stand-alone piece. The poem was first translated
into English in 1937 as ‘‘Lament for the Death of
a Bullfighter,’’ though it is more commonly
known today as ‘‘Lament for Ignacio Sa ́nchez
Mejı ́as.’’ Its first appearance in book form in the
English language likely occurred in 1955, when
the work appeared inThe Selected Poems of
Federico Garcı ́a Lorca.Tothisday,itisoneof
Lorca’s more famous poems, and it was pub-
lished only one year before his untimely death.
Indeed, just before the Spanish Civil War began
in July 1936, Lorca traveled from Madrid to
Granada to escape the rising political pressure.
By August, however, both he and his brother-in-
law, Manuel Ferna ́ndez Montesinos, the former
socialist mayor of Granada, had been arrested by
Nationalist forces. Montesinos was killed and his
body was paraded through the streets. After a
few days in jail, Lorca was taken to view Mon-
tesinos’s body. He was shot to death in the cem-
etery in Viznar (most likely on August 19), but
the location of his remains is unknown. No offi-
cial reason for his death has ever been given.
Though Lorca was not an overtly political per-
son, his loose affiliation with the Popular Front
was enough to mark him out for assassination.
Following his execution, Lorca’s books were
burned and banned throughout Spain.
The olive tree where Lorca was believed to
have been shot stands today as a shrine to the
author. Lorca never married and had no known
children. Yet numerous posthumous collections
and compilations of Lorca’s poetry and plays
abound, as do collections of his folk compilations,
drawings, and letters. He is considered one of the
foremost Spanish poets in world literature.
Poem Text
- Cogida and Death
At five in the afternoon.
It was exactly five in the afternoon.
A boy brought the white sheet
at five in the afternoon.
A frail of lime ready prepared 5
at five in the afternoon.
The rest was death, and death alone
at five in the afternoon.
The wind carried away the cottonwool
at five in the afternoon.10
And the oxide scattered crystal and
nickel
at five in the afternoon.
Now the dove and the leopard wrestle
at five in the afternoon.
And a thigh with a desolate horn 15
at five in the afternoon.
The bass-string struck up
at five in the afternoon.
Arsenic bells and smoke
at five in the afternoon.20
Groups of silence in the corners
at five in the afternoon.
And the bull alone with a high heart!
At five in the afternoon.
When the sweat of snow was coming 25
at five in the afternoon.
when the bull ring was covered in iodine
at five in the afternoon.
Death laid eggs in the wound
at five in the afternoon.30
At five in the afternoon.
Exactly at five o’clock in the afternoon.
A coffin on wheels is his bed
at five in the afternoon.
Bones and flutes resound in his ears 35
at five in the afternoon.
Now the bull was bellowing through his
forehead
at five in the afternoon.
The room was iridescent with agony
at five in the afternoon.40
In the distance the gangrene now comes
at five in the afternoon.
Horn of the lily through green groins
at five in the afternoon.
The wounds were burning like suns 45
at five in the afternoon,
and the crowd was breaking the windows
at five in the afternoon.
At five in the afternoon.
Ah, that fatal five in the afternoon! 50
It was five by all the clocks!
It was five in the shade of the afternoon!- The Spilled Blood
I will not see it!
Tell the moon to come
for I do not want to see the blood 55
of Ignacio on the sand.
I will not see it!
The moon wide open.
Horse of still clouds,
and the grey bull ring of dreams 60
with willows in the barreras.
I will not see it!
Let my memory kindle!
Warn the jasmines
of such minute whiteness! 65
I will not see it!
The cow of the ancient world
passed her sad tongue
Lament for Ignacio Sa ́nchez Mejı ́as