Lorca’s "Love from the Darkness Sonnets" - 4. Enchanted City and a cock dove

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El poeta pregunta a su amor por la «Ciudad

Encantada» de Cuenca

¿Te gustó la ciudad que gota a gota

labró el agua en el centro de los pinos?

¿Viste sueños y rostros y caminos

y muros de dolor que el aire azota?

¿Viste la grieta azul de luna rota

que el Júcar moja de cristal y trinos?

¿Han besado tus dedos los espinos

que coronan de amor piedra remota?

Te acordaste de mí cuando subías

al silencio que sufre la serpiente,

prisionera de grillos y de umbrías?

¿No viste por el aire transparente

una dalia de penas y alegrías

que te mandó mi corazón caliente?

The poet queries his love on the “Enchanted

City” [rock formations] near Cuenca ^[2]

How well did you view that city which drip by drip

was carved by moving water through the pine trees’ course?

Did you notice the dreams, the faces that perforce

slide along the walls of pain when the breezes whip?

Did you see a blue crack of broken moon outstrip

the glazed notes still wet from the Júcar River’s source?

Have your fingers yet kissed the jagged hawthorn’s force

that can crown remote rock with love and companionship?

Did you take thoughts of me as you climbed to the top

where can be heard the silent serpent’s suff’ring care

prisoned ‘mongst crickets and shadows through the backdrop?

Did you not see through the bright transparent air

a dahlia of joy and pain upon that outcrop

my warm heart dispatched, lofted to be with you there?

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Soneto gongorino en el que el poeta manda

a su amor una paloma

Este pichón del Turia que te mando,

de dulces ojos y de blanca pluma,

sobre laurel de Grecia vierte y suma

llama lenta de amor do estoy parando.

Su cándida virtud, su cuello blando,

en limo doble de caliente espuma,

con un temblor de escarcha, perla y bruma

la auscencia de tu boca esta marcando.

Pasa la mano sobre su blancura

y verás qué nevada melodía

esparce en copos sobre tu hermosura.

Así mi corazón de noche y día,

preso en la cárcel del amor oscura,

llora sin verte su melancolía.

Góngora-style sonnet in which the poet sends

his love a columbidae ^[3]

This young cock dove from Turia to you I send,

He of sweet eye and downiest feathers like fleece,

Who can shed upon the laurels of ancient Greece

The flame of endless love from the drear place I wend.

Its spotless righteousness, its yielding throat attend,

Where twice moistened foam of aroused lather’s increase

In tremors like ice, sprays of pearl begging release

To show the place where your mouth is missing, my friend.

When you run your hands o’er his whiteness, let it mark

All the snowy benediction it has to say

Like flakes falling upon your beauty’s hierarch.

For though I cannot see you, it will night and day

Speak for me imprisoned within this love so dark,

Where my heart still seeks you through melancholy’s way.

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[2] Ciudad Encantada rock formations: see here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Encantada

[3] Góngora-style sonnet: refers to 16th century poet Luis de Góngora y Argote, whose style was eclectic and de-lighted in neoclassical wordplay. See here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_G%C3%B3ngora

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