Federico Garcia Lorca
You put a bomb in my heart
First a flash, then a fireball, which like a
Fashionable new ism, swept all before it before,
Having only itself left to devour, did just that.
The sky, seeing the general distress,
Spat down tears of blood; the earth, for its part,
Through a million ruptured pipes, did its
Damnedest to piss the height of heaven, and,
Needless to say, my Apollonian lyre
Was completely banjaxed in the blast.
It was a time for snakes and scorpions.
Yet, through this detritus was the only crop
Gathered from the ruins of our attrition,
And, though I should, in truth, have had more cop
Than to fall for such sweet ammunition,
From the second you blew me all over this shop,
It’s been this kamikaze love, that’s given me my definition.
These versions of Lorca’s late sonnet, ‘Llagas de Amor’ were produced to mark the centenary of the poet’s birth on 5th June 1998. The Spanish text is in Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca (Bloodaxe 1992).
Colin Teevan is the founder of Gallowglass Theatre Company and current writer in residence at Queen’s University, Belfast. His poem was written in the run-up to the vote on the Good Friday agreement.
Translated by Colin Teevan
Page(s) 67
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