Romance sonámbulo

Green, how I want you green. [lit. "green that I want you green," a untranslatable desiderative-repetition]
Green wind. Green branches.
The boat upon the sea
and the horse on the mountain.
With shadow at her waist,
she dreams on her railing, [baranda: a balcony railing or parapet, a recurring charged image]
green flesh, green hair,
with eyes of cold silver.
Green, how I want you green.
Under the gypsy moon, [gitana: Romani/gypsy, carrying the poem's Romani cultural world]

things are gazing at her
and she cannot gaze back at them.

---

Green, how I want you green.
Great stars of frost
come with the fish of shadow [lit. "the shadow-fish," a Lorca image for darkness moving through water]
that opens the road of dawn.
The fig tree rubs its wind
with the sandpaper of its branches,
and the mountain, a thieving cat, [gato garduño: lit. "marten-cat," a sneaky, pilfering cat — no clean English equivalent]
bristles its bitter agave spikes. [pitas: agave plants, whose sharp points are meant literally]
But who will come? And from where?…
She stays on her railing,
green flesh, green hair,

dreaming of the bitter sea.
— Comrade, [compadre: godfather-companion, a bond of ritual co-parenthood deeper than "friend" or "buddy"] I want to trade
my horse for your house,
my saddle for your mirror,
my knife for your blanket.
Comrade, I come bleeding,
from the mountain passes of Cabra. [Cabra: a town in the province of Córdoba, Spain]
— If I could, young man, [mocito: affectionate diminutive, "lad" or "young fellow"]
this deal would be closed.
But I am no longer myself,
nor is my house any longer my house.
— Comrade, I want to die
decently in my bed.
Of steel, if it can be, [i.e., on sheets of fine steel-grey linen — referring to holland linen below]
with sheets of holland cloth. [holanda: holland linen, a fine white fabric]
Can you not see the wound I have
from my chest to my throat?

— Three hundred dark roses [morenas: dark, dusky, brown — the roses are bloodstains]
your white shirt-front carries.
Your blood oozes and smells
around your sash.
But I am no longer myself,
nor is my house any longer my house.
— Let me go up at least
to the high railings; [barandas: the parapets/railings above]
— Let me go up! let me go up
to the green railings,
Railings of the moon [Barandales: an augmentative of baranda — larger, more monumental railings]
where the water resounds.

---

Now the two comrades climb
toward the high railings.

Leaving a trail of blood.
Leaving a trail of tears.
The rooftops were trembling
like small tin lanterns. [farolillos de hojalata: little tin-sheet lanterns — the rooftops shimmer like cheap festive lights]
A thousand crystal tambourines [panderos: tambourines, hand-drums — a Lorca sound-image]
were wounding the early morning hours. [madrugada: the deep pre-dawn hours, roughly 2–5 a.m. — no single English word covers it]

---

Green, how I want you green,
green wind, green branches.
The two comrades went up.
The long wind was leaving
in the mouth a strange taste
of bile, of mint, and of basil.
Comrade! Where is she, tell me,
where is your bitter girl?

How many times she waited for you!
How many times she would have waited for you [te esperara: imperfect subjunctive — a wistful, hypothetical waiting, not simply "waited"]
fresh face, dark hair,
on this green railing!

---

Over the face of the cistern [aljibe: a cistern, a stone water-tank — charged here as a mirror and a death-vessel]
the gypsy girl was swaying.
Green flesh, green hair,
with eyes of cold silver.
An icicle of moon [carámbano: an icicle or frozen shard — here the moonlight holds her body above water]
holds her above the water.
The night became intimate [se puso íntima: "turned intimate," enclosed and close — like a small square or courtyard]
like a small plaza. [plaza: a town square, an enclosed public space — smallness signals compression, not comfort]
Drunk Civil Guards [Guardias civiles: Spain's paramilitary rural police, a sinister presence throughout Lorca's work]
were pounding at the door.

Green, how I want you green.
Green wind. Green branches.
The boat upon the sea.
And the horse on the mountain.