Flamenco Quote of the Day

Why did I sell you so cheap,
horse that I loved so much?
Today I have extra money
and will buy you back,
for ten times what I sold
you for.

Porque poco te vendi
caballo que tanto quiero?
Hoy que me sobra el
dinero, vengo a pagar
por ti diez veces lo
que me dieron.

Fandangos Grandes/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Think of the case of Saint Teresa of Avila, that supremely 'Flamenca' woman. 'Flamenca' not because she caught a bull and gave it three magnificent passes (which she did!) and not because she thought herself very lovely in the presence of Fray Juan de Miseria, nor because she slapped the papal nuncio...but because she was one of the few creatures whose duende...not angel, for the angel never attacks...transfixed her with a dart and wanted to kill her for having stolen its deepest secret...the subtle bridge that unites the five senses with the raw wound.

Federico Garcia Lorca/Poet

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I was saying yesterday evening
that there was no such thing as
a good woman.
I turned my head and saw
my mother standing there...
I began to weep from sorrow.

De que no habia mujer buena
iba diciendo ayer tarde.
Volvi la cara pa' atras
y me encontre con mi madre...
de pena me eche a llorar.

Fandangos Grandes/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Flamenco is still alive. Flamenco is nowhere near being dead. Flamenco is still very, very much alive...and mostly with the people from the streets who carry the pure art inside of them."

"El flamenco sigue vivo. El flamenco no esta muerto para nada. El flamenco sigue muy muy vivo, y mas con la gente que es de la calle, en los que lleva la pureza dentro."

Rafael Maya "El Cable"/A Complete Flamenco Artist from the barrio of La Macarena in Sevilla

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Juan Breva

Juan Breva tenía
cuerpo de gigante
y voz de niña.
Nada como su trino.
Era la misma
pena cantando
detrás de una sonrisa.
Evoca los limonares
de Málaga la dormida,
y hay en su llanto dejos
de sal marina.
Como Homero cantó
ciego. Su voz tenía,
algo de mar sin luz
y naranja exprimida.


Juan Breva

Juan Breva possessed
the body of a giant
and the voice of a young girl.
His trill was like nothing else.
It was that same pain
being sung
behind a smile.
It evoked the lemon groves
of a sleepy Málaga, 
and in his wail lie
aftertastes of sea salt.
Like Homer, he sang
blindly. His voice possessed
something of sea without light
and squeezed dry orange.

Federico Garcia Lorca from 'Poema del Cante Jondo'

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

" I remember Manuel Vallejo, I knew all the singers. He would fasten a guitar string, here on the hand of the guitarist, and when he sang, the string would remain attached to the guitarist's hand. If the guitarist played something Vallejo didn't like, he would pull the guitar player's hand with the string like this (demonstrates yanking it). That was the 'categoria' of the guitarist. The money was for the singer. The guitarist got practically nothing. On records, the guitarist was lower than the singer and the last to be recognized"

Paco de Lucia/World-Famous Guitarrista 1994

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Your fireplace is sad
because it has no fire.
If you are in need of
wood, cousin,
I'll bring it to you,
I'll bring it to you.

Tu chimenea esta triste
porque no tiene fuego.
Si te hace falta la leña,
primo yo te la llevo,
yo te la llevo.

Tangos/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I'm going to embroider 
your name in the tresses
of my hair, with little colorful
threads...
so you will see how much
I love you.

Voy a bordar tu nombre
en la trenza de mi pelo,
con hilillos de colores...
pa' que veas como
te quiero.

Bulerias/Alba & Manuel Molina

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

They can call me to
serve God and king,
but no law can order
me to leave you,
I would rather be
condemned to die.

A mi me podran llamar
a servir a Dios y al rey,
pero apartarme de ti
no me lo manda la ley
mejor consiento morir.

Fandangos Grandes/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"To truly understand what flamenco is, you must know the cante very well. Flamenco is born in the cante, and if you take the experience of cante away from young people, they're left with no roots. They're left with empty musical forms, and when they build on them, they build without understanding the emotional substance that characterizes and differentiates the various forms."

Manolo Sanlucar/Guitarrista

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

The evening dresses herself
in topaz and basil.
The girlish moon, temptress,
rises from behind the mountain,
and the air is perfumed with
jasmine, lemon and bitter almond.

Above is sky,
beneath it the tree,
and further below, the water.

La tarde se esta vistiendo
de topacio y de albahaca.
La luna, niña y coqueta
se asoma tras la montaña,
y el aire huele a jazmin
a limon y almendra amarga.

Arriba el cielo
abajo el arbol
y mas abajo el agua.

"Dedicado a Jose" (Camaron de la Isla)
J. Manuel Flores

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Flamenco dancing is concentrated downward, toward the ground. The most intense energy right on the spot, tied to the earth, stamped into it...Psychic energy is transformed into physical, Tellurian energy. Catharsis is achieved in flamenco when body and earth are joined...The dance roots itself in the earth, as though drawn there by some powerful magnet...The important play of arms in flamenco dancing, especially by the females, is a desperate attempt to lift themselves in the air as though on wings.

Claus Schreiner/Author

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Comb your hair with my comb, for my comb is made of sugar; Whoever combs his hair with my comb, will suck on his fingers.

Péinate tú con mis peines, que mis peines son de azúca;  Quien con mis peines se peine, hasta los deos se chupa.

Tangos Flamencos

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Paco de Lucia, world-famous flamenco guitarist, on being asked what he remembered most about his first tour with Jose Greco, replies...

"I only accompanied. I was the third of three guitarists: Ricardo Modrego, Manolo Baron and me. I learned many things then. I was open...at that age you are open to everything, and I was very happy. It was a very happy time in my life. I remember that we had to make a kitchen in the hotel rooms. We bought inexpensive food in the supermarkets and cooked in the rooms. We were thrown out of many hotels...kicked out...because we had fried tomatoes all over the walls...garlic smells, things like that." (laughs).

1994

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Upon rounding a corner
your eyes assaulted me,
your hair ensnared me,
and they led me to my
imprisonment.

Al revolver de una esquina
tus ojitos me asaltaron,
tus cabellos me prendieron
y a la carcel me llevaron.

Solea/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

If one day I call you
and you don't come,
I could be killed,
I wouldn't feel a
thing.
Little companion of
my soul, I wouldn't feel
a thing.

Si algun dia yo te llamara
y tu no vinieras,
aunque la muerte me diera,
no la sintiera.
Compañerita de mi alma,
no la sintiera.

Seguiriyas/Popular

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Flamenco fusion is done with making money in mind...that which sounds familiar is more easily swallowed. Flamenco is being adapted to the masses when the opposite should be true...the masses should be educated so flamenco can reach them..."

Pedro Bacan/Guitarrista

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I am no longer who I once was,
nor the man I could have become.
I am just a sad stick of furniture
thrown away against the wall.

Yo ya no soy quien era,
ni quien debia de ser.
Soy un mueblesito de
tristeza arrumbaito
a la pared.

Martinete/Popular

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

If you are my pretty friend,
why won't you look at me?
The eyes I looked at you with
I have given to the dark.
If you are my pretty friend,
why won't you kiss me?
The lips I kissed you with
I have given to the earth.
If you are my pretty friend,
why won't you hold me tight?
The arms I embraced you with
are covered now in worms.

Si tu eres mi linda amiga,
como no me miras, di?
Ojos con que te miraba
a la sombra se los di.
Si tu eres mi linda amiga,
como no me besas, di?
Labios con que te besaba
a la tierra se los di.
Si tu eres mi linda amiga,
como no me abrazas, di?
Brazos con que te abrazaba
de gusanos los cubri.

Andalusian Ballad (referenced by F. G. Lorca)

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"The baile is a slave, placed to one side. First comes the cante, then the guitar, and finally, way behind, comes the dance. To tell you the truth, the dance has never been appreciated, never recognized for the cultural value it has. The people in Spain like the dance the least. In other countries, the dance is the main thing."

Manuela Vargas/Bailaora

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

My head goes crazy
spinning round and round,
little companion of my
soul and body, and
I have to hold myself
up against the walls
until I reach your door.

El sentido me da vueltas,
compañerita de mi alma,
de mis entrañas,
y yo me arrimo a las
paredes hasta llegar
a tu puerta.

Alegrias/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the World

I went to pray and 
proclaim my faith in Christ,
to say, I believe in
God, the Father;
but my words were, 
Oh, Gypsy woman,
how much I love you.

A rezarle a Cristo
un credo por decir
creo en Dios Padre...
y dije... Gitana te quiero.

Romance/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I like to watch you
pass by on the
sidewalk of my street,
because your way
of walking changes.

Me gusta verte
pasar por la acera
de mi calle,
porque te cambia el andar. 

Bulerias/Alba & Manuel Molina

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

From James Michener:

"Sevilla does not have ambiente, Sevilla is ambiente, and nowhere has this been better expressed than in a lyric written by Manuel Machado. It is a litany of Andalusian names, each described with its most typical appositives, except one, for which no nouns or adjectives suffice:

Cadiz, salt-laden brilliance,
Granada, hidden waters that weep.
Roman and Moorish, silent Cordoba,
Malaga, flamenco singer,
Almeria, golden.
Jaen, silvery.
Huelva, shore of the three caravels.
...and Sevilla.

Cadiz, salada claridad,
Granada, agua oculta que llora.
Romana y Mora, Cordoba callada,
Malaga, cantaora,
Almeria, dorada.
Plateado, Jaen.
Huelva, la orilla de las tres caravelas.
...Y Sevilla.

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to the paradise of that achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep... there are times of complete frustration; there are daily small deaths."

Anonymous 

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Get away, and don't try to
tell me, by God, that you
love me more than anyone else.
Get away and don't tell me...
For words of love are
blown away by the wind
as petals are blown off
of a flower.

Anda y no digas, por Dios,
que me quieres mas que a nadie.
Anda y no digas, por Dios...
que las palabras de amor
las va deshojando el aire
como deshoja la flor.

Rondeña/Traditional

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