Spanish poet & playwright (1898-1936)
The bride, the white bride
today a maiden,
tomorrow a wife.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Blood Wedding
But hurry, let's entwine ourselves as one,
our mouth broken, our soul bitten by love,
so time discovers us safely destroyed.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Sonnet of the Garland of Roses"
Just as the light and weightless vegetation of saltpeter floats over the old walls of houses as soon as the owner gets careless, so the literary vocation springs up in you.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
letter to Jose Bello, summer 1925
Fire is fed by fire.
The same small flame destroys
Two stalks of wheat at once.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Blood Wedding
Lydia's madness is a watery madness, gentle, full of seagulls and lobsters.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
letter to Ana Maria Dali, autumn 1925
A dead man in Spain is more alive than a dead man anywhere in the world.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Theory and Play of the Duende", A Poet in New York
You have always been smart. You have always looked for the worst in people, and have been quick to notice when people are up to no good... But in the case of your children, you are blind.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
The House of Bernarda Alba
The groom
is like a flower of gold.
When he walks,
blossoms at his feet unfold.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Blood Wedding
My tongue is pierced with glass.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Blood Wedding
Never let me lose the marvel
of your statue eyes or the accent
that by night the solitary rose of your breath
places on my cheek.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Sonnet of the Sweet Complaint"
Even money, which shines so much, spits sometimes.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Blood Wedding
It's a trick, love's word, a broken mirror, footsteps in the water. Then you'd leave me in the tomb again, just as everyone does when trying to convince those listening to them that true love is impossible.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
The Public
The moon carries the masks of meningitis into bedrooms, fills the wombs of pregnant women with cold water and, as soon as I'm not careful, throws handfuls of grass on my shoulders.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
The Public
For each kiss I gave you
a huge cluster of tears!
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Abandoned"
I know there is no straight road
No straight road in this world
Only a giant labyrinth
Of intersecting crossroads
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Floating Bridges"
We're all like the little sailor. From the harbors we hear the strains of accordions and the murky soapy noises of the docks, from the mountains we receive the dish of silence that the shepherds eat, but we don't hear more than our own distances. And what distances without end and without doors and without mountains!
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
letter to Jose Maria Chacon y Calvo, 1920s
In our eyes the roads
are endless.
Two are crossroads of
the shadow.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Eyes"
I'll always be happy if they'd leave me alone in that delightful and unknown furthest corner, apart from struggles, putrefactions and nonsense; the ultimate corner of sugar and toast, where the mermaids catch the branches of the willows and the heart opens to a flute's sharpness.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
letter to Melchor Fernandez Almagro, autumn 1924
Devoutly the teachers point out huge fumigated domes;
but beneath the statues there's no love,
no love beneath the eyes set in crystal.
Love is there, in flesh ripped by thirst,
in the tiny hut struggling against the flood;
love is there, in ditches where snakes of hunger wrestle,
in the sad sea that rocks dead gulls,
and in the darkest stinging kiss under pillows.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
"Cry to Rome", A Poet in New York
I have often lost myself in the sea, ears full of newly cut flowers, tongue full of love and agony.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Four Puppet Plays