According to Lorca,
the ghazals of Hafiz
resemble most the Flamenco letras:
My heart has been ensnared
in your black tresses since childhood.
Not until death
will a bond so wonderful be undone.
Hafiz /Poet
I should have cut
my rose that day,
pure, passionate,
sombre-hued,
while the two golden
logs burned.
Lorca
Nobleman on horseback
who does not even say hello...
if your horse
should stumble,
you'll be singing a different
tune.
Señorito
a caballo
que no das los buenos dias...
si el caballo tropezara
otro
gallo cantaria.
Fandangos Grandes
Traditional
When I pass by your door,
I say a Hail Mary,
as if you were dead.
Solea
The earth that covers me,
don't look at it or tread upon it.
Don't remember me,
for my name curses you.
In death, I disown you.
Tarantos
It makes no
difference to me
if you pass by my door
without
speaking.
Your salutations will neither
feed me nor quench my
thirst.
Alegrias
I am the wind,
you a bonfire,
and I long to
burn
in your arms.
Even
fresh water
won't put out the flames.
Bulerias
Jose
Monge Camaron
It wasn't the black of your hair
nor the brown beneath your eyes...
it was the passion of your
kisses that put chains on me.
Solea
Traditional
My mouth hurts and hurts me
from asking you, gitana,
if you love me..
Bulerias/Traditional
In my house
I am keeping a garden,
so I can sell flowers
for you if hard times come.
Bulerias
Traditional
The bell of mourning
tolled one;
until two I thought of the love
you gave to me.
As it tolled three,
I was crying.
Malagueñas
Antonio Chacon
On the street
of The Winds
I devoured you
down to your beauty
mark.
La Caita in "Vengo"
I put a cross on my chest
so the devil would not enter...
for... one day you entered there,
and it became a purgatory.
Solea
I don't know which is worse,
to love as I do,
or to have no heart at all.
Bulerias
You dress in red
while I dress myself in black,
thinking you have left me.
Tientos
There is nothing left to see,
because the little boat that
was there has set sail and
gone away.
Solea
There, still in my bed,
in the small hollow she left,
is the pin from her hair,
and the little comb she used
to hold it there
Solea
The moon has a halo; my love has died.
Lorca
I want to live in Granada
because I like to hear
the bell of La Vela
as I fall asleep.
Media Granaina
In a green meadow I laid out
my handkerchief and three
roses appeared like three
evening stars.
The wedding is complete.
What a beautiful wedding!
God has blessed such a pretty star.
Alborea
Sometime, if only out of pity,
write to me sometime,
for my heart is so withered
with suffering that it can no
longer even feel pain.
Malaguena
La Trini
Even after death I am
bound to keep on loving you.
For a man loves too, when dead.
I love you from my soul, and
the soul never dies.
Fandangos
Just as the forge becomes
a fire of gold,
So do my insides
when I remember you,
and I weep.
Martinete
Virgin of Macarena,
the moon's reflection
shines on your dark little face.
There is no face like your face
nor sorrow like your sorrow
Saeta
Your fireplace is sad
because it has no fire.
If you are in need of
wood, cousin,
I will bring it to you,
I will bring it to you.
Tangos
Malena had a little stand where
she sold sunflower seeds
to the little ones.
Malena of mine, Malena of mine...
dance a little buleria!
Bulerias
She loosed her robe,
that I might see
her body, lissome as a tree.
The rosebud opened in that hour
and oh, the beauty of my flower.
Al Mutamid
Poet-King of Sevilla
I am going to Chipiona,
to my Uncle Picoco's bar,
where they sing and dance...
over there, where it makes
you go crazy.
Tientos
El Yunque
Though I tear off the
hands of my watch,
time will not stop.
Solea
When I pass by your side
and your dress brushes against me,
a deep shudder runs through my bones.
Solea por Bulerias
I went out to the fields to cry
like a mad man screaming,
and even the wind kept telling
me that you loved someone else.
Solea
Though I have a well in my house,
I am dying of thirst
because the rope is not
long enough.
Tientos
All who deserve it should
be stabbed in the heart,
for my guts ache from being
so good to you.
Solea
I asked a wise man a question,
and he responded instantly...
"I too have fallen in love
and, though I am full
of wisdom... I too cry over
a woman."
Malagueña
Juan Breva
It's not the wind you
hear at your window,
it's the echo of my voice,
that, because I want you
so much, calls out to you in
the middle of the night.
Bulerias
How foolish of you,
how foolish,
for you to believe
that I love you
as before.
Romeras
Even if they put
artillery cannons
in front of your door,
I would enter it,
though it cost me my life.
Alegrias
Deep song (cante jondo)
is truly deep, deeper than all the wells
and oceans of the world.
It comes from the first sob and the first kiss.
Lorca
The sun told the moon,
"go home little tramp,
what is a single woman doing
out at six in the morning?"
Rumba
"For us, learning to sing is like learning to talk. We have it in our blood, and your blood boils in you."
Dolores Agujetas
I don't know
what kind of spell
your bottom has over me...
When I look at you
it is as if you have
given me opium.
Colombianas
My love you come so late
and leave so early,
I don't want, heart of mine,
such surgical visits.
Seguiriyas
There is a door in my soul
that has no need of a key,
for it always remains open
and no one can close it on me.
Bulerias
Make signals to me with your eyes,
for on some occasions
the eyes speak what
the tongue cannot utter.
Rumba
If you all want to know
where this song comes from,
just say "Triana"...
I believe that should be enough..
Tangos de Triana
"When I sing as I please I taste blood in my mouth."
Tia Añica La Piriñaca
The night watchman on my street
wants to take my woman away...
tonight we will see about that,
with knife and pistol.
Tangos
El Indio Gitano
On that night in January,
who was it you ran out searching for,
like an unbridled colt?
Solea
To whatever kind of hell you go,
I have to follow you there...
because when I am in your presence
I carry heavenly glory with me.
Solea
If we could be alone
together in a room...
even if you told me
to drink poison,
I would do it.
Bulerias
When I saw her cry
I thought I would go crazy.
But later I understood
that she cried for another;
then it was I who cried.
Fandanguillos
I long to be one of
the fine pearls on your
burnished earrings,
and kiss your beautiful mouth,
and bite your cheeks.
Who ordered you to be so pretty,
that even I am being compromised?
Colombianas
Your father doubtless
was a confectioner,
for he made your lips
out of candy...
Piropo Andaluz
By the light of the little cigar
I saw your face.
I have never seen
carnations glow so crimson.
Siguiriyas
Traditional
The eyes of my dark one
are like my troubles;
black as my pain,
large as my sorrows.
Solea
Pride and love
are fighting in my head.
In a war without mercy,
where death does not exist.
All that exists is one woman.
Taranto
Sung by Camaron de la Isla
I was saying yesterday evening
that there was no such thing as
a good woman.
I turned my head and saw
my mother standing there...
I began to weep from sorrow.
Fandangos Grandes
The strings may be squeaky and worn, the voice cracked and hoarse. What counts here is not the pure and polished sound imposed by the anxious academicism of our conservatories, but outrageous expressivity...a sound too human to be heard without a total upheaval of one's being. A heartrending cry that rips through the guts and immerses the listener in the sacred ecstasy of the duende.
Bernard Leblon/Author
In practice what happens when a Gypsy sings verses borrowed from a culture other than his own, and in a language imposed by law, but with an ear and ancestral melodies carried with him from the Orient, is the encounter of two incompatible cultural forms, resulting in a sort of explosion.
Bernard Leblon/Author
"The solea is the song from midnight to one in the morning, when you feel good, when your spirit is still calm and the tears aren't yet brimming at the corners of your eyes...The seguiriya, by contrast, is for two or three in the morning. Your pain is right up at the surface...you've got to lance it. It's a confession."
Pedro Peña
Nobody knows you. No. But I sing of you.
For posterity I sing of your profile and grace.
Of the signal maturity of your understanding.
Of your appetite for death and the taste of its mouth. Of the sadness of your once valiant joy.
It will be a long time, if ever, before there is born
an Andalusian so true, so rich in adventure.
I sing of his elegance with words that groan,
and I remember a sad breeze through the olive trees.
Lorca
Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias
My feelings just overcame me then and I started singing. When my family heard me sing, the birthday cake hit the roof, the TV set fell off the shelf, and my father tore his shirt open. When I finished singing I took my motorbike and I went home. I felt really calm and relaxed. Shortly afterwards my Uncle Eduardo died - he was the one who made me start singing.
Jesus Mendez
I would like to abjure everything,
renounce this whole world and
come back and live again,
mother of my heart, to see
if in a new world I could
find any more truth.
"Pet......" Traditional
Superstition prevents gypsies from speaking or writing the name of the form. It is said that to do so brings death. This cante comes from the Sephardim/Spanish Jews and was sung to express deep sorrow and anguish during the Inquisition it is considered bad luck to speak or write
I want you, I want you.
I'm dying,
dying.
I'm jealous of the
breeze
that moves through your hair.
Te quiero, te quiero.
Me
muero, me muero.
Y envidia tengo
del aire que mueve
tu pelo.
Bulerias
Oh,
little Virgin Mother of Carmen,
what great suffering it is,
to
be so near water
and not be able to drink...
Ay, 'Maresita'
del Carmen,
que pena tan grande es
estar juntito del agua
y no
poderla beber...
Malagueñas
Juan Breva