Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)

Seventy-four years ago today, on Aug 19, 1936, Fascist troops in the army of Francisco Franco executed the Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. The execution is assumed to have occurred near the town of Viznar in Spain; Lorca's remains have never been identified. Though the precise reasons for Lorca's murder remain murky, his homosexuality, liberalism, and nonconformity -- all great enemies of reactionary politics -- almost certainly played parts in his death.

Earth

We walk on

an unsilvered mirror,

a crystal surface

without clouds

If lilies would grow

backwards,

if roses would grow

backwards,

if all those roots

could see the stars

& the dead not close

their eyes,

we would become like swans.

(1923)

In 1986, Leonard Cohen translated "Little Viennese Waltz" and set it to music as the song "Take This Waltz" (side-by-side lyrics and standard translation here). The song reached #1 in Spain and appears on Cohen's 1988 album I'm Your Man. It has become a staple of his live performances.