Things, the Beauty

An acquaintance who has recently emigrated is used to filling Facebook with photos where she can be seen in markets and stores, surrounded by food, clothing, electrical appliances...

She keeps repeating that this is life. "Look how beautiful", she always repeats herself, while in the background shelves full of goods can be seen, can be vegetables or cleaning supplies.

August 19, marks one more anniversary, the 87th, of the assassination of the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, shot in Granada by Franco's tyranny, a few digital media honor this brilliant figure of letters, and some do it even reproducing fragments of his texts.

Among those, I came across one that appeared on Facebook, just after one of the publications of that acquaintance surrounded by goods. And, although it was completely casual, it seems that the poet from Granada was writing for her.

I only reproduce that fragment below, part of the speech that Lorca gave in 1931 https: //algundiaenalgunaparte.com/2016/06/09/medio-pan-y-un-libro-de-fed ..., at the inauguration of the library on his hometown, Fuente Vaqueros:

“When someone goes to the theater, to a concert or to a party of sorts, if the party is to his liking, he immediately remembers and regrets that the people he loves are not there. "My sister, my father, would like this," he thinks, and he no longer enjoys what he sees except through a slight melancholy. This is the melancholy that I feel, not for the people in my house, who would be small and mean, but for all creatures who, due to lack of means and their own misfortune, do not enjoy the supreme good of beauty, which is life and is kindness, and it’s serenity and it’s passion”.

Confusing things with life, happiness and beauty can indeed generate in third parties that "mild melancholy" Lorca felt, and even pity, or embarrassment.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff