Federico Garcia Lorca

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Metaxia
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Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by Metaxia »

The Faithless Wife

So I took her to the river
believing she was a maiden,
but she already had a husband.
It was on St. James night
and almost as if I was obliged to.
The lanterns went out
and the crickets lighted up.
In the farthest street corners
I touched her sleeping breasts
and they opened to me suddenly
like spikes of hyacinth.
The starch of her petticoat
sounded in my ears
like a piece of silk
rent by ten knives.
Without silver light on their foliage
the trees had grown larger
and a horizon of dogs
barked very far from the river.

Past the blackberries,
the reets and the hawthorne
underneath her cluster of hair
I made a hollow in the earth
I took off my tie,
she took off her dress.
I, my belt with the revolver,
She, her four bodices.
Nor nard nor mother-o´-pearl
have skin so fine,
nor does glass with silver
shine with such brilliance.
Her tighs slipped away from me
like startled fish,
half full of fire,
half full of cold.
That night I ran
on the best of roads
mounted on a nacre mare
without bridle stirrups.

As a man, I won´t repeat
the things she said to me.
The light of understanding
has made me more discreet.
Smeared with sand and kisses
I took her away from the river.
The swords of the lilies
battled with the air.

I behaved like what I am,
like a proper gypsy.
I gave her a large sewing basket,
of straw-colored satin,
but I did not fall in love
for although she had a husband
she told me she was a maiden
when I took her to the river.
I´m freezing to death in this damn treehouse.
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linda_lakeside
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by linda_lakeside »

Mmm...nice..
~ The smell of perfume in the air, bits of beauty everywhere ~ Leonard Cohen.
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Paula
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by Paula »

There was a programme on recently called "Dirty Dali" about Salverdor Dali I didn't realise he had an affair with Lorca.
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Byron
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by Byron »

In
Ode to Salvador Dali 1926.

Oh, Salvador Dali, with the olive-coloured voice!
I say what you and your art say to me.
I don't praise your imperfect adolescent paintbrush,
but I sing the firm direction of your arrows.
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panjandrum
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by panjandrum »

That's interesting. I had no idea Leonard's "The Faithless Wife" was based on a poem by Lorca. It is very touching that Leonard takes the time to bring some of this dead poet's work back to life in this way.
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mnkyface
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by mnkyface »

Lorca will be played by Javier Beltran in the movie Little Ashes, about the relationship between Lorca, Salvador Dali, and filmmaker Luis Bunuel.

http://www.littleashes-themovie.com/

Surreal. (haha)
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danny
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by danny »

I ordered every Federico García Lorca english translation in print after hearing Leonard praise him. I'd recommend these poems to anyone who hasn't read them:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gacela-of-the-dark-death
http://readerswords.wordpress.com/2007/ ... feit-dawn/
http://vmlinux.org/ilse/lit/lorca.htm
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bridger15
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by bridger15 »

mnkyface wrote:Lorca will be played by Javier Beltran in the movie Little Ashes, about the relationship between Lorca, Salvador Dali, and filmmaker Luis Bunuel.
http://www.littleashes-themovie.com/
The film, Little Ashes is now being shown in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Theaters, the premiere art house chain. I saw it today and I thought it was marvellous. I suggest you go.
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bridger15
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by bridger15 »

bridger15 wrote:
mnkyface wrote:Lorca will be played by Javier Beltran in the movie Little Ashes, about the relationship between Lorca, Salvador Dali, and filmmaker Luis Bunuel.
http://www.littleashes-themovie.com/
The film, Little Ashes is now being shown in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Theaters, the premiere art house chain. I saw it today and I thought it was marvellous. I suggest you go.
I am happy to report that the film is now showing in L.A. for a second week and on more screens.
Do see it if it comes your way.
2009-San Diego|Los Ang|Nashville|St Louis|Kansas City|LVegas|San Jose
2010-Gothenburg|Berlin|Ghentx2|Oaklandx2|Portland|LVegasx2
2012-Austinx2|Denver|Los Ang|Seattle|Portland

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Womanfromaroom
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by Womanfromaroom »

Another artist who has been influenced hugely by Lorca is French singer Jean Ferrat. Lorca is mentioned in several of his chansons, and there is one song - very moving, too - about Lorca being murdered:

Jean Ferrat
FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA

"Les guitares jouent des sérénades
Que j'entends sonner comme un tocsin
Mais jamais je n'atteindrai Grenade
'Bien que j'en sache le chemin'

Dans ta voix
Galopaient les cavaliers
Et les gitans étonnés
Levaient leurs yeux de bronze et d'or
Si ta voix se brisa
Voilà plus de vingt ans qu'elle résonne encore
Federico García

Voilà plus de vingt ans, camarades
Que la nuit règne sur Grenade

Il n'y a plus de prince dans la ville
Pour rêver tout haut
Depuis le jour où la guardia civil
T'a mis au cachot

Et ton sang tiède en quête de l'aurore
S'apprête déjà
J'entends monter par de longs corridors
Le bruit de leurs pas

Et voici la porte grande ouverte
On t'entraîne par les rues désertées
Ah! Laissez-moi le temps de connaître
Ce que ma mère m'a donné

Mais déjà
Face au mur blanc de la nuit
Tes yeux voient dans un éclair
Les champs d'oliviers endormis
Et ne se ferment pas
Devant l'acre lueur éclatant des fusils
Federico García

Les lauriers ont pâli, camarades
Le jour se lève sur Grenade

Dure est la pierre et froide la campagne
Garde les yeux clos
De noirs taureaux font mugir la montagne
Garde les yeux clos

Et vous Gitans, serrez bien vos compagnes
Au creux des lits chauds
Ton sang inonde la terre d'Espagne
O Federico

Les guitares jouent des sérénades
Dont les voix se brisent au matin
Non, jamais je n'atteindrai Grenade
'Bien que j'en sache le chemin' "

(There is an extract of a 1961 performance of that song to be watched here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/se ... view_music

However, it comes with an interview and the sound quality is not too high, either. But at least, it is enough to give an impression!)
"You thought that it could never happen / to all the people that you became"...
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sebmelmoth2003
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by sebmelmoth2003 »

the faithless wife saga continues :

The Cob Gallery is delighted to present Eleanor, a cinematic installation directed by Alex Warren and Tobias Ross-Southall. The installation follows three solitary women over the course of one eventful night, and examines what it means to be alone in a city like London. BAFTA nominated actress Ruth Wilson plays all three women.

Eleanor unfolds across three large interplaying screens, with one screen apportioned to each character. As the night progresses and the three narratives cross, characters move between the screens, stepping from one to the next, creating a real-time immersive experience.

Warren and Ross-Southall drew inspiration for the characters within Eleanor from three different poems: If I Could Tell You by W.H.Auden, Acquainted With The Night by Robert Frost, and The Faithless Wife by Leonard Cohen.

They approached three of the country’s finest young writers – Polly Stenham, Michael Lesslie and Anya Reiss – to interpret the three original source poems from which the characters had been conceived.

The score for the film features music by Blaine Harrison from The Mystery Jets and Johnny Lloyd formerly of Tribes, whilst also featuring a collaboration with Romany Pajdak and Kristen McNally from The Royal Ballet.

Eleanor is supported by Creative England and the BFI, as well as a number of private donors and creative funder, IdeasTap.

To download the press release please click.

Postcard Project

Curator and Cob Gallery director Victoria Williams has approached artists associated with the Cob Gallery to submit artwork inspired by the original Auden, Cohen and Frost poems. Postcard Project features small-scale original work from:

Eve Ackroyd · Becky Allen · Marcus Autelli · Hannah Bays · Millie Brown · Gabriella Boyd · Phoebe Collings-James · Miriam Elia · Arelette Ess · Simon Farid · Nina Fowler · Neal Fox · Felix Friedmann · Ralph Fuller · Fee Greening · Beatrice Haines · Walter Hugo · Reynir Hutber · Hayden Kays · Kate McMorrine · Mark Melvin · Adeline de Monseignat · Catherine Roisster · Kate Street · Julian Walker

Postcards are for sale with proceeds going to the Cob Gallery’s new charity – Cobble Together for the Arts.

Cobble Together For The Arts

The Cob Gallery has launched a new charity, Cobble Together For The Arts, aimed at tackling inequality both in the arts and through the arts, by providing education, employment and community projects for young people in London.

The charity is inviting students within the borough of Camden to view Eleanor and respond with their own piece – in whatever form, from painting to poetry to film. The work will form an exhibition and be judged by a panel including Matt Smith and Sunday Times art critic, Waldemar Januszczak.

An education and mentoring project will run alongside this, comprising of a series of workshops for students with leading professionals working in film, theatre, TV and the music industries to inspire and support students from across the borough.

Williams, Cobble founder said: “Increasingly the arts is seen as an indulgence for the few. Unpaid internships and freelancers forced to undercut one another have created a world that seems inaccessible to many. This project will provide practical advice from top professionals, and hopefully inspire them to see creativity as an attribute to be cherished, and that can lead to a successful career.”


http://www.cobble.org.uk
-
http://www.cobgallery.com/?exhibition=eleanor-project
Last edited by sebmelmoth2003 on Fri Mar 21, 2014 1:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
abby
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by abby »

Thank you for resurrecting this thread. I love the line with 'spikes of hyacinths':

I touched her sleeping breasts
& they opened to me suddenly
like spikes of hyacinth.

I was feeling a lump of sadness in my gut this early morning. Reading Lorca's poem made my perspective on the world just a little bigger. It led me to Leonard's version, where he writes

You were born to get it right
Forgive me but I wasn't

which is just the thing I needed, having been feeling incapable of doing the right thing. I forgot that Leonard has so often done the wrong thing- one of my favorite things about him.
sebmelmoth2003
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Re: Federico Garcia Lorca

Post by sebmelmoth2003 »

bbc radio 3's recently rebroadcast a 2008 3-part serialision of `blood wedding` - i'm afraid i didn't listen to any of the episodes so i can't comment on it personally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cky0w
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