Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.
It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.
If you wish to reprint translations, please use the Reprint Basket (upper right hand corner).
Reminder: You must always use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.
La guitarra, hace llorar a los sueños. El sollozo de las almas perdidas, se escapa por su boca redonda. Y como la tarántula teje una gran estrella para cazar suspiros, que flotan en su negro aljibe de madera.
Text Authorship:
- by Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936), "Las seis cuerdas", appears in Poema del Cante Jondo, in Gráfico de la Petenera , first published 1921 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Roberto Bañuelas (b. 1931), "Las seis cuerdas", 1971 [ medium-high voice and piano ], from Tres canciones españolas: para canto y piano, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ramiro Cortés (1933 - 1984), "Las seis cuerdas", from Three Spanish Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Crumb (1929 - 2022), "Las seis cuerdas", 2009, from The Ghosts of Alhambra, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Monica Houghton , "Las Seis Cuerdas", 2017, first performed 2024 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from De la Noche, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Jeffrey Tang) , "The Six Strings", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-11
Line count: 11
Word count: 38
The guitar makes dreams cry. The lament of the soul, lost, Escapes from his open mouth. And like a tarantula, He weaves a large star to catch sighs that float in the black reservoir of wood.
Notes provided by Laura Prichard:
Line 1 - The guitar is a symbol of the Roma culture and the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, invoked here as a vehicle to express strong emotions. Symbols from Andalusia appear throughout Lorca's writings. In this poem, the guitar gives lost souls or those who suffer a way to express themselves. The sobs are amplified and emerge from the mouth/soundhole of the guitar.
Line 7 - Tarantulas weave complicated, unique webs: in this poem, the web may symbolize an individual’s problems or emotions. Lorca uses the spider web as a metaphor to express how a guitar might capture pain and heal through music.
Line 8 - The act of weaving is a metaphor for both a guitar’s strum and for the act of musical composition. Stars are symbols of hope, as they may guide those who are lost.
Line 10 - The color black has to do with “the duende”, which has been defined as “all black sounds”- Lorca uses the color black to refer to what is dark and mysterious.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from Spanish (Español) to English copyright © 2023 by Jeffrey Tang, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in Spanish (Español) by Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936), "Las seis cuerdas", appears in Poema del Cante Jondo, in Gráfico de la Petenera , first published 1921
This text was added to the website: 2023-02-20
Line count: 11
Word count: 36