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Lorca's Novena

The Pogues
Language: English


The Pogues

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Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish poet and playwright (1898-1936). Shane "discovered" Lorca's work while the band was in Spain during the filming of "Straight to Hell." Here's a short interview excerpt from "The Lost Decade" where Shane discusses Lorca:

"His poetry reads beautifully, and it was his area we were in. He was a popular poet in the same way that a lot of Irish poets were, in that he wrote in ballad form and wrote about what was going on among the people. His poetry doesn't come from intellectual thought, it comes from the connection between emotion and seeing and feeling. The other thing about him is that he was a faggot, and during the Civil War the fascists went round pulling out all the Republican sympathisers they could find, and they got Lorca and shot him along with a lot of others, but because he was a faggot they rammed the gun up his arse and walked away laughing. But Lorca predicted his own death: he said that his body would disappear and that's exactly what happened and they never found it. He's a big folk hero in Spain and a brilliant poet."


In Roman Catholicism, a novena is a prayer offered for nine consecutive days, usually meant for some specific religious purpose.

Poguetry
Ignacio(1) lay dying in the sand
A single red rose clutched in a dying hand
The women wept to see their hero die
And the big black birds gathered in the sky

Mother of all our joys, mother of all our sorrows
Intercede with him tonight
For all of our tomorrows

The years went by and then the killers came
And took the men and marched them up the hill of pain
And Lorca the faggot poet they left till last
Blew his brains out with a pistol up his arse(2)

Mother of all our joys, mother of all our sorrows
Intercede with him tonight
For all of our tomorrows

The killers came to mutilate the dead
But ran away in terror to search the town instead
But Lorca's corpse, as he had prophesied, just walked away
And the only sound was the women in the chapel praying(3)

Mother of all our joys, mother of all our sorrows
Intercede with him tonight
For all of our tomorrows
(1) One of Lorca's better known poems, "Llanto por la muerte de Ignacio Sanchez Mejias"(1934) concerns the death of his friend, Ignacio Sanchez Mejias, a bullfighter.

(2) As Shane noted, Lorca was murdered during the Spanish Civil War by forces loyal to the Spanish falangist (fascist) military leader Francisco Franco. He was a homosexual, and in some versions of his death, the assassins tried to make the execution look like the result of gay activities gone bad.

(3) Lorca's body was never recovered, although there is an excavation underway

Contributed by dq82 - 2016/7/22 - 11:06



Language: Italian

Traduzione di Roberto Malfatti
LA NOVENA DI LORCA

Ignazio è disteso agonizzante nella sabbia
Una rosa rossa stretta nella mano morente
Le donne piangono vedendo il loro eroe morire
Grandi uccelli neri si radunano in cielo

Madre di tutte le gioie, madre di tutte le tristezze
Intercedi presso di lui stasera
Per tutti i nostri domani

Gli anni passarono e vennero gli assassini
Presero gli uomini e li costrinsero a marciare fino alla cima della collina della disperazione
E Lorca il poeta finocchio lo lasciarono per ultimo
Gli fecero scoppiare il cervello sparandogli con una pistola ficcata nel culo

Madre di tutte le gioie, madre di tutte le tristezze
Intercedi presso di lui stasera
Per tutti i nostri domani

Gli assassini erano venuti a mutilare i morti
Ma invece si sono scatenati a caccia per la città seminando il terrore
Ma il cadavedere di Lorca, come lui aveva profetizzato, se n'era andato
L'unico suono che si sentiva era la preghiera delle donne nella cappella

Madre di tutte le gioie, madre di tutte le tristezze
Intercedi presso di lui stasera
Per tutti i nostri domani

Contributed by Roberto Malfatti - 2016/8/17 - 12:15


LORCA's NOVENA - THE POGUES... grazie x la spiegazione di questo brano MERAVIGLIOSO - ho sempre creduto k parlasse soltanto d'un toreador

susanmargaretwills56@gmail.com - 2020/9/28 - 13:53




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