El poeta dice la verdad
by Federico García Lorca
Quiero llorar mi pena y te lo digo
para que tú me quieras y me llores
en un anochecer de ruiseñores,
con un puñal, con besos y contigo.
Quiero matar al único testigo
para el asesinato de mis flores
y convertir mi llanto y mis sudores
en eterno montón de duro trigo.
Que no se acabe nunca la madeja
del te quiero me quieres, siempre ardida
con decrépito sol y luna vieja,
que lo que no me des y no te pida
será para la muerte, que no deja
ni sombra por la carne estremecida.
* * *
The Poet Tells the Truth
English translation by Angela Jaffray
I want to cry my pain, and I tell you
so you will love me and will cry for me
in a dusk of nightingales
with a dagger, with kisses and with you.
I want to kill the only witness
to the assassination of my flowers
and turn my cry and my sweat
into an eternal heap of hard wheat.
Let the skein never end
of I love you you love me, ever burnt
with decrepit sun and old moon;
for whatever you don’t give me and I don’t ask of you
will be for death, which does not leave
even a shadow on trembling flesh.
[Translation (c) 2002 by Heredios de Federico García Lorca and Angela Jaffray,
published in Collected Poems (revised bilingual edition) by Farrar Straus Giroux]
Crisis Chronicles Cyber Litmag (2008-2015) 
Tanuj Solankki at 12:38pm February 13
loved it!!
John Burroughs at 2:15pm February 13
Thanks, Tanuj!
Wow.
That’s what I said!
Here is the first poem I read on Friday with the guitar of Paco Peña playing Tientoa in the background, a familiar flamenco tune from Granada.Las seis cuerdasLa guitarra hace llorar a los sueñosEl sollozo de las almasperdidasse escapa por su boca redondaY como la tarántulateje una gran estrella para cazar suspirosque flotan en su negro aljibe de madera.The Six StringsThe guitarmakes dreams weepThe sobs of lostsoulsescape through its roundmouthAnd like the tarantulait weaves a large starto trap the sighsfloating in its blackwooden cistern.
Another wow…. Thanks for sharing it here.
great info I ever got…
You’ve got to come from the heart, if you want it to work
I would like to appreciate your hard work you did write this post, Thanks for sharing this valuable post.
Thank you!
Thank you. The first verse of the last tercet in the Spanish original lacks a word: “que lo que NO me des y no te pida”.
Thank you for alerting me to this. I will fix it.