Nationality: Spain

Gacela of Unforeseen Love by Federico Garcia Lorca

30 March, 2010 by Dave Bonta - Leave a comment - Posted in Videopoems
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I’m rarely satisfied with my own efforts, but I do like this one. (Which is not to say it couldn’t be improved.) I blogged a bit about the poem at Via Negativa last month.

Catalan Ballad (Balada Catalana) by Vicente Balaguet

17 February, 2010 by Dave Bonta - Leave a comment - Posted in Animation
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A splendid little animation, which Laen Sanches has also made available with French subtitles and without any subtitles. (The original is in Spanish, not in Catalan.) Ines Cuesta helped with the illustrations (and provides additional credits at the link).

Carpe Noctem by Ana Muñoz

17 June, 2009 by Dave Bonta - 3 Comments - Posted in Videopoems
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Poem by Ana Muñoz

Video by sonolopez

El lenguaje de las hormigas (The Language of Ants) by Fernando Sarría

10 June, 2009 by Dave Bonta - 1 Comment - Posted in Videopoems
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Poem by Fernando Sarría

Video by sonolopez (Javier López Clemente)

El lenguaje de las hormigas es húmedo, constante,
ligero pero lleno de matices y sabores.
Nada se determina de antemano,
reconocen las sendas claras y oscuras de la tierra,
de un cuerpo sonrosado y de un anhelo.
Su murmullo es la marca de su saliva,
la piel siempre deseándolas
y aunque cierren los oídos, las ventanas,
las puertas de la cama,
ellas, pacientes, sabrán esperar.

Yo no sé cómo saltar (I Don’t Know How to Leap) by Juan Ramón Jiménez

27 February, 2009 by Dave Bonta - 5 Comments - Posted in Videopoems
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Poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez (Estío, 11)

Reading and video by sonolopez (Javier López Clemente)

Here’s the poem, which I think should be in the public domain by now, together with my translation (feel free to offer corrections in the comments).

Yo no sé cómo saltar
desde la orilla de hoy
a la orilla de mañana.

El río se lleva, mientras,
la realidad de esta tarde
a mares sin esperanza.

Miro al oriente, al poniente,
miro al sur y miro al norte…
Toda la verdad dorada
que cercaba al alma mía,
cual con un cielo completo,
se cae, partida y falsa.

…Y no sé como saltar
desde la orilla de hoy
a la orilla de mañana.

 I don’t know how to leap
from the brink of today
to the brink of tomorrow.

Meanwhile the current bears
this afternoon’s reality
into despairing seas.

Look to the east, the west,
look to the south and to the north…
all that golden truth
that encircled my soul,
complete with its own sky,
collapses, false and broken.

…And I don’t know how to leap
from the brink of today
to the brink of tomorrow.

I imagine Jiménez is rolling at his grave at the video’s use of the soundtrack from The Matrix — he was pretty uptight, I hear — but it works for me.