Federico García Lorca 120th Birthday

 




















García Lorca in Granada, 1919
© Sipa Press/REX/Shutterstock

June 5, 1898 - August 19, 1936

♥ Con todo mi Amor, With all my Love ♥

Federico was executed by dictator general Franco’s 
death-squads, during Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War.
His body has never been found.


 
❝ Cuando se hundieron las formas puras
bajo el cri cri de las margaritas,
comprendí que me habían asesinado.
Recorrieron los cafés y los cementerios y las iglesias,
abrieron los toneles y los armarios,
destrozaron tres esqueletos para arrancar sus dientes de oro.
Ya no me encontraron.
¿No me encontraron?
No. No me encontraron.
Pero se supo que la sexta luna huyó torrente arriba,
y que el mar recordó ¡de pronto!
los nombres de todos sus ahogados.

When the pure forms sank
under the cri cri of daisies
I realized I had been murdered.
They looked for me in cafes, cemeteries and churches,
they opened the wine casks and wardrobes,
they destroyed three skeletons to pull out their gold teeth.
But they didn't find me.
They never found me?
No. They never found me.
Still it was known that the sixth moon fled up the torrent,
and the sea could remember, suddenly,
the names of all its drowned.

from Fábula y rueda de tres amigos
(The Fable and round of the three friends),
Poet in New York, 1929


❝ Las heridas quemaban como soles
a las cinco de la tarde,
y el gentío rompía las ventanas
a las cinco de la tarde.
A las cinco de la tarde.
¡Ay qué terribles cinco de la tarde!
¡Eran las cinco en todos los relojes!
¡Eran las cinco en sombra de la tarde!

The wounds were burning like suns
at five in the afternoon,
and the crowd broke the windows
At five in the afternoon.
Ah, that fatal five in the afternoon!
It was five by all the clocks!
It was five in the shade of the afternoon!

from Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias, 1935

- Federico García Lorca -

 



















Federico on his first birthday

 
Fábula y rueda de tres amigos
full english version at Hello Poetry

Fundación Federico García Lorca

Federico García Lorca | Poetry Foundation

Final hours of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca revealed
© The Guardian