CASIDA OF THE LAMENT By Federico Garcia Lorca

I have shut my balcony

because I do not want to hear the weeping,

but from behind the grey walls

nothing else is heard but the weeping.

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There are very few angels that sing,

there are very few dogs that bark,

a thousand violins fit into the palm of my hand.

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But the weeping is an immense dog,

the weeping is an immense angel,

the weeping is an immense violin,

the tears muzzle the wind,

nothing else is heard but the weeping.

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Translated from the Spanish by Stephen Spender and J.L. Gili

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From “The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca,” edited by Francisco Garcia Lorca and Donald M. Allen (W.W. Norton: 180 pp., $9.95 paper)