espani
Poems

Generación del 27·1921·completo

Despedida

Federico García Lorca

Si muero,

dejad el balcón abierto.

 

El niño come naranjas.

(Desde mi balcón lo veo.)

 

El segador siega el trigo.

(Desde mi balcón lo siento.)

 

¡Si muero,

dejad el balcón abierto!

Context

From Canciones (1921-24). Among Lorca's shortest poems and his most quietly devastating. The orange and water imagery is plain on the surface and shattering underneath.

In plain English prose

If I die, leave the balcony open. The child is eating oranges (from my balcony I see him). The reaper is harvesting wheat (from my balcony I hear him). If I die, leave the balcony open.

Read it out loud at least once.

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