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From the Book
Like the boy full of wonder who shows his mother dressed in bright colors for the party, I want to show you the city where I was born, the city of Granada. I will give you examples of her music, and I will have to sing them . . . feeling quite so proud. Why must we always use only our sight, and never our smell or taste to study a city? The special pastries, the alfajor, the torta alajú, the mantecado of Laujar, tell us quite as much about Granada as do the glazed tiles or the Moorish arch. |
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This long prose poem was read by Lorca on his tour of South America in 1934 and was published here in its first English translation by the distinguished Lorca scholar and translator, Christopher Maurer; in it Lorca captures the sensuous tonalities of Granada by punctuating his recitation with the Andalusian folk songs he found so illustrative of the spirit of his native city. |
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About the Book
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Of unusual importance [is] How a City Sings from November to November, a translation of Lorca's lecture about Granada—written in 1933 but here appearing in English for the first time, and furnished with a portrait of the author by Beat-connected artist Carolyn Cassady. |
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— Mary Biggs |
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CHOICE, September 1985 |
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also by Christopher Maurer, Afterword for Pelicans |
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