Sevilla by Federico Garcia Lorca-Andrew Hensarling
Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish poet and playwright born in a small Andalusian village to the west of Granada. Some of his most popular works include the plays Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma (Barren), and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba) which provide a social commentary on themes such as love and repression. In addition to his theatrical contributions, Lorca is known for his poetry, including Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads) and Poema del Cante Jondo (Poem of the Deep Song). These two series of poems explore the ideas of love, loss, and suffering.
In his Poema del Cante Jondo, he writes the poem “Sevilla (Seville),” which focuses on the rich Andalusian culture in the city. Through his passionate and expressive language, Lorca paints an image of great festivity and beauty in nature. During the time of its conception, Lorca along with several other writers and musicians began efforts to revitalize Andalusian music and verse. This effort was aimed to preserve and restore traditional culture in the midst of social and economic changes in the region as well as the pressures of urbanization that threatened to wipe out these classical customs (Lorca ii).
I was exposed to Lorca’s poetry in the novel Warlight by Michael Ondaatje. Marsh Felon, a government spy adapting to life after World War II, quotes Lorca’s poem “Seville,” stating, “Wars are never over, ‘Seville to wound. Córdoba to die,’” (248). The use of the line in this context is striking in that the poem as a whole is written in a manner that describes peacetime and festivals, celebrating the vibrancy of life in Andalusia. In contrast, the novel uses it to represent revenge, brutality, and the endless nature of conflict. This leads to a sort of logical disconnect regarding how this can be at all applicable to the current situation in the novel, where the remains of conflict are still ever present.
The use of this poem in this context sheds light on the harsh truth that despite the presence of peace, the scars of war can remain under the surface in the lives of individuals and in the hearts of communities, suggesting that the echoes of violence and conflict resonate even in moments of tranquility. In the context of the novel, it clearly shows that as Felon stated, war is never truly over. People will hold grudges against perpetrators of violence and relive their losses and tragedy long after the war ends.
At the end of each stanza, Lorca repeatedly states the lines “Sevilla para herir,” and “Córdoba para morir,” roughly translated to “Seville to wound,” and “Cordoba to die.” Outside of these few lines, the poem seems to be uplifting and celebratory. In contrast to these scenes, where he uses vivid imagery to paint fields of grapevines and rivers in the reader’s mind, the words “wound” and “die” prove to be vulgar against the general theme of the poem. This stark contrast within the poem serves to display the traces of blood in nature that are left by war and conflict. Lorca, through juxtaposition, indicates the truth that the wounds of war can linger just beneath the surface, in the hearts of people.
To further elaborate this point and make it even clearer to the reader, the final line states “Siempre Sevilla para herir!” meaning “Always Seville to wound!” The use of the word “always” here, in reference specifically to wounds, accentuates the extended suffering of pain in comparison to the finality of death. While “to die” implies a sense of end or to rest, “to wound” implies pain that the bearer must live with. It implies scars that will forever remain with them and will echo the conflict endured.