Book Review: Canciones y Poemas para Ninos

A Book You Can Buy From Me

Book Title: Canciones y poemas para ninos

Author: Federico Garcia Lorca

Date: 1987

Publisher: Editorial Labor

Length: 92 pages

Illustrations: line drawings by Daniel Zarza

Quote: "La mar no tiene naranjas, ni Sevilla tiene amor."

Cultures differ; when I read books published "for children" in Spanish-speaking countries, I often think that they'd be considered completely unsuitable for children in English-speaking countries. This is that kind of book. The poems are short, simple, often lyrical, often whimsical. As an Amazon reviewer said, it's a pleasure to share...some of them...with the smallest children. And then there are some...well...

To be fair, these poems do not represent what was probably Federico Garcia Lorca's definition of his adult work; he was an overt homosexual (rejected by equally wacky, but heterosexual, Salvador Dali) and an outspoken left-winger. Born in 1898, he was shot to death in 1936, probably by political enemies. His fame as a poet and playwright rests almost as much on his idealization as a Socialist martyr as on his literary talent. The verses in this book don't tell children to take sides in a war or demand sexual favors from married men.

But they do contain lyrics like this one:

"Cordoba.
Lejana y sola.
Jaca negra,luna grande,
y aceitunas en mi alforja.
Aunque sepa los caminos
yo nunca llegare a Cordoba.
Por el llano, por el viento,
jaca negra, luna roja.
La muerte me esta mirando
desde las torres de Cordoba.
Ay que camino tan largo!
Ay mi jaca valerosa!
Ay que la muerte me espera,
antes de llegar a Cordoba!
Cordoba.
Lejana y sola."

There's also a poem about a couple who have to get the Pope's consent to be married because they're first cousins, a sweet little ditty comparing a girl who refuses to ride away with soldiers to fruit that's dried up while green, and a ballad in which a medieval knight "liberates" a slave girl and finds out (one hopes before taking advantage of her) that she is his long-lost sister. These are, obviously, not mental images I'd worry about the nephews finding on the Internet, now...but they're not the kind of thing I would have wanted to share with the nephews when they were at the coloring-in-the-line-drawings stage.

The line drawings, I might add, are perhaps deliberately no more realistic than what four-year-olds can do all by themselves. When I was four I hated that sort of thing. Teenagers love being able to do something better than an adult who's being paid to do it, but four-year-olds know they need to be taught, rather than mocked, by adults.

All that said, who should read this book? Among people who read this web site in English, teenagers and adults taking Spanish classes are probably an ideal audience. Reasonably adult concepts are presented in simple, familiar, melodious words. I don't know whether Garcia Lorca consciously tried to write for people learning Spanish as a foreign language, but he's accessible to, and wildly popular with, that group. If you're looking for a short, easy, but not infantile read, Canciones y poemas para ninos is for you.

Given that the Books You Can Buy From Me system offers no benefits to deceased authors, should you buy this book from me online? Although it was widely distributed, this edition seems to have become a bit of a collector's item. The best price you can get from salolianigodagewi@yahoo.com would be $10 for the book, $5 for shipping. That's reasonable compared to what some online dealers are asking for a used, clean copy of this collection; Amazon lists prices as "starting from" $30, but a little prodding turns up better deals. However, there are other collections of this poet's shorter, simpler work that may be cheaper.