ALISON MACKIE

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young. William Somerset Maughm
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FLAMENCO LETRAS

In Search of Duende

 

 


When I pass by your door,

I say a Hail Mary,
as if you were dead.




On the street
of The Winds
I devoured you
down to your beauty
mark.
 












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.


You will knock at my door.
I will never get up to answer,
and you must hear my cry.



By the light of the little cigar
I saw your face.
I have never seen
carnations glow so crimson.





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.






The eyes of my dark one
are like my troubles;
black as my pain,
large as my sorrows.




Pride and love
are fighting in my head.
In a war without mercy,
where death does not exist.
All that exists is one woman.





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.





Though I tear off the
hands of my watch,
time will not stop.



When I pass by your side
and your dress brushes against me,
a deep shudder runs through my bones.





You want me to love you?
Let your mother love you,
she's obligated to!





You say you don't love her,
don't even want to see her,
but the little path between
her house and yours
grows no weeds.






My child has a balcony
Which faces the rising sun
The sun rises, my child rises,
Rises the grace of God.





Remember when back then

you came down barefoot to let me in,

and now you don’t know me.





Don’t say you loved me;

just say it was a dream

we shared.




The one who forced

our separation –

may the wings of his heart

fall to pieces on the ground.





My hands ache

from so much calling;

I find myself lost between two dreams

in the early morning.





Ayy, Curro de mi alma,

send me a letter;

just knowing you are well

would be enough; no, more than enough.





Crazy and numb,
just for a moment
I'd like to be crazy and numb,
because feeling causes
suffering, so much suffering
and pain without end,
and the crazy man lives  without all that.




My love you come so late
and leave so early,
I don't want, heart of mine,
such surgical visits.




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.





Make signals to me with your eyes,
for on some occasions
the eyes speak what
the tongue cannot utter.



The night watchman on my street
wants to take my woman away...
tonight we will see about that,
with knife and pistol.



On that night in January,
who was it you ran out searching for,
like an unbridled colt?



 
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.





If we could be alone
together in a room...
even if you told me
to drink poison,
I would do it.





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.






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?







Your father doubtless
was a confectioner,
for he made your lips
out of candy...





I want you, I want you.
I'm dying, dying.
I'm jealous of the breeze
that moves through your hair.







Just as the forge becomes
a fire of gold,
So do my insides
when I remember you,
and I weep.



 
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





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.




Malena had a little stand where
she sold sunflower seeds
to the little ones.
Malena of mine, Malena of mine...
dance a little buleria!





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.





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.




Though I have a well in my house,
I am dying of thirst
because the rope is not
long enough.







All who deserve it should
be stabbed in the heart,
for my guts ache from being
so good to you.



 
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."




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.





How foolish of you,
how foolish,
for you to believe
that I love you
as before.






Even if they put
artillery cannons
in front of your door,
I would enter it,
though it cost me my life.




The sun told the moon,
"go home little tramp,
what is a single woman doing
out at six in the morning?"



 
In my house
I am keeping a garden,
so I can sell flowers
for you if hard times come.







I put a cross on my chest
so the devil would not enter...
for... one day you entered there,
and it became a purgatory.






I don't know which is worse,
to love as I do,
or to have no heart at all.




You dress in red
while I dress myself in black,
thinking you have left me.






There is nothing left to see,
because the little boat that
was there has set sail and
gone away.



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





The moon has a halo;
my love has died.






I want to live in Granada
because I like to hear
the bell of La Vela
as I fall asleep.




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.



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.