Night refuses to fall
So that you won’t come
And I can’t go.
But I will go,
Even if the scorpion sun stings my temples.
And you will come,
With your tongue burned by salty rain.
Day refuses to break
So that you won’t come
And I can’t go.
But I will go,
Offering toads the carnation between my teeth.
And you will come,
Passing through the murky sewers of the dark.
Dawn and dusk refuse to come,
So that I die for you,
And you die for me.
—Federico García Lorca, translated by Amy Rodriguez
La noche no quiere venir
para que tú no vengas,
ni yo pueda ir.
Pero yo iré,
aunque un sol de alacranes me coma la sien.
Pero tú vendrás
con la lengua quemada por la lluvia de sal.
El día no quiere venir
para que tú no vengas,
ni yo pueda ir.
Pero yo iré
entregando a los sapos mi mordido clavel.
Pero tú vendrás
por las turbias cloacas de la oscuridad.
Ni la noche ni el día quieren venir
para que por ti muera
y tú mueras por mí.
—Federico García Lorca, traducido por Amy Rodriguez
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Amy Rodriguez teaches English literature and composition at Westchester Community College. She recently curated an interactive gallery event titled “Love: Lost and Found” for Scintilla, a Bushwick-based arts and literature showcase. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Yale University and will begin her Ph.D. this fall.
Federico García Lorca was one of the preeminent poets and dramatists of 20th-century Spain. His “Ghazal” series is from the Diván del Tamarit. He was executed by Nationalist forces in 1936.