Lorca Plays: 1: Blood Wedding; Yerma; Dona Rosita the Spinster

by Federico García Lorca, Peter Luke (Translator)

These three tragedies were written at the height if Lorca's powers and display his innovative mix of Spanish popular tradition and modern dramatic technique. Blood Wedding tells the story of a couple drawn irresistibly together in the face of an arranged marriage; Doña Rosita the Spinster follows the appalling fate of a young woman beguiled into the expectation of marriage and left stranded for a lifetime whilst Yerma is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. Set in and around his home territory, Granada, the plays return again and again to the lives of passionate individuals, particularly women, trapped by the social conventions of narrow peasant communities. The plays appear here in new playable translations.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Poetry, Drama

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

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

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not familiar with Spanish poetry or theater in its raw form, nor have I ever read Lorca before, but even an uninitiated reader can tell that these translations are lovely and extremely well done. They roll around on the tip of your tongue, and really do seem imbued with 'local' culture and character, and the translators specifically stated was their intent. That being said, I did not really enjoy Dona Rosita the Spinster at all (perhaps I found the plot boring? - whatever the reason, it seemed unremarkable), but this was more than made up for by the fact that Blood Wedding and Yerma were each incredible in their own right. They were so rich with emotion and flavor that I began to long for some grasp of poetical Spanish so that I could read them in their original form. I'm sure they're even more captivating there. This collection is so worth a read, if just for those two plays - and all are short & easy so it's a delight to pick up for an afternoon.

[Michael Reffold · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars overall, broken down into:
2 stars for Blood Wedding, parts of which I enjoyed but I felt overall that I would need to study the symbolism and metaphors to fully appreciate the play.
3 stars for Dona Rosita the Spinster, lots of comic moments and good characters but the translations of the poems and songs were slightly lacking at times which reduced their impact.
4 stars for Yerma, a very strong translation (by a different person to the other two plays...) filled with palpable emotion and dramatic resonance.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the three my least favourite was blood wedding as I felt the poetry was too stilted among the other lines. I found the other two plays much more powerful. A jilted woman and a woman without children feelings that felt more relatable and somehow the verse fit it much better with these two as maybe it was more subtle. I have no doubt the poetry aspect is better in both performance and Spanish itself....if only I'd understand.

[golmehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

dar morede khianate ye 2khtar be shohareshe unam ruze arusish! ba namzade ghablish farar mikone ,vali asan malum nist chera ba namzade ghablish beham zade ,ina ke enghad asheghe haman dalili bara jodayi nadashtan namzad ham ke budan!

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read - of course, I can only read the English translation. I bet in the original language these would be even more amazingly beautiful.
I also enjoy the plots and the characters - and I feel that there is a lot between the lines - and having known a little about Lorca"s short life and his some of his struggles, I can sense some unfulfilled emotions in the undercurrent of it all.

What a marvel.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I wish somebody would shake me by the shoulders in their excitement and force of passion. Lorca does, and I feel it.

[Pol · Rating 1 out of 5]

Peter Luke's translation of Yerma is absolute rubbish. I've read snippets of the New Directions paperback (with a preface by Lorca's brother, no less), and Luke's text seems to have done away with whole passages altogether. I am puzzled that Methuen should accept a fourth-rate translation from someone who readily admits that he has no real credentials for translating the play whatsoever. The cheap glue binding of the book is crap too. I am just getting through Gwynne Edwards's translation of Blood Wedding and frankly I can't expect much based on Methuen's sub-standard work and heinous typographical mistakes on page 49. Avoid this one if you must read Lorca.

Update, 17/11/2015: I've read Blood Wedding since then. Gwynne Edwards' translation of the former is more accurate than Luke's of Yerma, and it is the only saving grace of this edition. Frankly I still don't understand why Methuen ever included Luke's subpar work in the first place. Edwards has translated Yerma, and it is available in Methuen's Student Editions imprint. If you don't need the second play, by all means skip this collection and just get the Student Editions of Blood Wedding and Yerma. There is no real reason why anyone might buy a copy, save for convenience's sake. Personally I find Lorca dull and not very important so I'd skip him altogether.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three great plays, Yerma was my favourite (5 stars for that one!!)