Monday, January 21, 2008

Orange form I



Woodcutter.
Cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of being without fruit.

Why was I born among mirrors?
Day goes round and round me.
The night copies me
in all its stars.

I want to live without my reflection.
And then let me dream
that ants and thistledown
are my leaves and my parrots.

Federico García Lorca, "The song of the barren orange tree".


But as the spanish sound of Lorca loses too much in the translation, I offer the original:

Leñador.
Córtame la sombra.
Líbrame del suplicio
de verme sin toronjas.

¿Por qué nací entre espejos?
El día me da vueltas.
Y la noche me copia
en todas sus estrellas.

Quiero vivir sin verme.
Y hormigas y vilanos,
soñaré que son mis
hojas y mis pájaros.

Leñador.
Córtame la sombra.
Líbrame del suplicio
de verme sin toronjas.

Federico García Lorca, "Canción del naranjo seco".

5 comments:

Amber said...

I always love seeing the Spanish version of the poems. *Hugs and a kiss my dear friend*

runnerfrog said...

Oh, will have that in mind for you! Kiss and a hug back to you, friend.

Stargazer said...

Oh, how I wish I understood Spanish. What I know is booked learned during schooling.
My father was from Venezuela, but chose not to pass the language on to his children. He wanted us to be pure American, so he did not speak Spanish in our home. From what I was told, he had some very bad experiences while he lived in Venezuela.

runnerfrog said...

Wow, you have latinamerican roots! Saludos! :-)
Sorry to know about those bad experiences, latinamerica isn't a bed of roses... it's latinamerica instead; indeeeed ;-)
Would you like to visit Venezuela? Beautiful beaches!

Stargazer said...

I would love to visit Venezuela, as well as many others. Every place has its own beauty. I imagine Argentina to be quite beautiful. I always wanted to visit Spain too! But, I'd have to become fluent in Spanish.

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