Songs and Ballads

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

Lorca is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His work
inspired several generations of poets, and when he was murdered by the
Fascists in 1936 at the age of 38, he was immediately celebrated as a
martyr. Deeply influenced by the symbolism of Andalusian gypsy folklore
and surrealism, Lorca’s lyrics can be regarded as verbal music, with
each poem revealing the rich ambiguities of the Spanish language. The
poet regarded his poetry as “performance songs” to be spoken aloud,
sung, or changed and not merely read. It is this aspect of Lorca’s
genius that is so vividly captured in this delightful book of
translations.

Not content to render these poems in a literal translation, Skelton has
used English words and phrases that are the equivalent of the Spanish
but that allow him to capture the quality of Lorca’s extraordinary
verbal music and impart to it an English resonance. This is especially
true of the great “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias” and, quite
differently, of “The Martyrdom of Saint Eulalia.” Skelton’s vivid
and muscular translation so captures the spirit of Lorca’s work, in
both the delicate lyrics and the dramatic narratives, that one has the
impression of reading the poem in translation for the very first time.

For those unable to read Lorca in the original Spanish these
translations are undoubtedly the next best thing.