POEM
Song of the Barren Orange Tree
Woodcutter.
Cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of seeing myself without fruit.
Why was I born among mirrors?
The day walks in circles around me,
and the night copies me
in all its stars.
I want to live without seeing myself.
And I will dream that ants
and thistleburrs are my
leaves and my birds.
Woodcutter.
Cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of seeing myself without fruit.
Translated by W. S. Merwin
"Song of the Barren Orange Tree" by Federico García Lorca, from THE SELECTED POEMS OF FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA. Translated by W. S. Merwin, copyright © 1955 by New Directions Publishing Corp.
Source: The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1955)
