Translated by Gloria Garcia Lorca, the writer's niece, and Jane Duran, the family friend who became a celebrated poet, Gypsy Ballads is the most authentic version of Romancero Gitano imaginable. In their new translation Jane Duran and Gloria Garcia Lorca have been faithful to Lorca's work, searching out original meanings, avoiding overt interpretations, reproducing metaphors, so as to bring to an English-speaking reader the pure power of Lorca's poetry. What is revealed is a kaleidoscope of sensory images, characters and stories. Lorca described his most popular collection as 'the poem of Andalusia ...A book that hardly expresses visible Andalusia at all, but where hidden Andalusia trembles.' Seeking to relate the nature of his proud and troubled region of Spain, he drew on a traditional gypsy form; yet the homely, unpretentious style of these poems barely disguises strong undercurrents of conflicted identity.
This bilingual edition includes revealing insights into the Romancero and the history of the Spanish ballad form by Andres Soria Olmedo; notes on the dedications by Manuel Fernandez-Montesinos; Lorca's lecture on his own book; and an introduction to the problems and challenges faced by translators of Lorca, by Professor Christopher Maurer.