Firstpublished:2019 Description: This sets a poem by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca about the guitar. It is set, appropriately, for guitar and choir, and is dedicated to my wife, Julija Sardelić Winikoff.
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Original text and translations
Spanish text
Empieza el llanto
de la guitarra.
Se rompen las copas
de la madrugada.
Empieza el llanto
de la guitarra.
Es inútil callarla.
Es imposible
callarla.
Llora monótona
como llora el agua,
como llora el viento
sobre la nevada.
Es imposible
callarla.
Llora por cosas
lejanas.
Arena del Sur caliente
que pide camelias blancas.
Llora flecha sin blanco,
la tarde sin mañana,
y el primer pájaro muerto
sobre la rama.
¡Oh, guitarra!
Corazón malherido
por cinco espadas.
English text
The weeping of the guitar begins
The cups of dawn are broken
The weeping of the guitar begins. It is useless to silence it.
It is impossible to silence it.
It cries, monotonously,
as the waters cry,
as the wind cries over the snowfall.
It is impossible to silence it.
It weeps for things far away.
It asks the Sands of the South for white camellias.
It cries for the arrow without a target,
for the afternoon without a morning,
and for the first bird who dies on the branch.