Short Spanish Poems

Masterful lyrical miniatures you'll love - and understand!

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Let these delicate and captivating creations melt on your literary palate. They are short Spanish poems by three great Spanish poets of the so called “generación del 27”: Federico García Lorca, Jorge Guillén and Rafael Alberti.

Cancioncilla Sevillana

Federico García Lorca

Amanecía
en el naranjel.
Abejitas de oro
buscaban la miel.
¿Dónde estará
la miel?
Está en la flor azul,
Isabel.
En la flor,
del romero aquel.

(Sillita de oro
para el moro.
Silla de oropel
para su mujer.)

Amanecía
en el naranjel.

Very simply the poet evokes a jovial bucolic scene of magical, unreal beauty: blue flowers, golden bees, rosemary leaves bathed in honey...Two adult characters unexpectedly make their appearance in this poetic fantasy behind brackets, perhaps suggesting them timidly and innocently peeping out from behind the petals of some curious flower...

Paisaje

Federico García Lorca

La tarde equivocada
se vistió de frío.
Detrás de los cristales,
turbios, todos los niños,
ven convertirse en pájaros
un árbol amarillo.

La tarde está tendida
a lo largo del río.
Y un rubor de manzana
tiembla en los tejadillos.

A truly charming rendition of autumn: Through misty windowpanes the children, confined indoors due to the cold outside, watch the wind play and dance with the yellowed bird-like leaves of a friendly tree; meanwhile the afternoon lies low along the river and the twilight turns the roof-tiles crimson with the nearing of dusk.

Misterio de Golondrina

Jorge Guillén

Por un aire juvenil
Ha vuelto la golondrina,
Entre ventana y tejado
—Buen ángulo— nidifica,
Cruza con el pico abierto
La diafanidad nutricia,
Retorna veloz a casa,
Nido de futura cría,
Sale y vuela, vuela, vuela:
Maravilla, maravilla.

This poem describes a swallow returning home at the onset of spring after having spent the cold winter months away in warmer climes. It flies jubilantly to and fro through the vibrant, gleaming air, searching for food and building its nest in gleeful anticipation of seeing it fill up with its young.

Aquellos Veranos

Joge Guillén

Lentos veranos de niñez
Con monte y mar, con horas tersas,
Horas tendidas sobre playas
Entre los juegos de la arena,
Cuando el aire más ancho y libre
Nunca embebe nada que muera,
Y se ahondan los regocijos
En luz de vacación sin tregua,
El porvenir no tiene término,
La vida es lujo y va muy lenta.

The poet basks in the reminiscence of childhood´s timeless and sumptuous bliss... Emotions used to be real and all-encompassing, and time used to go by so slowly that we were actually immortal  – like the sand, like the sky, like the soothing coming and going of the sea...

¡A volar!

Rafael Alberti

Leñador,
no tales el pino,
que un hogar
hay dormido
en su copa.

Señora abubilla,
señor gorrión,
hermana mía calandria,
sobrina del ruiseñor;
ave sin cola,
martín-pescador,
parado y triste alcaraván;

¡a volar,
pajaritos,
a la mar!

A crescendo of emotion is built into this beautiful lyrical creation: Beginning with a melancholic plea not to fell the pine tree that the poet is seeing, it goes on to arouse our sympathy and evoke ever deeper sentiment by naming one by one some of its possible - and impossible - dwellers. It culminates in an explosion of rapture and bliss as it invites the birds to turn their backs to their wordly troubles and fly up and out to the deep blue sea.

End of Short Spanish Poems

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