Poem: La Guitarra

Today, a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), from his first published collection, Poema del Cante Jondo (Poem of the Deep Song), written in 1921 and published in 1931.

The Guitar

The weeping
of the guitar begins.
Wineglasses shatter
in the dead of night.
The weeping
of the guitar begins.
It’s useless
to hush it.
It weeps on monotonously
the way water weeps,
the way wind weeps
over the snowdrifts.
It’s impossible
to hush it.
It weeps for things
far, far away.
For the sand of 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 wounded
by five swords.

 
Reference:
Federico Garcia Lorca [1931/1987]: Poema del Cante Jondo. Translated by Carlos Bauer. San Franciso, CA, USA: City Lights Books. Page 9.

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