Friday, January 31, 2025

Lorca to Keats to Lenau to Shields to Lorca: Ruiseñores, nightingales, Nachtigallen

On Tuesday, my Spanish teacher and I discussed the phrase "un anochecer des ruiseñors" from Federico García Lorca's "El poeta dice la verdad." I mentioned John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale", of course, but also Nikolaus Lenau, who lived in the United States from 1832 to 1833 and called it "das Land ohne Nachtigallen". That phrase inspired my poem and song "Land without Nightingales". Yesterday, I read of the "zigzag de cantos de ruiseñores" in Lorca's “En el bosque de las toronjas de luna”. In looking for the text, I stumbled on his playlet "El paseo de Buster Keaton", in which a gramophone plays a recording: "En América no hay ruiseñores". (Andrew Shields, #111words, 31 January 2025)


Note: I never did find an online version of Lorca's “En el bosque de las toronjas de luna”.

No comments: