The Gypsy Chronicles

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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




I
t 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





I'm never going back to your house,
so that later you can't throw
back in my face the very
little that you give me.

A tu casa no voy mas,
para que luego no me
eches en cara lo
poquito que me das.
Solea por Bulerias




Because dying is natural,
I am not afraid of death;
I am more afraid of life,
for I do not know where
it will lead me with this
head of mine.
Malagueñas

Antonio Nuñez El chocolate




And no one will love you
nor will I,
for the damage you caused me...
I will compensate you.
Solea
Traditional



I get drunk
and start singing,
and all my sorrows
begin to dance.
Bulerias





Between the sacred bread and wine,
I prayed to God that you would
choke on grief,
just as grief is choking me.

Entre la hostia y el caliz
a mi Dios se lo pedi
que t'ahoguen las duquelas
como m'ahoguen a mi.
Solea





The church is illuminated
when you enter,
and fills with flowers
where you sit.
And when you leave,
all the altars return to
mourning.
Piropo Andaluz





All the evil-wishers in the
world criticize me because
of you, yet when the sun
shines on the window pane
it doesn't shatter the glass.
Solea/Traditional







One moonlit night
I sang a song to you,
and the stars in the
heavens began to
weep from joy.
Bulerias




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




They call me the crazy man
because I never speak:
call me "little by little"...
Because I'm crazy from
caution.
Martinete




And Time said to Love:
"for this cocksureness
that you have...
I shall punish you."
Solea por Buleria



You are the palm tree,
and I, the date.
You tall, and I
entangled with you.
You are the fragrant
rose in the garden
of my desire.
Solea por Bulerias




Ole ole ole...ole ole!
I am going to devour all of you...
down to your beauty marks,
devour you,
devour you..
Tangos
Popular




I like to watch you
pass by on the
sidewalk of my street...
because your way
of walking changes.
Bulerias
Alba & Manuel Molina




The mother of my soul,
that I love so much...
She is always with me.
I carry her buried deep
inside my heart.
Solea


 
Let them stare at us from the bridge,
full of all their envy;
as long as we are in love,
you and I,
who cares what people say.
Zambra





I knew a good man,
as reliable as a watch;
through the happenings of love,
he died in prison.
Carceleras


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



Upon rounding a corner,
they met again,
and like two children,
began to weep.
Love-sickness has no cure.
Fandanguillo


It is better to die with the blood gushing from you,
than to live with it dead in your veins.  
Lorca



The blood in my heart flourishes
like an open spring.  

Lorca

 



 


 

 

 

I've already told you

don't ever go to the same mass

that I go to.

You won't pray and I won't pray.

We will be without piety.

Solea




They say all the 'Juans'
look just like the devil...
but my little boy Juan
looks just like Saint Anthony.
Bulerias




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

Tientos



You have two beauty marks
one near your lips
and the other - you know where





To console me my friends say
visit your lover's tomb.
Has she a tomb, I ask,
other than in my breast?
Ibn Sa'id
Poet




You have such large eyes,
as big as millstones,
and they grind up hearts
like so many grains of wheat.
Alegrias




Your love is like the wind,
and mine like the stone
that never moves.
Solea por Buleria



If one day I call you
and you don't come,
I could be killed,
I wouldn't feel a
thing.
Little companion of
my soul, I wouldn't feel
a thing.
Seguiriyas






If I don't come in this life
I will come in death.
I will walk to every tomb
until I find you.

Siguiriya
Traditional




Why have you sent me a gift of
seven sets of silverware?
I would have been content
with one small wooden spoon
for the time when you loved me.

Fandangos Grandes
Traditional




If the mother of my soul
looked up and saw me
as I see myself
she would die of sorrow.
Martinete





Out in the sea
was a stone.
My girl sat down
to tell it her pains.

Only to the Earth
do I tell my troubles,
for nowhere in this world
do I find anyone to trust.
Andalusian Poem





At the tomb of my mother
I started shouting,
and I heard an echo on the wind;
do not call her it sighed,
the dead do not respond.
Malagueñas
Antonio Chacon




In my life I have known
the sorrows of this world.
Others often have a look
but not the knowing.
Solea





And I’ll sleep at your feet
to watch over your dreams.
Naked, I’ll lie on the ground,
just like an animal in heat.
That’s what I am. I see you
And your beauty makes me burn.
Lorca
 Blood Wedding




 


I'm throwing stones in the street,
and if they hit someone,
forgive me. It's just that I'm going
crazy from all this thinking.

Bulerias






When I die
I ask this of you:
That you tie up my hands
With the strands of your
Black hair.
Siguiriyas



I would like to die
Just to see if you would dress
In black for me.
Solea por Buleria





 
I'm not sorry that you're leaving;
I'm just sorry that you're taking
all the blood from my veins.
Solea



 
I used to pray to Saint Anthony to find you
And bring you back to my side.
Now I pray to the Virgin of Carmen
That you'll leave and never come back!
Bulerias






From your neck hangs a cross
Set in gold and ivory.
Let me die on it
And crucify myself there,
On that cross that hangs from your neck
Granaina





For you it is as if I were made of wood;
you take little bites out of my flesh
and expect it not to hurt.
Bulerias




I have bought three knives
For you to end my life,
So that I will not have to
Suffer the pain
Of hating you.
Solea





The sheep were white and small
and the meadow green;
the little sheperd who watches over them,
mother, is dying of heartbreak.
Siguiriyas






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.
Siguiriyas




I'm not sorry that you're leaving;
I'm just sorry that you're taking
all the blood from my veins.
Solea






I used to pray to Saint Anthony to find you
And bring you back to my side.
Now I pray to the Virgin of Carmen
That you'll leave and never come back!
Bulerias








 
For you it is as if I were made of wood;
you take little bites out of my flesh
and expect it not to hurt.
Bulerias




Why have you sent me a gift of
seven sets of silverware?
I would have been content
with one small wooden spoon
for the time when you loved me.
Fandangos Grandes





Out in the sea
was a stone.
My girl sat down
to tell it her pains.

Only to the Earth
do I tell my troubles,
for nowhere in this world
do I find anyone to trust.
Andalusian Poem



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