Lorca: Selected Poems

By Federico García Lorca

Book Overview

J.L. Gili's selection of Lorca's poems in Spanish, with his own unassuming prose versions as guides to the originals, first appeared in 1960. With its excellent introduction and selection it remains a perfect introductory guide to the great poet. The book is ideal for newcomers to Lorca who know, or are prepared to grapple with, a little Spanish. It influenced a generation of readers and poets, including Ted Hughes who first encountered Lorca through this book. Spain's most celebrated modern poet, Federico Garc a Lorca was born in 1898 near Granada. Poet, dramatist, musician and artist, he was the author of The Gypsy Ballad Book (1928) and Poet in New York (1940). After his return from New York and Cuba to Republican Spain in 1930, he devoted himself to the theatre, writing three tragedies including Blood Wedding (1933). An outspoken supporter of the Republic, he was assassinated at the height of his fame by Nationalist partisans in Granada in 1936, on the eve of the Spanish Civil War.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0856463884
• ISBN13: 9780856463884
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Anvil Press Poetry
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

More Duende, Please

If you love Lorca, you'll appreciate this book. Lorca is the master of Duende, but he does it in such an artful way that you don't feel all gloomy. In fact, by underscoring the shadow of death, Lorca shows us the beauty in life. If you read this book, you're sure to enjoy the lyrical mastery of one of Spain's greatest poets.

wonderfully lyrical and romantic

These wonderfully lyrical and romantic poems span from 1921 to 1936, the year of his untimely execution. This edition include both the original Spanish and English translations (including a translation by Langston Hughes). I particular like some of the sounds "Poem of the Saeta" "They come from remote regions of sorrow". His trip to New York, produced the notable "King of Harlem" and "Ode to Walt Whitman". The final series of poems on "Gacela of .." and "Casida of the .." only hint at the themes he may have developed later in his life.

brilliant, forbidding, and intense

This volume is bilingual and in this case the English translations can hold their own against the Spanish (and Galician) originals. It culls poems from every period in the poet's life, thereby giving the reader a huge range of Garcia Lorca's work - from the talking lizards to the masterpiece "Poet in New York" to traditional gacelas. While some of the poems seem superficial, others are loaded with meaning. Some critics have said that Lorca's preoccupation with death seemed to foreshadow his own, which came in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Indeed, many of these poems have dark overtones. Lorca never loses the passion and intensity, however. His love poems are majestic in their images and emotion, which are surprisingly undimmed in translation.In particular, Lorca's language - especially his metaphors and similes - are unusual and striking. His imagery conjures up fantastical scenes; maybe one could say he writes the way that Salvador Dali painted. If you're looking for an introduction to Lorca (or if you're approaching him with some trepidation), then I'd suggest this book. It will give you a good feel for his development as a poet as well as his overal style.

Mágico puro / Pure magic

There are no words to adequately describe García Lorca who was one of the greatest artists of the last century. The poems in "Selected Poems" represent some of the best of his collections, "Romancero Gitano", "Libro de Poemas", and the dark, brooding "Poema del Cante Jondo". Stephen Spender's excellent translation manages to preserve García Lorca's exquisite imagery without making it sound maudlin or overstated. García Lorca really has to be read in the original Spanish to be able to get a complete realization of his incredible talent as a poet, but those monolingual English speakers to whom the book is directed will be able to appreciate through this translation what a genius was lost to the world when at the age of 38 he was assassinated in the Spanish Civil War. García Lorca astonishes and amazes us with his brilliant artistry, his deceptively simple yet complex imagery, and the voice of haunting pathos that is surely the voice of Spain. Even readers who don't particularly like poetry will be held spellbound by the poems presented here.

Finally a collection of Lorca I like

Translations usually don't do justice to Lorca's poetry, who seemed distant and maudlin in some of the earlier translations that I had read. A friend assured me that Lorca was worth pursuing, and indeed he was. In this collection, which features crisp and sharp translations, including those by Stephen Spender, Lorca's poetry emerges with all the strength and pathos it must have in Spanish. He strikes at the core of human longing, the eternal desire for love and death, with a simple and sometimes abstract imagery. Highly recommended for all readers of poetry.