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My book review for
this month: back
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Romancero Gitano
by
Federico García
Lorca
This review is a contribution to the
Spanish Word-A-Day written by Christopher Champion from Oxford.
A la mitad del
camino
Cortó limones
redondos,
Y los fue
tirando al agua
Hasta que la
puso de oro.
This spectacular image of
sunset is possibly my favourite image from the collection
Romancero Gitano taken from
Prendimento de Antoñito el Camborio en el Camino
de Sevilla by Federico García Lorca.
Romancero Gitano
is, as a collection, extremely rich. It deals vividly with the lives of
gypsies looking particularly, but not exclusively, at conflict, deceit,
the internal pressures within gypsy society, rape and death. The
Romancero Gitano is a wonderful read. One
of the best aspects of Lorca’s collection for me is the depth to which
you find yourself engaging with the text. Often the images demand your
attention and time, which is not always simple, but that is part of the
joy of reading such a collection of poetry, since it is always evolving
in front of you as you notice new ideas and images within the poems. It
is available in translation, but what I would recommend for anyone who
is not confident with the Spanish is to read it in parallel text, since
it is the beauty of the language as well as the images and ideas that is
wonderful.
The first lines of Romancero
Gitano read:
La luna vino a
la fragua
con su polisón
de nardos.
El niño la
mira, mira.
El niño la
está mirando.
For those who know nothing of Lorca’s work it is a
confusing start: the moon coming to the forge with her bustle of nards?
In this case the moon is a worrying presence, since it represents
destiny and potentially death, and also the folkloric view that if
children stare too much at the moon they will be carried away. What is
special about Lorca’s take on this is that he has made the moon a
seductive dancer, capturing the Andalusian spirit. This somewhat
abstract imagery is central to his work.
The many wonderful metaphors and conceits that you
will find throughout Romancero Gitano
are nothing new in themselves, after all the poets of the Golden Age
were masters such of conceits and intriguing metaphors. Here, I am
especially thinking of Góngora who certainly had an influence on Lorca.
Indeed, even the title itself leads us to appreciate that Lorca’s work
is not without roots: the word romancero goes as far back as the
Romancero Viejo, the traditional source of Spanish Ballads. Lorca is
clearly very interested in this traditional ballad form, and in some of
his poems he uses similar tools, for example the verse form, the use of
direct speech or the absence of any linking structure. In effect he is
reviving this old form with his own particular style of writing.
One final word on Lorca. There are many films about
this very famous poet who died prematurely in the civil war, but one
film I would recommend for its insightful look into his life and its
emotional power is “Lorca, Muerte de un poeta”.
Enjoy!
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