blood wedding - act i, scene ii [remix]
In the second scene of Act 1 we meet Leonardo and his family. He has married the Bride's cousin (who is simply called Leonardo's Wife or just Wife by Federico; who gives everyone titles, not names in this play). The two of them live in a run-down hut along with Mother in Law and their young son, Boy. We find the two women singing a dire and somewhat sinister lullaby to the child, involving a tortured horse and deep, black water. It should be clear to everyone by the end of this act that Leonardo's and the Wife's marriage … is not a happy one. At some point during all this bickering a Girl appears to tell the Mother in Law of all the nice things the Bridegroom is buying for the Bride. Upon hearing this Leonardo, who is never calm, flies into an even bigger rage, scaring everyone and the Girl flees the house weeping.
…………………………………………….
Morning. a rose-colored room with wreaths of flowers and gleaming copper pots and pans. In the center, a table with a tablecloth. Leonardo's Mother-in-Law cradles a Boy in her arms, rocking. Leonardo's Wife is mending stockings.
Mother-in-law:
Hush, baby, hush.
Dream of a great black stallion
that would not drink the water.
Wouldn't drink the water.
The water was black
under the branches.
Under the branches
the water was black.
Under the bridge
it stopped and sang.
Who can say, my baby,
of the water's pain?
Of the water's pain
who can say?
As it draws its long tail
through deep green room …
Wife [quietly singing]:
Go to sleep, my carnation,
for the horse will not want to drink deep.
Mother-in-law:
Sleep, sleep my little rose,
for the horse now starts to weep.
The hooves are all red with blood, [1]
and all its horsey hair frozen.
And deep within its eyes
rests a broken silver dagger.
Down they went to the river's edge.
Ai!, how they went down!
And its blood ran faster
than the running water.
Mother-in-law:
Sleep, sleep my little rose,
for the horse now starts to weep.
Wife:
It will not touch
the river's edge,
it will not, no it will not
though its mouth is hot
with silver flies.
O to the hard mountains
it can only whinny
with the dead river
stuck in its throat.
Ai!, the giant horse
that did not want the water!
Ai!, the pain of the snow, [2]
for a horse made of the dawn!
Mother-in-law:
Keep away now! Stop it,
and close the windows.
Use branches of dreams
and dream of branches.
Wife:
Horse, my boy
has his own pillow.
Mother-in-law:
Dream, softly dream.
Wife:
Now my boy sleeps.
Mother-in-law:
His cradle is made of steel.
Wife:
His blanket is of fine Holland linen.
Mother-in-law:
Hush, baby, hush.
Wife:
Ai!, the giant horse
that did not want the water!
Mother-in-law:
Keep away now! Do not enter!
Run to the mountains
down through the gray valleys
to your mare's side.
Wife [looking at sleeping Boy]:
Now my boy sleeps.
Mother-in-law:
Now my baby is quiet.
Wife [softly]:
Sleep, my carnation, of
the giant horse that
did not want the water.
Mother-in-law [rising softly]:
Sleep, sleep my little rose,
for the horse now starts to weep.
[Mother-in-law exits carrying the Boy. Pause. Leonardo enters]
Leonardo: Where's the boy?
Wife: He fell asleep.
Leonardo: Yesterday he was not well. He cried all night.
Wife [happily]: And today he is fresh like a dahlia. And you? Were you at the blacksmith today?
Leonardo: I've just come from there. Can you believe it? For more than two months he has been putting new horseshoes on our horse and they are always falling off. As far as I can tell he keep tripping on the stones. [3]
Wife: Could it not be that you ride him a bit too much?
Leonardo: No … what would I being doing out there, in that wasteland?
Wife: Yesterday the neighbors told me they had seen you out on the other side of the wastelands.
Leonardo: Who told you that?
Wife: The women who picks the capers. It certainly did surprise me … was it you?
Leonardo: No … I say again, what would I being doing out there, in that wasteland?
Wife: That is what I said. But they say the horse was burning with sweat.
Leonardo: Did you see him?
Wife: No. But Mother did.
Leonardo: Is she with the boy?
Wife: Yes. Do you want some lemonade?[4]
Leonardo: Only with icy water.
Wife: Why did you not come home to eat …?
Leonardo: I was busy with the wheat buyers. They always take their time.
Wife [very tenderly as she makes the lemonade]: And did they give you a good price?
Leonardo: It was … fair.
Wife: I am hoping for a new dress and the boy needs a new cap with ribbons.
Leonardo [rising]: I am going to go see him.
Wife: Please, try not to wake him.
Mother-in-law [entering]: Who is trying to kill our horse? He is worn down, worn out, lathered in sweat. Look at those crazy, pop-eyes. It looks as if someone has just arrived from the ends of the earth. Who …?
Leonardo [bitterly]: Me.
Mother-in-law: O! pardon me; of course, it is yours to do as you like.
Wife [timidly]: He was down with the the wheat buyers.
Mother-in-law: He can go down to hell, for all I care. [she pauses, sits]
Wife: Your drink, is it cold enough?
Leonardo: Yes.
Wife: Have you heard? My cousin is getting engaged!
Leonardo: When?
Wife: Tomorrow. The wedding will be within a month. I hope that they will come to invite to us.
Leonardo [seriously]: I do not know.
Mother-in-law: I hear that his mother was not very happy with the arrangement.
Leonardo: And … perhaps she is right. She is a girl that needs constant watching.
Wife: I do not like that you think bad things about a good girl.
Mother-in-law [with malice]: Bah! when he says that it is because he knows all about it. Don't you remember that she was his fiancee three years?
Leonardo: But I left her. [to Wife] What? Are you going to cry now? Stop it! [He roughly pulls her hands from her face] Come! we are going to see the boy.
[They exit]
[A Girl appears in the doorway. She runs in cheerfully]
Girl: Señora.
Mother-in-law: What is it?
Girl: The young man arrived at the store and bought all the best things we had.
Mother-in-law: Was he alone?
Girl: No, he came with his mother. Serious, tall. [she strikes a pose to imitate her] But very proud!
Mother-in-law: They have money.
Girl: And they bought some open-work stockings! … Ai!, what stockings! The sort you can only dream about! Look: a swallow here [she indicates the ankle], and a boat here [she indicates the thigh] and a rose here. [she indicates her hip] …
Mother-in-law: Child!
Girl: A rose with seeds and stem! Ai! Everything in silk!
Mother-in-law: Two rich families are being brought together. [5]
[Leonardo and Wife enter]
Girl: I came to tell you what they are buying.
Leonardo [harshly]: We don't care.
Wife: Leave her alone.
Mother-in-law: Leonardo, it is not important.
Girl: Please … excuse me [she exits, weeping]
Mother-in-law: Why is it a necessity for you to act badly with everyone?
Leonardo: I did not ask your opinion. [he sits]
Mother-in-law: Very well. [she slows sits down, pause]
Wife [to Leonardo]: What has happened to you? What ideas do you have going on the inside of your head? Do not leave me like this, without knowing what is going on …
Leonardo: Stop this.
Wife: No, I will not. Look me in the eye and me and tell me.
Leonardo: Leave me alone. [he rises]
Wife: Where are you going?
Leonardo [bitterly]: Why won't you shut up?
Mother-in-law [grimly, to Wife]: Shhhh! [6] [Leonardo exits] The baby!
[She exits and returns with Boy in her arms. The Wife remains standing, immovable]
Mother-in-law:
The hooves are all red with blood,
and all its horsey hair frozen.
And deep within its eyes
rests a broken silver dagger.
Down they went to the river's edge.
Ai!, how they went down!
And its blood ran faster
than the running water.
Wife [turning slowly around as if dreaming]:
Go to sleep, my carnation,
for the horse will not want to drink deep.
Mother-in-law:
Sleep, sleep my little rose,
for the horse now starts to weep.
Wife:
Hush, baby, hush.
Mother-in-law:
Sleep, my carnation, of
the giant horse that
did not want the water.
Wife [dramatically]:
Keep away now! Do not enter!
Run to the mountains
Ai!, the pain of the snow,
for a horse made of the dawn!
Mother-in-law [weeping]:
Now my boy sleeps …
Wife [weeping, slowly moving near]:
Now my baby is quiet …
Sleep, my carnation, of
the giant horse that
did not want the water.
Woman [crying and leaning on the table]:
Sleep, sleep my little rose,
for the horse now starts to weep.
[Curtain]
Footnotes
1. The hooves are all red with blood Federico's use of the lullaby is curious; Johnston (1989) is recorded as saying this particular tune had been one that had haunted the poet for many years. Havard (1990) quotes Garcia Lorca himself as saying: "I have tried to collect lullabies from all parts of Spain … I found that Spain uses its very saddest melodies and most melancholy texts to darken the first sleep of her children …" (127). It is a good tool to foreshadow things to come.
2. The pain of the snow Snow carries several meanings here. Snow freezes, thus cooling down both desire and passion. People are referred to as “frigid,” in the manner Leonardo attempts to kill his emotions and shows contempt for his own wife. Snow is also a symbol of virginity, so later in the play the Bride is referred to as wearing garments of shining like snow. References to snow appear throughout the drama, usually, though, in connection with death in one form or another.
3. Tripping on stones. Notice how the image of the bleeding horse in the lullaby comes to life in the form of Leonardo's horse? Blood Wedding is not a play set in the cognitive world; we are the world of archetypes now. The critic Melchor Fernandez Almagro wrote of the lullaby and the play itself that it had nothing to do with (Gibson, 1989) "the Andalusians of the east or west, the mountains or the coast … but with the Andalusians in their deepest historical and psychological projection … Arabs, Romans, Greeks, the offspring of God knows what classical myths: the Sun and the Moon" and that the images we find in the drama are "the most expressive cypher or emblem of [Federico's poetic] world" (348).
4. Do you want some lemonade? Here is a case where I am not translating word for word what Federico wrote down. The line is Spanish is, "¿Quieres un refresco de limón?" which loosely rendered is, "Would you like a lemon refreshment?" I translated that as lemonade, though I have read in other translations as simply "lemon water." The point being that Leonardo is drinking something very bitter and very cold — the state of his life. Consider this when, later in the play, the Bride talks about the bitterness of her wedding.
5. Two rich families are being brought together Here is another example of a line that I can't really find a good English equivalent. The Spanish is, "Se van a juntar dos buenos capitales," literally, "they are going off to join two good capitals [money]." This is important because the community in which this is happening sees the up and coming wedding less as a marriage of love but a business merger between rich bloodlines.
6. Shhh! I do not think the Mother in Law is siding on Leonardo's side here. The actual word she uses is "¡Cállate!" and I use the word "grimly" since she seems to be hushing more the room (or at least attempting to) in a culture where the husband expected to have the last word. In any event, "shhh" works much better than a hard "shut up!"
Work Cited
Gibson, Ian. Federico Garcia Lorca: a life. New York: Pantheon Books. (1989)
Johnston, David. Blood Wedding. London: Hodder & Stoughton. (1989)