Abstract

"So Bright an Andalusian"

The article focuses on the book "From Lorca's Theatre," translated by Richard L. O'Connell and James Graham L. Here are five plays from Federico Garcia Lorca's theater: a violent farce in two acts; an erotic allelujah in four scenes; a legend in three acts and five scenes; a tragic poem in three acts and six scenes; a poem of 1900 Granada, divided into various gardens, with scenes of song and dance. Lorca's peculiar chiaroscuro is helpful to translators: his obscurity lends them excuses, and his brilliance both energy and light. O'Connell and Graham present the prose portions of the plays with immediacy and ease; in their translations of the lyrics they are more uneven, sometimes hitting things off with remarkable grace, at other times regressing into a poetic lingo that is a little distressing with its inversions, awkward word order, and rhyme-hunting.