Federico Garcia Lorca: The Spanish socialist Avant garde poet, slain by the nationalist particans of the Spanish War. I wonder how well Lorca is known in the North American literary circles, but given his "leftist" tendencies I won't be surprised if he is not.
In Iran, he is a well known poet; thanks to Shamlu who introduced his work through free translations. Lorca was one of the Spanish figures that influenced many a young men and women of the 70s. I am happy to know that Lorca is still read in Iran.
Recently (in the Fajr Theater Festival held in the period of commemoration of the revolution), one of Lorca's best plays, Yerma was on stage. Yerma is the story of a woman's passion, love, desire and sexuality as she struggle within social structures that take a toll on woman's dignity.
4 comments:
Lorca is read because of foreigners value him - he is very difficult to understand and or translate. He is an over-rated poet.
In modern Spanish literature I think Alberti, Vallejo, Mistral, and Paz are superior poets.
Iranians are wasting their time staging his plays. Look at the poetry and plays of this 16-th Century Mexican nun: sor juana ines de la cruz. This is what Iranians need to translate and stage.
In English: read Robinson Jeffers: "The Double Axe".
I forgot to add:
You attributed his murder to "the nationalist particans of the Spanish...".
In fact he was killed by his local enemies; another splendid example of blood feud in that part of the world.
Glad to have my old grumpy friend back! :)
Mistral and Paz are read in Iran too, no?
Well, but if you read spanish you could understand the magnificence of his texts. An author should never be read in a language that not his own because the words were meant to have that meaning, sonority and context. Translations often loose the essence of the work.
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