More from Gary Bachlund; continuing from the blog entry below about Rosalía de Castro. Bachlund mentions his work on Antonio Machado's "En El Entierro de Un Amigo"
Categories: International, Cultures, Literature, Writing, Metaphysical, Art, History
Antonio Machado
For more information on Antonio Machado, please see La Noria.
The Burial of a Friend
They gave him to earth one horrible afternoon
In July, under a burning sun.
One step from the open hole
roses lay with rotting petals,
geraniums with red flowers
and pungent fragrance. The sky
clear and blue. A strong
and dry wind was blowing
Two gravediggers
let the coffin hang there
heavily on its fat ropes
and then settle to the bottom.
And when it got there it made a loud thump
soberly in the silence.
The sound of the coffin hitting earth
is a sound utterly serious.
Dry lumps of dirt
break on the black box…
A whitish breath
rose from the deep hole, and the wind took it.
And you, with no shadow now, sleep and be at rest;
deep peace to your bones…
It is final now,
sleep your untroubled and true dream.
Translation, courtesy of Professor Douglas Duno
En El Entierro de Un Amigo
Tierra le dieron una tarde horrible
del mes de julio, bajo el sol de fuego.
A un paso de la abierta sepultura,
había rosas de podridos pétalos,
entre geranios de áspera fragancia
y roja flor. El cielo
puro y azul. Corría
un aire fuerte y seco.
De los gruesos cordeles suspendido,
pesadamente, descender hicieron
el ataúd al fondo de la fosa
los dos sepultureros...
Y al reposar sonó con recio golpe,
solemne, en el silencio.
Un golpe de ataúd en tierra es algo
perfectamente serio.
Sobre la negra caja se rompían
los pesados terrones polvorientos...
El aire se llevaba
de la honda fosa el blanquecino aliento.
?Y tú, sin sombra ya, duerme y reposa,
larga paz a tus huesos...
Definitivamente,
duerme un sueño tranquilo y verdadero.
~ Antonio Machado
En El Entierro de Un Amigo - (2008) 
Antonio Machado
for tenor and piano
for Douglas Duno
The structural theme of the work is the "pendulum" between D flat major with its added major seventh and D flat minor with a minor seventh, then decorated above with chords adding yet further the major or minor sixth of the scale. The minor suggests one emotional response to the graveside setting, and major the contrasting as images which relieve the oppression rise and fall against the more somber setting. The long-lined 4/2 meter extends the tension across psychological time as these static chords do not resolve.
MORE: HERE
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