Fable
Unicorns and cyclopses.
Horns of gold
and eyes of green.
Over the steep
in giant confusion
they illustrate the unglazed
mercury of the sea.
Unicorns and cyclopses.
An eyeball
and a power.
Who doubts the terrible
efficiency of those horns?
Nature!
Conceal your targets.
Song of the Horseman
Córdoba
Remote and lonely.
Jet-black mare and full round moon,
With olives in my saddle bags.
Although I know the road so well
I shall not get to Córdoba.
Across the plain, across the wind,
Jet-black mare and full red moon.
Death is gazing down upon me,
Down from the towers of Córdoba
Ay! The road so dark and long.
Ay! My mare so tired yet brave.
Death is waiting for me there
Before I get to Córdoba.
Córdoba
Remote and lonely.
Adam
The morning by a tree of blood was dewed
And near to it the newborn woman groans.
Her voice left glass within the wound, and strewed
The window with a diagram of bones.
Meanwhile the day had reached with steady light
The limits of the fable, which evades
The tumult of the bloodstream in its flight
Towards the dim cool apple in the shades.
Adam, within the fever of the clay.
Dreams a young child comes galloping his way,
Felt in his cheeks, with double pulse of blood.
But a dark other Adam dreaming yearned
For a stone neuter moon, where no seeds bud.
In which that child of glory will be burned.

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was a Spanish poet and playwright and a leading member of the Generation of ’27, a group of poets and other writers who integrated literary modernism—symbolism, futurism, and surrealism in particular—into Spanish literature. Lorca was a homosexual, a socialist, and suffered from depression throughout his entire life. He was killed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) by right wing forces battling against the leftists in that conflict. The motive for his murder has been contested by historians, who argue that he was targeted for his sexual proclivities, his politics, or both. The South African poet Roy Campbell (1901-1957), who as a Roman Catholic supported the right during the Civil War, produced acclaimed translations of Lorca’s work after his death.
Fable
Unicorns and cyclopses.
Horns of gold
and eyes of green.
Over the steep
in giant confusion
they illustrate the unglazed
mercury of the sea.
Unicorns and cyclopses.
An eyeball
and a power.
Who doubts the terrible
efficiency of those horns?
Nature!
Conceal your targets.
Song of the Horseman
Córdoba
Remote and lonely.
Jet-black mare and full round moon,
With olives in my saddle bags.
Although I know the road so well
I shall not get to Córdoba.
Across the plain, across the wind,
Jet-black mare and full red moon.
Death is gazing down upon me,
Down from the towers of Córdoba
Ay! The road so dark and long.
Ay! My mare so tired yet brave.
Death is waiting for me there
Before I get to Córdoba.
Córdoba
Remote and lonely.
Adam
The morning by a tree of blood was dewed
And near to it the newborn woman groans.
Her voice left glass within the wound, and strewed
The window with a diagram of bones.
Meanwhile the day had reached with steady light
The limits of the fable, which evades
The tumult of the bloodstream in its flight
Towards the dim cool apple in the shades.
Adam, within the fever of the clay.
Dreams a young child comes galloping his way,
Felt in his cheeks, with double pulse of blood.
But a dark other Adam dreaming yearned
For a stone neuter moon, where no seeds bud.
In which that child of glory will be burned.

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was a Spanish poet and playwright and a leading member of the Generation of ’27, a group of poets and other writers who integrated literary modernism—symbolism, futurism, and surrealism in particular—into Spanish literature. Lorca was a homosexual, a socialist, and suffered from depression throughout his entire life. He was killed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) by right wing forces battling against the leftists in that conflict. The motive for his murder has been contested by historians, who argue that he was targeted for his sexual proclivities, his politics, or both. The South African poet Roy Campbell (1901-1957), who as a Roman Catholic supported the right during the Civil War, produced acclaimed translations of Lorca’s work after his death.
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