Poet in New York: A Bilingual Edition

POET IN NEW YORK

POET IN NEW YORK

(Poeta en Nueva York)

Federico Garcia Lorca

Translated by

Pablo Medina and Mark Statman

Ala Nena (P.M.)

For Katherine and Jesse (M.S.)

Contents

Foreword by Edward Hirsch xi

Introduction xv

1. POEMAS DE LA SOLEDAD EN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2

1. POEMS OF SOLITUDE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 3

Vuelta de paseo 4

Back from a Walk 5

1910 (Intermedio) 6

1910 (Interlude) 7

Fibula y rueda de los tres amigos 6

Fable and Round of the Three Friends 9

Tu infancia en Menton 14

Your Infancy in Menton 15

II. LOS NEGROS 18

II. THE BLACKS 19

Norma y paraiso de los negros 20

Norm and Paradise of the Blacks 21

El rev de Harlem 24

The King of Harlem 25

Iglesia abandonada (Balada de la Gran Guerra) 34

Abandoned Church (Ballad of the Great War) 35

III. CALLES Y SUENOS 38

III. STREETS AND DREAMS 39

Danza de la muerte 40

Dance of Death 41

Paisaje de la multitud que vomita (Anochecer de Coney Island) 48

Landscape of the Vomiting Crowd (Twilight at Coney Island) 49

Paisaje de la multitud que orina (Nocturno de Battery Place) 52

Landscape of the Urinating Crowd (Nocturne of Battery Place) 53

Asesinato (Dos voces de madrugada en Riverside Drive) 56

Murder (Two Voices at Dawn on Riverside Drive) 57

Navidad en el Hudson 58

Christmas on the Hudson 59

Ciudad sin sueno (Nocturno del Brooklyn Bridge) 62

City Without Sleep (Nocturne of the Brooklyn Bridge) 63

Panorama ciego de Nueva York 66

Blind Panorama of New York 67

Nacimiento de Cristo 70

Birth of Christ 71

La aurora 72

Dawn 73

IV. POEMAS DEL LAGO EDEN MILLS 74

IV. POEMS OF LAKE EDEN MILLS 75

Poema doble del lago Eden 76

Double Poem of Lake Eden 77

Cielo vivo 80

Living Sky 81

V. EN LA CABANA DEL FARMER (Campo de Newburg) 84

V. IN THE FARMER'S CABIN (Newburgh Countryside) 85

El nino Stanton 86

The Boy Stanton 87

Vaca 92

Cow 93

Nina ahogada en el pozo (Granada y Newburg) 94

Girl Drowned in the Well (Granada and Newburgh) 95

VI. INTRODUCTION ALA MUERTE

Poemas de la soledad en Vermont 98

VI. INTRODUCTION TO DEATH

Poems of Solitude in Vermont 99

Muerte 100

Death 101

Nocturno del hueco 102

Nocturne of the Hole 103

Paisaje con dos tumbas y tin perro asirio 108

Landscape with Two Tombs and an Assyrian Dog 109

Ruing 110

Ruin 111

Luna y panorama de los insectos (Poema de amor) 114

Moon and Panorama of the Insects (Love Poem) 115

VII. VUELTA A LA CIUDAD 120

VII. RETURN TO THE CITY 121

New York (Oficina y Denuncia) 122

New York (Office and Denunciation) 123

Cementerio judio 128

Jewish Cemetery 129

Pequeno poema infinito 132

Small Infinite Poem 133

Crucifixion 136

Crucifixion 137

VIII. DOS ODAS 140

VIII. TWO ODES 141

Grito hacia Roma (desde la torre del Chrysler Building) 142

Cry Toward Rome (From the Tower of the Chrysler Building) 143

Oda a Walt Whitman 148

Ode to Walt Whitman 149

IX. HUIDA DE NUEVA YORK

Dos valses hacia la civilizaci6n 158

IN. FLIGHT FROM NEW YORK

Two Waltzes Toward Civilization 159

Pequeno vals vienes 160

Small Viennese Waltz 161

Vats en las ramas 164

Waltz in the Branches 165

X. EL POETA LLEGA A LA HABANA 168

X. THE POET ARRIVES IN HAVANA 169

Son de negros en Cuba 170

Son of Blacks in Cuba 171

Acknowledgments 175

Notes on the Poems 177

Father Reading 183

Foreword

Federico Garcia Lorca spent a critical nine months in New York (June 1929-March 1930), and created from the experience an indelible work of art, an agonized spiritual tribute to the urban milieu, a ferocious testament. Lorca was extremely energized and deeply appalled by the city he discovered-its "extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm," its "geometry and anguish"-and the work he left behind still carries a sense of shock and surprise, a weird feeling of recognition, after all this time.

Pablo Medina and Mark Statman have given us a marvelous new version of Lorca's anguished masterpiece, Poet in New York. The destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the wake of September It, 2001, sent them back to the great poetry of New York City, especially Lorca's fiery symphonic cycle, which was mostly created in the midst of the Great Depression. Lorca spoke of "a poet in New York," but he recognized that he might just as well have said "New York in a poet." So, too, we might say that New York has lived inside these translators, two poets who have recast his work in the light of a traumatized American city. Lorca had at different times considered calling his book The City (La Ciudad) and Introduction to Death (Introduccion a la muerte) and, indeed, death and the city are its twin inspiring presences, which is one of the reasons that Medina and Statman find it so disturbingly relevant. Their translation is a major reclamation. They have given us a Poet in New York for our time.

Lorca always recalled his stay in New York as "one of the most useful experiences" of his life. It was his first trip abroad. He called New York "Senegal with machines" and said that all of his native Granada could fit into three skyscrapers. He felt "murdered by the sky." He was stunned by the vastness and scale of the city, which was for him a place where during the day people were mired in mindless games, fruitless labors, and at dusk poured into the streets in a human flood.