Friday, April 16, 2021

song of the barren orange tree






Woodcutter.
Cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of seeing myself without fruit.

Why was I born among mirrors?
The day walks in circles around me,
and the night copies me
in all its stars.

I want to live without seeing myself.
And I will dream that ants
and thistleburrs are my 
leaves and my birds.

Woodcutter.
Cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of seeing myself without fruit.





~ Federico Garcia Lorca
translation by W.S. Merwin


Lorca and his family at their house in Granada.





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