Of late I have been becoming a tad bit obsessed with García Lorca's gypsy poetry. There is, of course, his famous Gypsy Ballads, dealing with the myth of the urban gypsies of Spain. But he had also been working on similar themes in his first serious drama, Bodas de Sangre, most commonly translated as "Blood Wedding."
Since much of the play revolves around songs written in Federico's unique style of poetry the jump from translating one style to another is not that great. In fact, one could argue, that even though he never comes out and directly says "Bodas de Sangre" is a gypsy play, what with the constant references in the later half dealing with the moon and death, it could be argued that García Lorca simply picked up where he left off several years earlier on his "Ballads" once his skills in drama had been refined.
While I have attempted to be accurate with my translations to the best of my ability (anyone who knows me also knows that my grasp of Spanish has been and continues to be very, very bad), it needs to be understood that this is not a literal, word for word, translation of García Lorca's Spanish. That would, in my opinion, render the play unreadable. Instead, I tried to turn the play into something that would be interesting to a contemporary American audience while in the same time attempting to be faithful in spirit to the original. If I succeeded it has more to do with the translations of others I turned to for guidance and sheer luck more than anything else. If I made mistakes, which happen to everyone, please keep in mind these are first drafts which can always be fixed as time goes on. Thank you and please enjoy.
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Bodas de sangre
Federico Garcia Lorca
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Blood Wedding
translated by ZJC
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Acto primero, Cuadro primero
Habitación pintada de amarillo.
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Act 1, Scene 1
House of the Bridegroom and Mother. Kitchen painted yellow
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Novio: [entrando] Madre.
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Bridegroom: [entering] Mother?
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Madre: ¿Que?
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Mother: Yes?
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Novio: Me voy.
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Bridegroom: I'm going now.
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Madre: ¿Adónde?
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Mother: Where?
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Novio: A la viña. (Va a salir)
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Bridegroom: To the vineyard. [starts to exit]
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Madre: Espera.
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Mother: Wait.
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Novio: ¿Quieres algo?
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Bridegroom: What is it?
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Madre: Hijo, el almuerzo.
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Mother: Your breakfast, my son!
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Novio: Déjalo. Comeré uvas. Dame la navaja.
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Bridegroom: Do not fuss about that. I will eat grapes. Give me the knife.
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Madre: ¿Para qué?
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Mother: The knife? What for?
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Novio: [riendo] Para cortarlas.
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Bridegroom: [laughing] To cut the grapes with.
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Madre: [entre dientes y buscándola] La navaja, la navaja … Malditas sean todas y el bribón que las inventó.
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Mother: [between her teeth, muttering and looking] The knife! The knife!… Damn the knife, damn all knives and the devil who invented them.
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Novio: Vamos a otro asunto.
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Bridegroom: Enough! Just forget it.
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Madre: Y las escopetas, y las pistolas, y el cuchillo más pequeño, y hasta las azadas y los bieldos de la era.
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Mother: And all the rifles and the pistols and the smallest of all knives — and the hoes and the pitchforks as well!
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Novio: Bueno.
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Bridegroom: All right.
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Madre: Todo lo que puede cortar el cuerpo de un hombre. Un hombre hermoso, con su flor en la boca, que sale a las viñas o va a sus olivos propios, porque son de él, heredados…
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Mother: Everything that can cut and slice into the body of a man. A beautiful man, his mouth like a flower, a man who goes out to the vineyards or to his own olive orchard … because they are his, because he inherited them …
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Novio: [bajando la cabeza] Calle usted.
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Bridegroom: [looking down] Mother, no more.
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Madre: … y ese hombre no vuelve. O si vuelve es para ponerle una palma encima o un plato de sal gorda para que no se hinche. No sé cómo te atreves a llevar una navaja en tu cuerpo, ni cómo yo dejo a la serpiente dentro del arcón.
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Mother: … and then the man does not return. Or if he returns it's only to lay him out and cover him with a palm leaf and rub rock salt on his body so it won't bloat in the heat. I do not know how you dare to carry a knife on your body! — or how I let this serpent rest in my cupboard [she takes a knife from a kitchen drawer].
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Novio: ¿Está bueno ya?
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Bridegroom: Are you finished?
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Madre: Cien años que yo viviera no hablaría de otra cosa. Primero, tu padre, que me olía a clavel y lo disfruté tres años escasos. Luego, tu hermano. ¿Y es justo y puede ser que una cosa pequeña como una pistola o una navaja pueda acabar con un hombre, que es un toro? No callaría nunca. Pasan los meses y la desesperación me pica en los ojos y hasta en las puntas del pelo.
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Mother: No! If I lived to be one hundred I would not speak of anything else. First, your father; who smelled to me of carnations and I enjoyed him for only three little years. Then, your brother. Oh, is it right? — how can it be? — that a small thing like a pistol or a knife can end a man? — a man who is a bull? No! I will never shut up. The months die and the despair stings me in my eyes — to the roots of my hair.
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Novio: [fuerte] ¿Vamos a acabar?
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Bridegroom: [harshly] Have you finished?
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Madre: No. No vamos a acabar. ¿Me puede alguien traer a tu padre y a tu hermano? Y luego, el presidio. ¿Qué es el presidio? ¡Allí comen, allí fuman, allí tocan los instrumentos! Mis muertos llenos de hierba, sin hablar, hechos polvo; dos hombres que eran dos geranios… Los matadores, en presidio, frescos, viendo los montes…
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Mother: No. I am not going to finish! Can someone bring back your father and your brother to me? And then there is the prison. What is a prison? They eat there, smoke there, they play their music there. There! My dead ones, covered in long grass, silent, turning to dust. My two men who were two geraniums … and their murderers, in prison — carefree with all that fresh air, gazing at the far mountains…
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Novio: ¿Es que quiere usted que los mate?
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Bridegroom: Are you asking me to kill them?
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Madre: No… Si hablo, es porque… ¿Cómo no voy a hablar viéndote salir por esa puerta? Es que no me gusta que lleves navaja. Es que…. que no quisiera que salieras al campo.
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Mother: No… If I speak about this, it is just because… How can I not speak? watching you go through that door? It is just that … I do not want you to take that knife. It is just that…. just that I do not want you to go to the fields.
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Novio: [riendo] ¡Vamos!
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Bridegroom: [laughing] Enough!
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Madre: Que me gustaría que fueras una mujer. No te irías al arroyo ahora y bordaríamos las dos cenefas y perritos de lana.
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Mother: How I so wish that you were born a girl! You would not be going away to the arroyos then and we would stay and embroider linens and small woolen dogs.
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Novio: [coge de un brazo a la madre y ríe] Madre, ¿y si yo la llevara conmigo a las viñas?
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Bridegroom: [take her by the arm and laughs] Mother, and what if I take you now down to the vineyards with me?
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Madre: ¿Qué hace en las viñas una vieja? ¿Me ibas a meter debajo de los pámpanos?
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Mother: What would an old woman do in the vineyards? Were you going to lay me down under the vine-roots?
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Novio: [levantándola en sus brazos] Vieja, revieja, requetevieja.
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Bridegroom: [raising her up in his arms] O, what an old woman; you old, old woman; you old, old, cranky woman!
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Madre: Tu padre sí que me llevaba. Eso es buena casta. Sangre. Tu abuelo dejó a un hijo en cada esquina. Eso me gusta. Los hombres, hombres, el trigo, trigo.
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Mother: Your father, yes, he used to take me. That is the way of good blood and he had the best of blood. Your grandfather left a son on every street corner where he went. That I like; the men to be men, the grapes to be grapes, the wheat to be wheat.
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Novio: ¿Y yo, madre?
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Bridegroom: And of my life, mother?
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Madre: ¿Tú, qué?
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Mother: Your life? what?
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Novio: ¿Necesito decírselo otra vez?
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Bridegroom: Do I need to say it again to it?
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Madre: [seria] ¡Ah!
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Mother: [serious] Ai!
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Novio: ¿Es que le parece mal?
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Bridegroom: But you still think it is a bad idea?
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Madre: No
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Mother: No.
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Novio: ¿Entonces…?
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Bridegroom: So, then…?
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Madre: No lo sé yo misma. Así, de pronto, siempre me sorprende. Yo sé que la muchacha es buena. ¿Verdad que sí? Modosa. Trabajadora. Amasa su pan y cose sus faldas, y siento, sin embargo, cuando la nombro, como si me dieran una pedrada en la frente.
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Mother: I do not know. But suddenly, like this, it always surprises me. I know that the girl is good. Truth be told she is. Modest. A hard worker. She kneads her father's bread and she sews her own skirts … and yet I feel, still … when I say her name … it is as if someone hit me in the forehead with a rock.
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Novio: Tonterías.
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Bridegroom: Foolishness.
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Madre: Más que tonterías. Es que me quedo sola. Ya no me queda más que tú, y siento que te vayas.
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Mother: It is more than foolishness. I will be left all alone. All alone! You are the last man in my life and it breaks my heart to see you leave.
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Novio: Pero usted vendrá con nosotros.
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Bridegroom: But you will come with us, of course?
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Madre: No. Yo no puedo dejar aquí solos a tu padre y a tu hermano. Tengo que ir todas las mañanas, y si me voy es fácil que muera uno de los Felix, uno de la familia de los matadores, y lo entierren al lado. ¡Y eso sí que no! ¡Ca! ¡Eso sí que no! Porque con las uñas los desentierro y yo sola los machaco contra la tapia.
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Mother: No! I cannot leave your father and your brother here all alone. I must go to their graves every morning … and if I go away, and if one of those Felixes dies? One of that family of murderers … they might be buried alongside ours. And that? — never! No, not that! Because with the nails of my own hands I will unearth them and crush their corpses against the mud wall.
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Novio: [fuerte] Vuelta otra vez.
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Bridegroom: [hard] That old threat again!
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Madre: Perdóname. [pausa] ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas en relaciones?
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Mother: [slowing down] Forgive me. [pauses] How long have you known her?
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Novio: Tres años. Ya pude comprar la viña.
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Bridegroom: Three years. I've saved up enough to buy her a vineyard.
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Madre: Tres años. Ella tuvo un novio, ¿no?
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Mother: Three years. But she … had a fiancé once, if I remember?
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Novio: No sé. Creo que no. Las muchachas tienen que mirar con quien se casan.
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Bridegroom: I do not know. I do not believe so … Anyway, girls must have a good look at whom they shall marry, too.
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Madre: Sí. Yo no miré a nadie. Miré a tu padre, y cuando lo mataron miré a la pared de enfrente. Una mujer con un hombre, y ya está.
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Mother: True. I never looked at another man. I watched only your father and when they killed him I watched only the empty wall in front of me. One woman with one man and that is all there is to say.
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Novio: Usted sabe que mi novia es buena.
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Bridegroom: You've said that my girl is good.
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Madre: No lo dudo. De todos modos, siento no saber cómo fue su madre.
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Mother: I do not doubt it … But still, I would feel better if I had known her mother.
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Novio: ¿Qué más da?
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Bridegroom: What does that have to do with anything?
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Madre: [mirándole] Hijo.
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Mother: [looking directly at him] Son.
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Novio: ¿Qué quiere usted?
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Bridegroom: What do you want?
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Madre: ¡Que es verdad! ¡Que tienes razón! ¿Cuándo quieres que la pida?
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Mother: No — you are right! When do you want me to go ask on your behalf?
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Novio: [alegre] ¿Le parece bien el domingo?
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Bridegroom: [cheerfully] How about this Sunday?
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Madre: [seria] Le llevaré los pendientes de azófar, que son antiguos, y tú le compras…
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Mother: [seriously] I will take her my old brass ear-rings, they are our family's heirlooms and you must buy her…
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Novio: Usted entiende más…
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Bridegroom: You understand more about this than I do …
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Madre: Le compras unas medias caladas, y para ti dos trajes… ¡Tres! ¡No te tengo más que a tí!
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Mother: Purchase for her some embroidered silk stockings … And for you, perhaps two suits… No, three! You are all I have left in this world.
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Novio: Me voy. Mañana iré a verla.
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Bridegroom: I must go now. Tomorrow I will see her.
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Madre: Sí, sí; y a ver si me alegras con seis nietos, o lo que te dé la gana, ya que tu padre no tuvo lugar de hacérmelos a mí.
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Mother: Yes, yes … and just make sure you cheer me up with six grandsons, or even more if your heart desires … since your father was cheated out of the chance to give them to me.
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Novio: El primero para usted.
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Bridegroom: The first will be all for you.
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Madre: Sí, pero que haya niñas. Que yo quiero bordar y hacer encaje y estar tranquila.
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Mother: Yes, but make sure you have some girls, too. Then I can embroider and embroider … I want to make lots of lace and finally find some peace.
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Novio: Estoy seguro que usted querrá a mi novia.
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Bridegroom: I am sure that you will love my girl.
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Madre: La querré. [se dirige a besarlo y reacciona] Anda, ya estás muy grande para besos. Se los das a tu mujer. [pausa. aparte] Cuando lo sea.
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Mother: I will, you know I will. [goes to kiss him and pauses] Get on with you, already. You are much too big for kisses. Keep them for your wife. [aside] When she is your wife.
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Novio: Me voy.
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Bridegroom: I am off now.
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Madre: Que caves bien la parte del molinillo, que la tienes descuidada.
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Mother: Make sure that you dig the vines near the little well, you have been neglecting them.
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Novio: ¡Lo dicho!
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Bridegroom: You are right. I will.
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Madre: Anda con Dios.
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Mother: May God walk with you, son.
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[vase el novio. la madre queda sentada de espaldas a la puerta. aparece en la puerta una vecina vestida de color oscuro, con pañuelo a la cabeza.]
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[the Bridegroom exits. the Mother remains sitting with her back to the door. a Neighbor woman appears in the doorway, dressed in black with a shawl wrapped around her head.]
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Madre: Pasa.
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Mother: Come in.
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Vecina: ¿Cómo estás?
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Neighbor: How are you?
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Madre: Ya ves.
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Mother: As you see for yourself.
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Vecina: Yo bajé a la tienda y vine a verte. ¡Vivimos tan lejos…!
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Neighbor: I had come to the shops so I decided to pay you a visit … we live so far from each other.
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Madre: Hace veinte años que no he subido a lo alto de la calle.
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Mother: For twenty years I have not been been to the top of the street.
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Vecina: Tú estas bien.
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Neighbor: Perhaps you are right.
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Madre: ¿Lo crees?
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Mother: You think so?
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Vecina: Las cosas pasan. Hace dos días trajeron al hijo de mi vecina con los dos brazos cortados por la máquina. [se sienta.]
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Neighbor: Terrible things have happened. Two days ago they brought in the son of my neighbor home with both hands cut clean off by the machine. [she sits down]
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Madre: ¿A Rafael?
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Mother: You mean Rafael?
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Vecina: Sí. Y allí lo tienes. Muchas veces pienso que tu hijo y el mío están mejor donde están, dormidos, descansando, que no expuestos a quedarse inútiles.
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Neighbor: Yes. And there you have it. I often think of ours, yours son and mine, are better where they are; slept, resting, with no chance of getting crippled. What use is a crippled man?
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Madre: Calla. Todo eso son invenciones, pero no consuelos.
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Mother: Hush your mouth! There is no comfort in your talk.
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Vecina: ¡Ay!
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Neighbor: Ai!
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Madre: ¡Ay! [pausa]
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Mother: Ai! [they both pause]
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Vecina: [triste] ¿Y tu hijo?
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Neighbor: [sadly] And your son?
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Madre: Salió.
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Mother: He has left.
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Vecina: ¡Al fin compró la viña!
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Neighbor: So he got enough money to buy the vineyards!
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Madre: Tuvo suerte.
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Mother: He had luck.
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Vecina: Ahora se casará.
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Neighbor: Now he is sure to marry.
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Madre: [como despertando y acercando su silla a la silla de la vecina.] Oye.
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Mother: [as if waking up, she approaches the chair of her neighbor] I want to ask you …
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Vecina: [en plan confidencial] Dime.
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Neighbor: [confidential tone] Go on …
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Madre: ¿Tú conoces a la novia de mi hijo?
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Mother: You know the girl my son wants to marry?
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Vecina: ¡Buena muchacha!
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Neighbor: Ah yes! a good girl!
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Madre: Sí, pero…
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Mother: Yes, but…
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Vecina: Pero quien la conozca a fondo no hay nadie. Vive sola con su padre allí, tan lejos, a diez leguas de la casa más cerca. Pero es buena. Acostumbrada a la soledad.
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Neighbor: But you see, nobody knows her very well. She lives with her father all alone, just the two of them far out there, so far, leagues from anywhere. But she is a good girl. She is familiar to the solitude … it is good to know about solitude if you plan to get married.
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Madre: ¿Y su madre?
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Mother: And her mother?
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Vecina: A su madre la conocí. Hermosa. Le relucía la cara como un santo; pero a mí no me gustó nunca. No quería a su marido.
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Neighbor: I knew her mother. Beautiful. Her face glowed, like a saint's … but I never liked her. She did not love her husband.
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Madre: [fuerte] Pero ¡cuántas cosas sabéis las gentes!
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Mother: [hard] The things people know!
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Vecina: Perdona. No quisiera ofender; pero es verdad. Ahora, si fue decente o no, nadie lo dijo. De esto no se ha hablado. Ella era orgullosa.
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Neighbor: Pardon me, I did not mean to offend. But it is the truth. Now, if she were a chaste woman or not, nobody ever said. Of this it has not been spoken. She was proud.
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Madre: ¡Siempre igual!
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Mother: Must you go on?
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Vecina: Tú me preguntaste.
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Neighbor: You asked the question to me, didn't you? I answered.
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Madre: Es que quisiera que ni a la viva ni a la muerte las conociera nadie. Que fueran como dos cardos, que ninguna persona los nombra y pinchan si llega el momento.
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Mother: I wish nobody knew anything about that woman … or her daughter. I wish that they were like two thistles in a field of wheat no one dares to name. I wish that their stings would last forever on anyone who touched them.
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Vecina: Tienes razón. Tu hijo vale mucho.
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Neighbor: You are right. Your son is worth much more.
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Madre: Vale. Por eso lo cuido. A mí me habían dicho que la muchacha tuvo novio hace tiempo.
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Mother: I know and for that reason it is my right to care. I 've heard it said that the girl had fiancé once … a long time ago.
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Vecina: Tendría ella quince años. Él se casó ya hace dos años con una prima de ella, por cierto. Nadie se acuerda del noviazgo.
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Neighbor: She would have been fifteen years old then. He got married two years ago, to a cousin of hers, by the way. Today nobody even remembers their engagement.
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Madre: ¿Cómo te acuerdas tú?
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Mother: How is it that you remember?
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Vecina: ¡Me haces unas preguntas…!
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Neighbor: You keep asking these questions to me!
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Madre: A cada uno le gusta enterarse de lo que le duele. ¿Quién fue el novio?
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Mother: Everyone is curious about the things that can hurt them. Who was that other young man in the life of my son's girl?
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Vecina: Leonardo.
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Neighbor: Leonardo.
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Madre: ¿Qué Leonardo?
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Mother: Which Leonardo?
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Vecina: Leonardo, el de los Félix.
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Neighbor: Leonardo … Felix.
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Madre: [levantándose] ¡De los Félix!
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Mother: [rising from her chair] One of the Felixes!
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Vecina: Mujer, ¿qué culpa tiene Leonardo de nada? Él tenía ocho años cuando las cuestiones.
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Neighbor: My dear woman, what blames does Leonardo have in any of this? He was eight years old when those terrible things happened. An innocent child!
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Madre: Es verdad… Pero oigo eso de Félix y es lo mismo [entre dientes] Félix que llenárseme de cieno la boca [escupe], y tengo que escupir, tengo que escupir por no matar.
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Mother: Felix! Felix! That name! When I hear the name of Felix my mouth reeks of muck and filth! [between teeth] I must spit! Spit! Spit! or that muck and filth will poison my whole soul! My body! Felix! The murderers of my body, my blood!
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Vecina: Repórtate. ¿Qué sacas con eso?
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Neighbor: Be at peace! Be at peace! Please!
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Madre: Nada. Pero tú lo comprendes.
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Mother: How can I be at peace? You do not understand.
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Vecina: No te opongas a la felicidad de tu hijo. No le digas nada. Tú estás vieja. Yo, también. A ti y a mí nos toca callar.
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Neighbor: Do not spoil the happiness of your son. Do not say anything to him. Look at us! You are old. I am old, as well. Old women should keep their eyes open and their mouths shut.
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Madre: No le diré nada.
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Mother: I will not say anything to him.
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Vecina: [besándola] Nada.
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Neighbor: [kissing her] No, not a thing.
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Madre: [serena]¡Las cosas…!
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Mother: [calming] Ai! Things!
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Vecina: Me voy, que pronto llegará mi gente del campo.
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Neighbor: I must go now, soon my family will return from the fields.
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Madre: ¿Has visto qué día de calor?
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Mother: Have you ever known such burning heat? Such a terrible day. Such heat!
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Vecina: Iban negros los chiquillos que llevan el agua a los segadores. Adiós, mujer.
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Neighbor: The children are worn out and burnt from the sun whenever they take water to the harvesters. May God walk with you.
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Madre: Adiós.
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Mother: And you. Good bye.
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[se dirige a la puerta de la izquierda. en medio del camino se detiene y lentamente se santigua.]
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[the Mother moves to the door, stage left, stops halfway. she slowly crosses herself]
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Telón
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Curtain
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Dewell, Michael and Carmen Zapata. Three plays: Blood wedding, Yerma, The house of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca. Introduction by Christopher Maurer. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. (1993)
Edwards, Gwynne and Peter Luke. Three plays/ Lorca. London; New York, NY: Methuen. (1987)
Gassner, John (ed.) "Blood Wedding: by Federico García Lorca; translated by Richard L. O'Connell and James Graham-Luján." from A treasury of the theatre: volume two. modern European drama from Henrik Ibsen to Jean-Paul Sartre. New York: Simon and Schuster. (1967)
Hughes, Ted. Federico Garcá Lorca's Blood wedding (Bodas de Sangre) in a new version. London; Boston: Faber and Faber. (1996)
Johnston, David. Blood wedding/ Federico García Lorca. London: Hodder and Stoughton Educational. (1989)
Kennelly, Brendan. Blood wedding (Bodas de sangre) by Federico García Lorca. Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe. (1996)
