Rosalía de Castro






Rosalía Castro de Murguía, 1837-1885, was a Spanish poet and novelist as well as mother to seven. A native of Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region of northwest Spain, she wrote in both Galician and Castilian forms of Spanish with her poetry known for its melding of nostalgia, longing and melancholy. Castro's book of verse Cantares gallegos ("Galician Songs") was published in 1863 was seen as the first important poetry in Galician since the 13th century. Her Follas novas (1880) was followed by the despair-filled poems in Castilian, of En las orillas del Sar (1884, By the River Sar), written while Castro was suffering with terminal cancer. Her poetry with its metrical innovations has exerted considerable influence on modern poets, and her place in Spanish culture was honored by her image appearing on the 500 peseta banknote prior to the introduction of the Euro in Spain.




Professor Douglas Duno introduced me to these poems and it is for him that the songs are set and dedicated. For more on this singer and professor of languages, please see my setting of En El Entierro de Un Amigo of Antonio Machado.





~Gary Bachlund

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i.   La eterna primavera      [ 6 pages, circa 4' 40" ]

Dicen que no hablan las plantas, ni las fuentes, ni los pájaros,
ni el onda con sus rumores, ni con su brillo los astros:
lo dicen, pero no es cierto, pues siempre cuando yo paso
de mí murmuran y exclaman:
-Ahí va la loca, soñando
con la eterna primavera de la vida y de los campos
y ya bien pronto, bien pronto, tendrá los cabellos canos,
y ve temblando, aterida, que cubre la escarcha el prado.
-Hay canas en mi cabeza, hay en los prados escarcha;
mas yo prosigo soñando, pobre, incurable sonámbula,
con la eterna primavera de la vida que se apaga
y la perenne frescura de los campos y las almas,
aunque los unos se agostan y aunque las otras se abrasan.
Astros y fuentes y flores, no murmuréis de mis sueños;
sin ellos, ¿cómo admiraros, ni cómo vivir sin ellos?

ii.  No eres vano sueño     [ 7 pages, circa 5'30" ]

En los ecos del órgano o en el rumor del viento,
en el fulgor de un astro o en la gota de lluvia,
te adivinaba en todo y en todo te buscaba,
sin encontrarte nunca.

Quizás después te ha hallado, te ha hallado y te ha perdido
otra vez, de la vida en la batalla ruda,
ya que sigue buscándote y te adivina en todo,
sin encontrarte nunca.

Pero sabe que existes y no eres vano sueño,
hermosura sin nombre, pero perfecta y única;
por eso vive triste, porque te busca siempre
sin encontrarte nunca.

Yo no sé lo que busco eternamente
en la tierra, en el aire y en el cielo;
yo no sé lo que busco, pero es algo
que perdí no sé cuándo y que no encuentro,
aun cuando sueñe que invisible habita
en todo cuanto toco y cuanto veo. 

Felicidad, no he volver a hallarte
en la tierra, en el aire ni en el cielo,
¡aun cuando sé que existes
y no eres vano sueño!

 i. The spring 

They say they do not speak the plants, nor the sources, nor the birds, 
nor the wave with their rumors, or the stars shine: 
but it is not true, because whenever I step
de mí murmuran y exclaman: Me murmur and exclaim: 
"There goes crazy, dreaming 
with the eternal spring of life and the fields 
and soon, very soon, you'll have hair, 
and see trembling, frozen, frost covered the grass. 
There is gray in my head, there is frost on the meadows; 
But I continue dreaming, poor Sonambula incurable, 
with the eternal spring of life that goes out 
and the perennial freshness of the fields and souls, 
although some are August and although the others burn. 
Astros and fountains and flowers, murmuréis no dream; 
without them, how admiraros, nor how to live without them?

ii. You are not a vain dream 

In echoes of the organ or the murmur of the wind, 
in the glare of a star or a drop of rain, 
you guessed around and around looking for you, 
without ever meeting you. 

Perhaps after you found you found you have lost 
again, the harsh life in the battle, 
still looking for you as you guess at all, 
without ever meeting you. 

But know that you exist and you are not a vain dream 
Unnamed beauty, but perfect and unique; 
so sad lives, because it always seeks 
without ever meeting you. 

I do not know what I'm looking for forever 
on land, in air and the sky; 
I do not know what you want, but it is something 
I lost and I do not know when that is not available, 
even if that dream lives invisible 
in everything and how I play. 

Happiness, I have not re-hallarte 
on land, in air or in heaven, 
Even when I know that you are there 
and you're not vain dream!

The opening of "Eternal spring" is an outburst of two arpeggiated chords, which form the basis of the harmonic vocabulary for the setting, C major with its major seventh in third position, and B flat minor in root position with the added second, C, uniting the two with that common tone. Over this arpeggiated accompaniment the voice sings out.

MORE: HERE

















LUCIOLE PRESS BLOG entry: HERE







Rosalía de Castro, Spanish writer (1837-1885)



Bio:

Rosalía de Castro, née María Rosalía Rita, was born in 1837, the illegitimate daughter of a priest and a woman from an established bourgeois family, near Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. So far as is known, her father had no contact with Rosalía after her birth. Her illegitimacy waqs to play a considerable role in the development of Rosalía's character. In the Spain of her time, not only was it a great disgrace to be illegitimate, but worse still was to be known as a 'sacrilegious' child, i.e. the offspring of a cleric.

Her first small collection of poems, La flor (The Flower), was published in Madrid in 1857 and received a warm review from Miguel Murguía, a journalist whom she had already met in Santiago. Her relationship with Murguía resulted in their marriage in 1858. For the next few years Rosalía and her husband lived in various places, including Santiago, Madrid, Lestrove, A Coruña. The marriage produced six children, one of whom was stillborn and another died after a year. A second book in Spanish was pulished in Vigo in 1863, A mi madre (To My Mother). Rosalía's first poem in Galician was published in 1861, and in 1863, her collection Cantares gallegos (Galician Songs) appeared, representing a major contribution to the revival of Galician literature after centuries of non-existence, indeed since the Middle Ages. Cantares gallegos went into a second, expanded edition in 1872, and was followed by another Galician volume Follas novos (New Leaves) in 1880 and, finally, a last Spanish volume, En las orillas del Sar (On the Banks of the Sar) in 1884. Rosalía died in 1885, and her manuscripts were destroyed by her eldest daughter, on the author's instructions.

Her work was consistently under-rated in her lifetime, at least in Castilian circles, and it is fair to say that she suffered because she was a woman poet, first and foremost, but also because she was 'provincial' and because she wrote much of her work in Galician. In the 20th century her work was reappraised, by García Lorca and Cernuda, among others, and she is now recognised as a major writer in both languages.