esquela...

A liitle while ago I finished a thoroughly enjoyable book... Los Cretinos ( originally The Twits by Roald Dahl.) I'm sure I talked about it at the time.

Anyway, looking through it again today my bookmark dropped out... I use these to make a note of words I have looked up or need to track down etc...I do this with all the stuff I read.

All the things on the list mostly go into my "proper" Spanish notebook... so it has the advantage that I write them down twice and generally say them twice as well. Usually I will also try to think of some smart way of remembering them as well... as I have demonstrated in previous articles.

Anyhow, to show you what I do, and to give you some idea of what level I am at and the sort of things I have to look up, here is what was on the bookmark... well, most of it...

restregar.... to rub
la manga.... sleeve
apeticible.. desirable, tasty
revolver.... to turn upside down
mohoso.... mouldy
cochino..... filthy
maloliente.... evil-smelling
espantosa fealdad.... horrible, unsightly
vistazo.... a sight
apoderar.... to empower, to take possession of
a medida que.... in proportion to....
envejecer.... to grow old
empieza a notarse en su cara ... it starts to show on her face
que apenas puedes soportar el mirala... you can hardly stand to look at her
tales que ... such as
puedes apostar tu vida... you can bet your life
tramando o algo .... plotting something
volcar.... to overturn/upset/capsize/pour out,over
la almohada ... pillow/cushion
las sabanas... the sheets
encoger... to shrink

You can see it was a good book... lots of insults, arguments, daft behaviour etc.You will also see that only sometimes did I do the right thing and write a sentence or phrase... mostly it's just the word. My excuse is... it's only a little bit of paper.

I also write copiously on the pages as well... I see nothing wrong with it... and I also really like it when I buy an old book and find what other people have written in it.... sometimes many many years ago.

You won't get that with the Kindle I can tell you!

By the way, the Spanish word for a footnote is also the word for a wedge. It makes sense!
In one of my very early articles I mentioned that I had found, in a junk shop as usual, an odd CD by Enrique Moreno... him at the top there... called Omega, and I posted a couple of videos of the songs on there. Very emotional stuff, including translations of Leonard Cohen (First we take Manhattan) and poems by Lorca....

Well, Morena has died, on my birthday in fact, Dec 13th. There was a big obituary in the Independent on Friday. I had no idea how famous he was, and how he had pioneered, very controversially, the blending of Flamenco with other forms.. pop music, dance etc. Omega was his big breakthrough which launched his successful career.

So.... here's another of his songs... which I think typifies his approach. Flamenco is not something I know how to appreciate... I need a video called " A beginner's guide to what Flamenco is all about."



And as an added bonus, this is Estrella Morente...actually, this is pretty amazing, and could well be the first video on that video I was suggesting... bloody impressive!!... take a look...

bodas de sangre

Blood Wedding.... Bodas de Sangre.... Lorca's super-dramatic play about lost love. It's powerful stuff, maybe rather florid and over-emotional for current tastes, but an essential read ( and view) for anyone who wants to go beyond Lorca's poetry, and wants to know about Spanish theatre and its influences.

As well as that, of course, it has all the advantages to language learners of the "play" format... IT'S ALL SPEECH "..... which has got to be good. PLUS you can actually tape yourself reading some of the play...

There's LOADS of stuff on the web about the play... in fact it's all a bit overdone... study guides, the significance of colour in the play, loads of theories, notes for students, the entire text, what to read next.... too much!

I've got the Hispanic Texts version, edited by H. Ramsden, who I like to think is the fish and chip magnate but probably isn't. When you think about it, combining running zillions of salt and vinegar emporia with being Emeritas Professor of Spanish at Manchester University would be a big ask.

This has good background information about Lorca, without swamping you with too much theorising.

Also, there are loads of video clips, but by far my favourite is this .... it tells you all you need to know, and it is a production I would love to have seen...


Once you've watched that dramatic intro, you can scroll along the choices along the bottom to see various productions and scenes from the play, but the sound is usually a bit duff.


Vetusta Morla are the bees knees... here's a beautiful acoustic version of Boca en la Tierra...



and here are the words..

Nos dejaron las balas
y un enjambre de abejasése fue su tesoro y una noche oxidada.

Nos alzaron en brazos
descubrimos planetas
nos creímos tan fuertes como héroes de guerra.

Y en mitad del relámpago llegó el mal de altura
fuimos sed en el aire pero boca en la tierra.

Ahora alumbras las horas
con guiños que se escapan
cubriendo el recuerdo con bandejas de plata.

Y nos echamos tanto de menos
que nos da por despegar
en avenidas de pegamento, clavados por las rodillas.

Y en mitad del relámpago llegó el mal de altura
fuimos sed en el aire pero boca en la tierra.

La antena está abierta esperando una señal
la señal que no llega a esta sala de espera es una eternidad.
Y el tesoro perfecto lo cubrió la tormenta
con aviones cruzándose en la noche más negra.

Y en mitad del relámpago llegó el mal de altura
fuimos sed en el aire pero boca en la tierra.

Fuente: musica.com ( thanks)
Letra añadida por joserayab ( and thanks to you too)

............................ Telón.....................................

NOTE...I don't know how that flanders panel picture got there... I must have picked the wrong picture... sorry.