Interesting, very interesting.
A good poem should be able to inspire a thousand interpretations….
we all have made a humble start !

Cheerz!

Max

Thank you for posting this poem. Its a ensnaring poem brimming with metaphors and symbolic imagery in every phrase.All these metaphors are multilayered like a Millefeuille.

This poem hit me like a dagger and not knowing where it hit me. Lorca speaks with an intangible yet palpable moods which are laced with Music and Imagery. There is an inherent rhythm and beat in every word of every sentence in this poem. It completely consumes one.

A friend of mine has thrown light upon the dynamic contracts in the poem. THe poem begins with the Black Butterflies and a White Serpent. The butterfly, a being light and ephemeral who metaphorphoses and a serpent who glides on the earth and is considered sacred in moorish and also Indian Culture. Than on the second level , the Butterfly is black and Serpent White. Black symbolising sorrow or bad omen and white for the purity and eternity. This forms the dynamic premise to what is in store in the subsequent lines. The recurring lines “Earth of Light and Sky of Earth.” which were so brilliantly explained by Max Guruji.

The dynamism of contrasts and dynamism of emotions is lends a magicl realism to this poem.
Lorca cannot be analysed, it should rather be internalised. He speaks like a Sufi like a mystic in riddles.

When one reads Lorca one smells the exotic spices emanating in a moorish arabic bazaar, the faint smell of the sandal far removed from the occidental world, it directly steeps itself into the world of eastern mysticisim.

After several readings of this poem, i discovered magic at every reading. Permit me at this juncture to go off on a tangent and share a personal perspective of mine.

To me reading this poem is like visiting Hindou temple. The moment we enter the temple, it tries to entice our all five senses. The Smell emanating form the incense, the sound of the Bell, than we touch the deity and and adorn him with flowers and vermillion. A pleasing sight to the eye.
After we have offered our prayers , we receive the Prasad ( a Sweet, sucrerie) for taste. A complete experience tantalising all five senses. The contradiction here is that the Hindou Vedic texts repeatedly state the “The whole world is Maya, its all an illusion, the eternal truth and the eternal being is the soul”

The idea is to transcend from the enticing worldly desires and to attain salavation or rather a state of nothingness.

The opening lines of the poem Among Black Butterflies ( a visually beautiful creature), goes a Moorish Girl ( (The Seeker or a devotee) ,beside a white serpent of mist (IN a Shiva temple and even in the egyptian culture, a serpent is worshipped and its a creature blessed with longevity ).

Earth of Light , Sky of Earth; symbolising the very teachings of Hinduism, the worldly desires and worldly ways of living are ephemeral and illussional like the Earth formed of Light, so light and unreal. Sky of Earth , the soul is the only eternal truth and meaning of ones existing.

The seeker is time and again made to realise again and again of the futility of worldly desires. Lorca too , in his poem entices the reader and states the pointlessness of world, we live in.