00:29:25.110

Gypsies were not allowed insid the walls of the city in Toled , that is they were always on th - they could come in perhaps to o some begging and do so e selling, but they weren t allowed to stay. So all the r camps and wherever they liv

00:29:25.110 - 00:29:39.570

d, their carts, were all outs de the wall. I remember as a yo ng man being so- I hadn't seen so many Gypsies and knowing t at they could not go in to live. So he's interested also in he marginal people, those peo le that are on the outside

00:29:39.570 - 00:29:53.940

of society, but I think you re right, they do represent a k nd of vital force. And then he other forces, in this case, l ke the Guardia Civil in one poe that I think you're going t read also, that's almost the fo ce of death, but not the death t

00:29:53.940 - 00:30:05.750

at he finds fertile, but the death that really does in this vital force that he finds n the Gypsies and also in the n the blacks in New Morton Marcus: Well, without further ado, I would like to get

00:30:05.750 - 00:30:20.450

into one of my favorite of these Gypsy ballads, and instead of maybe reading the whole poem, so we can have time for the great lament to the bullfighter Ignacio Mejias Sanchez Mejias, let us go through maybe half of this poem to pick up the rhythms

00:30:20.450 - 00:30:33.710

and to pick up - which are the generally eight-beat lines but they don't have beats, they just have eight syllables in them - and pick up this assonant rhyme that he uses throughout and read around the first half of, "Preciosa and the Wind."

00:30:33.830 - 00:30:46.900

Gabriel Berns: Okay. PRECIOSA Y EL AIRE Su luna de pergamino Preciosa tocando viene por un anfibio sendero de cristales y laureles. El silencio sin

00:30:46.900 - 00:31:06.460

estrellas, huyendo del sonsonete, cae donde el mar bate y canta su noche llena de peces. En los picos de la sierra los carabineros duermen guardando las blancas torres donde viven los ingleses. Y los gitanos del agua levantan por

00:31:06.700 - 00:31:26.140

distraerse, glorietas de caracolas y ramas de pino verde. Su luna de pergamino Preciosa tocando viene. Al verla se ha levantado el viento que nunca duerme. Morton Marcus: A part of the metaphor, which is the actual

00:31:26.650 - 00:31:43.870

word that he was making into a metaphor, or the concept he was making into metaphor, so when I start this poem, I'm going to say "Preciosa comes tapping her parchment moon." What is really going on is Preciosa comes tapping her tambourine, which is

00:31:43.870 - 00:32:01.570

a like a parchment moon. But what Lorca does is he leaves out the prosaic reference, and he makes you make these imaginative leaps with him. So let's listen to that happening here. There's another thing when she goes along the trail, which is an

00:32:01.570 - 00:32:16.180

amphibious trail, it says here it is a trail which is "crystal and laurel." Well, on one side since it's near the sea, it's crystal, it's laurel, but on the other side where it's crystal, what he's talking about is the sea-like glass, you see, but he

00:32:16.180 - 00:32:29.310

never mentions the word sea. Your imagination has to picture that, it's what Gabe said what he leaves out is so wonderful, to allow you to experience the poem a little more. The old ballad form too, the ballad form of the 14th, 13th,

00:32:29.340 - 00:32:44.970

14th centuries, somebody, a great critic said that what's so marvelous about them is that they know when to stop, they stop on time, they don't tell you too much. And that does hold your interest, and it is fascinating when it's not all

00:32:44.970 - 00:33:03.830

said, and it allows you to imagine all kinds of things, and Lorca's poetry does this. The- about this, this is very similar in this way to Scottish and English ballads. Let's read this, and this poem to me - if

00:33:03.830 - 00:33:15.110

you want to know what I think is going on - I think this is really a poem about a girl's sexual awakening in very, very Freudian symbols very, very universal symbols, it recalls I'm sure for a lot of the listeners, Greek myths, a lot of

00:33:15.110 - 00:33:27.890

different Greek myths. Lorca said he was totally unaware of that when he wrote this, but I love this poem, I love- the Saint Christopher that's spoken about in here, don't let it confuse you. He is a Saint Christopher, right out of

00:33:27.890 - 00:33:42.380

Dionysus and Baccus, who are the same, and that's how I imagine him. Anyway, all of the elements we've talked about are in this poem. Here is, "Preciosa and the Air," and this is my translation folks. So, I am to blame for everything. And Gabe is gonna

00:33:42.380 - 00:33:53.940

look at it word for word, and he's probably going to go through the chair. PRECIOSA AND THE AIR Preciosa comes tapping her parchment moon, along an

00:33:53.940 - 00:34:11.970

amphibious path of crystals and laurels. The starless silence, fleeing before her rapping, falls where the sea beats and sings its night full of fishes. [on the peaks of the fishes] On the peaks of the mountain, the policeman sleep, guarding the

00:34:11.970 - 00:34:29.970

white towers where the English live. And the Gypsies of water build for their own amusement groves of seashells and branches of green pines. Preciosa comes tapping her parchment moon. On seeing her, a wind has risen that never sleeps. Naked Saint

00:34:29.970 - 00:34:52.350

Christopher, full of celestial tongues, looks at the girl playing her sweet mery tune. Girl, let me lift your dress, so I can see you. Let the blue rose of your belly open in my fingers. Preciosa flings her tambourine and runs away without

00:34:52.350 - 00:35:12.720

stopping. The wind giant pursues her with his hot sword. The sea wrinkles in disapproval, the olive trees turn pale, the flutes of shadow sing, and so does the gong of snow. Preciosa, run, Preciosa! Or he'll catch you, the green wind. Preciosa,

00:35:12.720 - 00:35:30.690

run, Preciosa! Look, here he comes, that satyr under the stars, with his tongues glittering. Preciosa, full of fear, enters the house where above the pines the English consul lives. Startled by her cries, the three policemen come

00:35:30.810 - 00:35:51.870

wrapped in their black capes and their caps on their foreheads. The Englishman gives the Gypsy girl a glass of warm milk, and a small cup of gin that Preciosa does not drink. And while she tells, weeping, her adventure to those men, the wind, in rage,

00:35:51.960 - 00:36:03.480

bites at the slates of the roof. Gabriel Berns: I think it's very good. Lorca would have liked it, of course Lorca didn't know any English. That's why he would have liked it! [Laughter]

00:36:03.360 - 00:36:15.420

No, but he would have liked it. I think you're very faithful and I think it certainly gets across what's going on. What I really like a lot about it is the f ct that when she runs to civilization to save her rom this dirty old man wind,

00:36:15.420 - 00:36:26.880

the wind-man, she goes to the English and all they can t ink of doing is giving her a g ass of warm milk, which is oth nice, but also a little bit ame for what's going on in the e rly part of the p

00:36:27.030 - 00:36:39.150

Morton Marcus: I also like the r striction. They give her a g ass of milk, but then what they ive her for the gin is much maller, right? It's an English rink, but it's also a much, uch smaller glass. We don't ive her too much.

00:36:39.000 - 00:36:51.300

Gabriel Berns: It's a copa [cr ss talk] It would be hard to s rve milk in a copa, anyhow. A c pa really is for something a cohol Morton Marcus: Another one of the images from this that I love

00:36:51.300 - 00:37:04.050

so much are the "Gypsies of water," here it sounds so surreal, but to me it is again one of these wonderful metaphors. "The Gypsies of water build for their own amusement rows of seashells and branches of green pines." All he's

00:37:04.050 - 00:37:16.200

talking about is the tide coming in, and it goes out, which wanders just as Gypsies do. And so what they're building is, they're pushing up seashells and they're pushing up the pines by making them grow and any branches that have been caught

00:37:16.200 - 00:37:28.360

out to sea. Gabriel Berns: But it could also be something as simple as a vision of Gypsies on the shore playing with shells and pines, a rather playful scene. I think Lorca's surrealism is based on

00:37:28.390 - 00:37:44.830

observations as well. You know, also that he and a group of other poets, Alberti and several others, used to roam Andalusia looking for Gypsy singers. Actually, they went with Ignacio Sanchez Mejias, the fighter, to find Gypsy singers, and they

00:37:44.830 - 00:37:54.760

loved doing that, of discovering the great singers of Southern Spain. Morton Marcus: Well, again, this time is just leaving us here. I guess what we're gonna have to do is when I read the,

00:37:54.760 - 00:38:06.790

"Sonambulos Ballads," and we're going to have to leave- this is the most famous of Lorca's poems, "Sonambulo's Ballad," "The Sleepwalker's Ballad," but we're going to have to leave another poem that I would urge everyone out there to, while

00:38:06.790 - 00:38:19.000

it's not in here, and that is, "The Faithless Wife," which really is the poem that maybe is loved more than any other of his in Spain. Gabriel Berns: I don't know about that, I really don't know.

00:38:19.000 - 00:38:29.710

I would say the most popular is the one that we're going to read, “Romance sonámbulo.” But the other one I think has always given people a lot of trouble, they may know it, but I don't know if it's the most beloved.

00:38:29.870 - 00:38:40.430

Morton Marcus: Well, maybe not beloved, but certainly the most interesting as it is the most graphically sexual- Gabriel Berns: That's for sure. Morton Marcus: -and beautifully, I mean lyrically sexual, it's

00:38:40.430 - 00:38:53.540

just really, really gorgeous. Okay, we're going to read this, "Sonambulo's Ballad," and Gabe, how do you want to do this? You want me to- because I do want you to read the whole thing. Shall I read the English first so they can really listen to the

00:38:53.540 - 00:39:00.320

language? Gabriel Berns: Fine, that sounds like a good idea. Morton Marcus: Okay. Gabriel Berns: I would just like to suggest to the people, listen

00:39:00.590 - 00:39:15.740

for the drama of it all because it isn't just by chance that Lorca became a dramatist, a famous dramatist, and may be as well-known in some parts of the world for his three- his trilogy of tragedies he had: "Yerma," "Blood Wedding," and "The House

00:39:15.770 - 00:39:31.580

of Bernarda Alba," which by the way, is going to have a new production in London with the lady who plays in the "Turtle Diary," with Glenda Jackson, as Bernarda Alba. It's opening very soon I just read. So I think you should listen for the drama of

00:39:31.580 - 00:39:40.910

this because I believe you can already see theater, well, you can see theater from the beginning I think in Lorca's poetic production. Morton Marcus: Well, let me give a two-line precis of what this

00:39:40.910 - 00:39:49.970

thing may be about. And then you just correct me because there are just so many interpretations, no one really knows what this means. Lorca himself says he does not know what this means, but there is a very mysterious but maybe simple

00:39:49.970 - 00:40:05.840

story. And I would just suggest that the story might be that a girl has been waiting for her boyfriend who is a smuggler, and she has been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, cooped up in this house. Finally, the smuggler arrives in this night

00:40:05.840 - 00:40:24.950

scene full of green shadows and asks the girl's father to take him to his daughter, or he says that he wants to die because he has been shot by the policeman, coming over the Pass of Cabra, and he wants to now become a householder, hopes he will not

00:40:24.950 - 00:40:39.410

die but thinks he will. And the old man says, well, she's been waiting for you and when they go up, they find that the girl, for one reason or another, maybe she's been waiting so long and has given up hope, has committed suicide. And that is where the

00:40:39.410 - 00:40:52.850

poem ends, except for suddenly, the police are beating on the door at the end of the poem. Now, Gabe, give it. Gabriel Berns: I won't tell you what it's about because I don't really know, but I will tell you before you read it, what Lorca

00:40:52.880 - 00:40:59.900

said it was about. Morton Marcus: Okay. Gabriel Berns: In one of his lectures, he gave wonderful, wonderful lectures, he really loved to talk and talked in

00:40:59.900 - 00:41:12.590

Argentina and in Madrid, and he says about this poem: "It is one of the most mysterious of the book, and it is thought by many people to be a ballad expressing Grenada's longing for the sea, and the anguish of a city that cannot

00:41:12.590 - 00:41:30.470

hear the waves and seeks them in the play of her underground waters. And in the undulous clouds with what she covers her mountains. That is so, but this poem is also something else, it is a pure poetic event of Andalusian essence and will

00:41:30.470 - 00:41:42.650

always have changing lights, even for me, the man who communicated it." [Comment] Notice, he says, communicated, not wrote. "If you ask me why I wrote 'a thousand crystal tambourines

00:41:42.830 - 00:41:55.010

were wounding the dawn'..." [Comment] That's from the poem directly. "I will tell you that I saw them in the hands of angels and trees, but I will not be able to say more. Certainly, I cannot

00:41:55.100 - 00:42:09.020

explain their meaning." Morton Marcus: Well, I will accept the second half of that. But that Guadalajara's- Granada's, was it, Granada's desire for the sea, I won't accept that. Anyway, here is the

00:42:09.020 - 00:42:23.120

poem in, again, my translation, so you're stuck with that because obviously my translation has to then take into account my interpretation, which is one of the tricky things about translation. And also I'd have you a listen to the word green

00:42:23.120 - 00:42:32.900

here, because green is the green of longing, the green of hope, the green of growing earth, but it's also the green of death in the rotting corpse and I think it has both meanings in this poem.

00:42:33.620 - 00:42:54.340

SONAMBULOS BALLAD in English, by yours truly as translator: Green, how I want you, green. Green wind, green branches, the ship on the sea, and the horse in the mountain. Darkness around her waist, she sleeps on her balcony, green flesh, green

00:42:54.340 - 00:43:16.330

hair, with eyes of cold silver. Green, how I want you, green. Under the Gypsy moon, things are watching her and she cannot watch them. Green, how I want you, green. Great stars of frost come with a fish of darkness that opens the road of dawn. The

00:43:16.330 - 00:43:38.350

fig tree scours the wind with its sandpaper branches, and the mountain's sly cat bristles his bitter branches. But who will come and which way? She lingers on her balcony, green flesh, green hair, dreaming of the bitter sea. –Friend, I'll swap

00:43:38.350 - 00:43:59.740

my horse for your house, my saddle for your mirror, my knife for your blanket. Compadre, I come bleeding from the Passes of Cabra. –I couldn't, my boy, the bargain would be sealed, but I am no longer myself, or is my house my own. –Friend, I want to

00:43:59.740 - 00:44:16.150

die respectably in my own bed, an iron one, I hope, with Holland linen. Don't you see this wound from my chest to my throat? –Three hundred browning roses, a pin to your white shirt, the blood spreads and smells around your bandage, but

00:44:16.150 - 00:44:35.620

I am no longer myself or is my house my own. –At least let me climb to the high balconies. Let me climb. Let me as far as the green balconies, balconies of the moon where the water echoes. Now the two friends climb towards the high balconies,

00:44:36.160 - 00:44:56.890

leaving a trail of blood, leaving a trail of tears. Little tin lanterns were trembling on the roof, a thousand crystal tambourines bludgeoned the dawn. Green, how I want you, green. Green wind, green branches, the two friends climbed, the long

00:44:56.890 - 00:45:14.080

wind left in their mouths an exotic taste of bile, of mint and sweet basil. Friend, where is she? Tell me, where is your bitter girl? How many times she has waited for you, how many times she would be waiting, cool face, black hair on this green

00:45:14.080 - 00:45:34.900

balcony. Over the cistern surface, the gypsy girl suede, green flesh, green hair, with eyes of cold silver. An icicle of moonlight holds her on the water. The night became as intimate as a little plaza, drunk civil guards were beating

00:45:34.900 - 00:45:57.490

on the door. Green, how I want you, green. Green wind, green branches, the ship on the sea, and the horse on the mountain. Gabriel Berns: Verde que te quiero verde. Verde viento. Verdes ramas. El barco sobre la mar y el caballo en la montaña.

00:45:58.180 - 00:46:17.920

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 la están mirando y ella no puede mirarlas. Verde que te quiero verde. Grandes estrellas

00:46:17.920 - 00:46:36.430

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 vendra? ¿Y por dónde...? Ella sigue en su baranda, Verde

00:46:36.430 - 00:46:55.150

carne, pelo verde, soñando en la mar amarga. —Compadre, quiero cambiar mi caballo por su casa, mi montura por su espejo, mi cuchillo per su manta. Compadre, vengo sangrando, desde los puertos de Cabra. —Si yo pudiera, mocito, este trato se

00:46:55.150 - 00:47:12.160

cerraba. Pero yo ya no soy yo, ni mi casa es ya mi casa. —Compadre, quiero morir decentemente en mi cama. De acero, si puede ser, con las sábanas de holanda. ¿No ves la herida que tengo desde el pecho a la garganta? —Trescientas

00:47:12.190 - 00:47:29.080

rosas morenas lleva tu pechera blanca. Tu sangre rezuma y huele alrededor de tu faja. Morton Marcus: Well, we have run out of time and what I'm going to do is ask Gabe Berns on the air if he would honor us with

00:47:29.080 - 00:47:41.200

coming back again and talking about Lorca, and maybe talking about some other Spanish poets. Gabriel Berns: Well, we can't leave this wonderful poem in the middle this way. So, I will come back. Thanks for asking.

00:47:41.000 - 00:47:58.340

Morton Marcus: Wonderful, let- I'm glad we've done that. Let me just say that we have not read, "The Great Lament," we have not read, "The Poet in New York," or from it, and we've not read, "Th Gacelas," etc. He came back t Spain, became a man of th

00:47:58.340 - 00:48:14.000

people, he really began to pus reforms on a social level, h organized La Barraca, which is theatre group in which he showe his own plays and the grea plays of Spain, all over Spain The Civil War broke out. He wen back home when he was warned no

00:48:14.000 - 00:48:28.940

to, so many things we've no mentioned about him, but o August 19th, 1936, when th Falangelists walked int Granada, they took him outsid of town, stood him against th wall and shot him. It is a deat that has been heard in poetr

00:48:28.940 - 00:48:44.810

circles, and has had resonanc in poetry circles, and peopl who talk about the outsider an how the established order treat the outsider and the artist i the 20th century, a resonance as I said, that is still bein felt and heard today. As o

00:48:44.810 - 00:48:56.150

1977, Federico Garcia Lorca' poems could not be read i public in Spain. We wil continue the story of Lorca. I is not over yet