Cicada!

by Federico García Lorca

Now you slip away in sleep.
Your boat is sea-mist, dreaming, by the shore.

Spain’s most beloved poet, Federico García Lorca brilliantly captures the beauty and brutality of the twentieth century. His creative imagination transcends his own experiences – be it from the perspective of an ant, a gypsy nun, or Socrates – to meditate on death, love and honour, and to interrogate the decay and pretence of his society. Lorca’s poetry excites, moves and disarms.

Genres: Poetry, Spanish Literature, Spain

106 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 17, 2025

About the author

Born in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, Spain, June 5 1898; died near Granada, August 19 1936, García Lorca is one of Spain's most deeply appreciated and highly revered poets and dramatists. His murder by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish civil war brought sudden international fame, accompanied by an excess of political rhetoric which led a later generation to question his merits; after the inevitable slump, his reputation has recovered (largely with a shift in interest to the less obvious works). He must now be bracketed with Machado as one of the two greatest poets Spain has produced in the 20th century, and he is certainly Spain's greatest dramatist since the Golden Age.

Reviews

[Fin]

Read distractedly......

Loved the doodles, loved the snails, neeed facing page translations though cmon

[Andy]

Translated poetry, surely the most prone to failures of interpretation, both from reader and translator. But somehow I always seem to enjoy Lorca’s poetry in translation. Even when I don’t really get it. It’s always interesting, and occasionally quite moving.

[michal k-c]

constantly entertaining though I do find the voice a bit limiting -- whether writing from the perspective of an ant or a nun the concerns are the same, the style is the same, Lorca cannot transcend his own preoccupations through artifice. The facades are quite nice, though

[Brendan McKee]

A solid collection that gives a good survey of Lorca’s work. I do feel something was lost in translation, as always seems to happen, but the pieces still hit hard enough and the included illustrations are extremely powerful. Plus it has a poem called The Encounters of an Adventurous Snail and that’s definitely worth some bonus points!

[Oscar Lye]

Difficult and surreal poetry. Conjured spasms of beauty, but nothing concrete.

I adored the poem ‘Ghazal of Love Unforeseen’, especially the first stanza:

‘No one understood the perfume, ever
the dark magnolia of your belly
No one ever knew you martyred
love’s hummingbird between your teeth.’

[Erofili]

It would've been nice to have had the Spanish original beside each one and it would've been even nicer if I could understand it that way! Having said that the translated versions were still a pleasure to read and made me wanna write my own poems sooo bad and I just love love loveeee language and words and the magic they create!!!

[Katie]

New Lorca fan!

[milica baždar]

he makes a girl wanna speak spanish

[Georgia]

Archive #12
3.5
Along with Garcia Lorca himself, a lot of credit must be given to the translators here for this sweet little collection. While I cannot read Spanish, and so cannot speak to the accuracy, the poems read very well. You could almost forget that you were reading works in translation!

My main takeaway from this book was 'wow, Federico really loves the moon.' And you know what? So do I!

Showcased his work well I think. Very pretty!

[Ksenia]

Let my heart be a cicada
over heavenly fields.
Let it die singing slow,
by the blue sky wounded.
And, as it fades,
let this woman I foresee
scatter it through the dust
with her hands.

Incredibly moving and beautiful, Cicada! is Lorca's poetic meditation on death, grief, and nature that renders it all both unbearable and bearable.

[Tiggy]

Love Lorca, especially the snail poem ♥️🐌

[Erika]

I need to reread this to fully understand the nuances of each poem, but as a collection, it's lush, evocative and utterly enjoyable. I just wish it indicated who translated which poems.

[Elsa Billgren]

Ayyyy! muitas descrições da natureza e dos animais… demasiadamente… além disso é um livro lindo.

[Madison Giorgi]

A little reminiscent of Pablo Neruda who I love so much. My favorites in this collection were The Encounters of an Adventurous Snail and a New Heart.

[Kristofer Molin]

Fin :)

[andi]

Garcia Lorca's poetry is so obviously of its time, but fortunately it sometimes reads incredibily modern. His metaphors are bewildering even now. I really wish I could rate this more because I enjoyed some poems a lot, but it was an obvious translation unfortunately, a brilliant one (really, compliments to the translator!!), but still, a translation of poetry which can't really encompass the original. I'm certain Cicada! in the original Spanish is much much better. Nevertheless, nice read and again, I think it's quite ahead of its time in places and that's where it shines.

[DANI!]

so beautiful

[Bibi]

Really enjoyed this collection.
Existential, surreal, strange in places and generally beautiful.

Standouts:
Return,
New Heart,
Ghazal of dark death,
Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (!!)

[Olaf]

⭐⭐⭐.5

[veerle]

gorgeous