Federico Garcia Lorca
Love Wounds
love wounds with light
love wounds with fire
the fire devours me: greyness surrounds me
love’s wound obsesses me
love’s wound that I cannot escape
that fills each inch of the sky
each blade of grass each minute of each day
I weep tears of blood which fall
on my poetry and stick
like enamel on a broken guitar
like rancid fat like grease which covers everything
my pulse has a heavy beat
the ocean weighs on me
a small stinging scorpion has taken over my brain
I live like a patient in a hospital bed
love decorates with a fever chart
I pass sleepless nights dreaming you’re with me
like an invading army encamped
in the ruins of my chest
where my heart was
I don’t want this. I want mountains
I want to wear sensible shoes and walk on the hills
but your heart drags me down a dark valley
a valley of bitter knowledge
and of poisoned flowers
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).
Dr John Clifford teaches drama in Edinburgh and has translated several Spanish classics.
Translated by John Clifford
Page(s) 66
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