By Federico García Lorca, 1927
Si toda la tarde fuera
como un gran pájaro, ¡cuántas
duras flechas lanzaría
para cerrarle las alas!
Hora redonda y oscura
que me pesa en las pestañas.
Dolor de viejo lucero
detenido en mi garganta.
Ya debieran las estrellas
asomarse a mi ventana
y abrirse lentos los pasos
por la calle solitaria.
¡Con qué trabajo tan grande
deja la luz a Granada!
Se enreda entre los cipreses
o se esconde bajo el agua.
¡Y esta noche que no llega!
¡Noche temida y soñada;
que me hieres ya de lejos
con larguísimas espadas!
Translated by p joshua laskey
If all the afternoon were like
a giant bird, how many
sturdy arrows would I loose
to lay it low!
What hour round and dark
weighs heavy on my hem?
What pangs of Venus, heaven-bound,
stick in my throat of dust.
Already should the stars
be streaming through my pane
to light the lonely way
for steps approaching in the dark.
With what an effort does
the daylight drench the sky!
Granada’s cypresses are soaked
by mere reflecting pools.
This night that will not come!
Night feared and fantasized,
you’re piercing me already with
unbending shafts of light!
Dormir tranquilamente, niños míos,
mientras que yo, perdida y loca, siento
quemarse con su propia lumbre viva
esta rosa de sangre de mi pecho.
oñar en la verbena y el jardín
de Cartagena, luminoso y fresco,
y en la pájara pinta que se mece
en las ramas del verde limonero.
Que yo también estoy dormida, niños,
y voy volando por mi propio sueño,
como van, sin saber adónde van,
los tenues vilanicos por el viento.
Translated by p joshua laskey
Sleep peacefully, my little ones,
while lost and lunatic, I feel
ablaze within my burning breast
this vivid rose of blood.
Dream Cartagena, bright and fresh:
the songbird rocked in lemon limbs,
above the garden where there grows
verbena for our wounds.
I, too, am sleeping, little ones,
though walking through the waking world
with dreams that toss and turn me
like a dandelion blown.
Originally from Sacramento, California, p joshua laskey currently writes in Dallas, Texas. He is co-founding artistic director of Theater Galatea and founding co-publisher of Indomita Press as well as Associate World Literature Editor for The Literary Review. His published work includes original, adapted, and translated plays as well as original and self-translated short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. For his work, he has received the Toyon Literary Magazine Multilingual Award in Translation, Multilingual, or Spanish-Language Writing, which was awarded to a self-translation of one of his short stories. Find out more at his website.