Flamenco Quote of the Day

When I pass by your side
and your dress brushes against me,
a deep shudder runs through my bones.

Cuando paso por tu vera
y me roza tu vestido,
hasta los huesos me tiemblan.

Solea por Bulerias

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

The figure of the cantaor lies between two great lines:
the great arc of the heavens on the outside and the
zigzag of the serpent in his soul on the inside.

Federico Garcia Lorca/Flamenco Poet

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

The flowers begin to weep 
seeing you enter the garden;
because every flower wants
to look like you.

Al verte las flores lloran,
cuando entras en tu jardin,
porque las flores quisieran
todas parecerse a ti.

Bulerias

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Of the guitar players of today I really like, for the respect that he shows towards flamenco: Martín Revuelo, of the good guitar playing. In the baile (dance) area, Carmelilla Montoya, daughter of Carmen Montoya, who is a magnificent bailaora, but who hasn't danced for a long time now. It is a crime for this woman to be treated as an outcast, when she is such a great professional.

De la guitarra nueva de ahora me gusta mucho por lo respetuoso que es con el flamenco:Martín Revuelo, de la 
guitarra buena. En el baile Carmelilla Montoya, la hija de Carmen Montoya, que es una magnifica bailaora, pero lleva sin actuar ya hace tiempo. Es un crimen que a esta mujer se la margine, cuando es una gran profesional.

1999 Paco Lira/Owner, La Carboneria, Sevilla

www.matadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

I went out to the fields to cry
like a mad man screaming,
and even the wind kept telling
me that you loved someone else.

Al campo me fui a llorar
dando voces como un loco,
y hasta el aire me decia
que tu querias a otro.

Solea

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Me, do what you tell me to do? For twenty minutes? No, no I can't. This is not how it is done, daughter. You do it! These people nowadays spend their lives in the rehearsal studio, all of them, Canales, Cortés, Sara Baras, they’re all prefabricated! I get up there on stage and “here I am folks!” No one does that any more nowadays, and on top of everything, they don’t give you an inch.

¿Voy a hacer lo que tú me digas? ¿veinte minutos?...no, no puedo, esto no es así hija mía…¡hazlo tú!...se tiráis la vida ensayando, todos los que hay hoy, Canales, Cortés, Sara Baras ¡todos viven del ensayo! Yo me pongo allí arriba y venga, a dar la cara y a improvisar, a ver quién hace eso hoy en día, y encima no te quieren dar paso.

La Cañeta de Malaga/Flamenco Singer

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

One day I went to the asylum;
it weighs heavily on me. 
In the patio I saw a madwoman
giving her breast to nurse
a rag doll.

Yo entre un dia en el manicomio
me peso haberlo hecho;
yo vi una loca en el patio,
se sacaba y daba el pecho
a una muneca de trapo.

Fandango Grande/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

If you’re going to play soleá or siguiriya with the sound of minera, look, I think that’s senseless, soleá is soleá, and siguiriya is siguiriya, and each form should sound distinctive, tientos should sound like tientos, tangos, bulerías, etc... I understand it’s very difficult to change the tuning, and they do it to show off to other guitarists, but often the most difficult thing is to find meaningful simplicity, to be able to communicate something with just two notes instead of twenty. 

Paco Cepero/Flamenco Guitarist

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Farewell Oh beautiful girl, Oh
scented rose. You
will go towards love and I will go toward death.
The blood in my heart flourishes
like an open spring.

Federico Garcia Lorca/Flamenco Poet
from "A Ballad on a Day in July"

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

When I loved you most
I had to forget you,
otherwise I would have died.

Cuando yo mas te queria,
me preciso el olvidarte,
porque si no me moria.

Solea

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Invisible to my eyes, thou art ever present to my heart.
Thy happiness I desire to be infinite, as are my sighs, my tears, and my sleepless nights!
Impatient of the bridle when other women seek to guide me, thou makest me submissive to thy lightest wishes.
My desire each moment is to be at thy side - speedily may it be fulfilled!
Ah! my heart's darling, think of me, and forget me not, however long my absence!
Dearest of names! I have written it, I have now traced that delicious word – I'timad!

Al Mu'tamid/Poet King of Sevilla (this poem was dedicated to his wife, I'timad, a slave whose freedom he purchased)

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

My betrothed is a watchmaker.
Whenever he comes to see me
the minute hand stops.

Es mi novio relojero.
Cada vez que viene a verme
se le para el minutero.

Bulerias/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Through the expression of anguished sensuality
vibrates the sorrow of the Semitic races, oppressed
and tortured, constrained into hiding their sentiments,
obliged to express nothing but love. In these songs of
love that we hear, so passionate and sensual, we
perceive without realizing it, the plaint of these oppressed
races who do not remember precisely the reason for their cry,
but do remember their sadness and their lamentations.

Rafael Cansinos Assens
La Copla Andaluza

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Don't ask me to come back to you,
for I am no longer the man I once was.
If time could be turned around
I would already have gone back.

No me llames a tu lado
si ya no valgo lo que valia.
Si el tiempo admitiera vuelta,
que ya pasito pa' atras daria.

Solea/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

All who deserve it should
be stabbed in the heart,
for my insides ache from being
so good to you.

Mala puñalada le den
a to' que diera motivo,
que me duelen las entrañas
de hacerlo bien contigo.

Solea/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Trousers are unforgiving; they show up
every mistake and they give you nothing
to take hold of."

Carmen Amaya/Bailaora

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

If you hear the bell toll,
don't ask who has died.
Your own remorse will
tell you.

Si oyes doblar las campanas
no preguntes quien ha muerto
porque a ti te lo dira 
tu mismo remordimiento.

Pe------/Traditional, attributed to the Sephardic Jews during the Inquisition. Gypsy superstition surrounding this form prevents the name of the form from being written or spoken out loud. It is said to bring death.

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

“In dancing, not only is the dance important, it’s also a look, a move of the head, the way you pick up your skirt, the way you raise your arms at just the right moment, how you remain still or move your feet when the time is right. It’s not something I searched for, it was already inside me. I think I know how to do it in the right places. What can I tell you about my strong points? I think my feet are strong, and my arms, because I never forget them. I try never to destructure the line”.

Manuela Carrasco/Bailaora

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Sometime, if only out of pity,
write to me sometime,
for my heart is so withered
with suffering that it can no
longer even feel pain.

Alguna vez
siquiera por compasion
escribeme alguna vez,
que yo tengo el corazon
marchito de padecer
que ya no siente ni el dolor.

Malagueña/La Trini

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Her piercing eyes cut my heart in two,
And my eyes wept with longing for her,
And I would kiss the lips behind the veil, 
And embrace the pearl necklace above
your embroidered sash.

A Love Poem or "Ghazal" by Al Mutamid, Poet-King of Sevilla

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Long live Granada, the Moorish queen,
land bathed by the river Genil.
Blessed be the morning
that I met you,
with your pure gypsy face.

Viva Granada la sultana
tierra que baña el Genil.
Bendita sea la mañana
en que yo te conoci
con tu cara tan gitana.

Granaina/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

On this life's journey
the rich ride on horseback,
gentlemen walk,
and the poor drag themselves along.

En el viaje de la vida
van los ricos a caballo,
los caballeros a pata,
y los pobres arrastrando.

Copla Andaluza/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

I leave the door ajar
so that sometime it might
tempt you to try. 

Dejo la puerta entornada
por si alguna vez te diera
la tentacion de empujar.

Solea/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Though I have a well in my house,
I am dying of thirst
because the rope is not
long enough.

Tengo yo un pozo en mi casa,
y yo me muero de sed
porque la soga no alcanza.

Tientos/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

In my opinion, Moron guitar isn't a style of playing, but a way of touching the strings, depending heavily on the base strings, and free of advanced technique. The thing is, there are people who think I've got a lot of nerve to say such a thing. But now that Paco de Lucía has also said it, maybe things will change, don't you think?

Daniel Mendez/Guitarrista 2002

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

In the caves at dawn, when the singer is hoarse
and the room is cold, when the wine is crusted
on the glasses and the eyelids close in exhaustion;
that is the time when the singer and the voice and
the song may find their moment.

Attributed to Molina/Cantaor

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

If I know some twenty distinct definitions of flamenco,
it is because I have asked that many aficionados to
express the meaning of the art they love. I could have
enjoyed thirty definitions if I had bothered to ask ten others.

Ken Haas/Photographer

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Just like the Jews,
though they burn me alive,
I won't deny what I have been.

Como los judios,
aunque las carnes me quemen,
no reniego de lo que he sido.

Solea/Traditional 

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I don't know if it's because I was lucky enough to have been born
with maestro Farruco's genes, but I don't like anyone dancing. And
it's something I've been wanting to say."

Farruquito/Bailaor 2003

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"We should always recognize that the beauty of Spain is not serene,
is not soft, not restful--it is ardent, burning, excessive, 
sometimes unpredictable; a beauty which, blinded by its own splendor
'knocks its head against the wall'."

Federico Garcia Lorca

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

The sheep were white and small
and the meadow green;
the little shepherd who watches over them,
mother, is dying of heartbreak.

Ovejitas eran blancas
y el pradito verde;
el pastorcito, madre, que las guarda
de ducas se muere.

Siguiriyas/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com