Sunday, May 6, 2007

Federico Garcia Lorca Poem

[after a night of many dreams involving the sea]


Gacela of the Flight

I have lost myself in the sea many times
with my ear full of freshly cut flowers,
with my tongue full of love and agony.
I have lost myself in the sea many times
as I lose myself in the heart of certain children.

There is no one who in giving a kiss
does not feel the smile of faceless people,
and no one who in touching a newborn child
forgets the motionless skulls of horses.

Because the roses search in the forehead
for a hard landscape of bone
and the hands of man have no other purpose
than to imitate the roots below the earth.

As I lose myself in the heart of certain children,
I have lost myself in the sea many times.
Ignorant of the water I go seeking
a death full of light to consume me.


Federico Garcia Lorca, Trans. Stephen Spender and J.L. Gili in The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca, P. 167

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