Lorcas El Maleficio De La Mariposa :: Lorca Maleficio Mariposa Essays

Lorcas El Maleficio De La MariposaFederico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish poet who explored universal themesof love, lust, death and violence under the semblance of whimsicaltragedies. The self-proclaimed gay had fanciful reveries declaring hisalmost child-like take on the chaotic conditions of his time. Althoughdisguised as nothing more than a gruesome fairy tale, Lorcas El MaleficioDe La Mariposa, like all his succeeding capers, is abundant withsymbolism that is quite impossible to grasp for minds clouded over byyears of the worlds sensibilities.UPs Philippine translation of Lorcas earliest work was entitled AngMalupit na Encanto ng Mariposa. I found it puzzling that the actorsdelivered English lines when the ticket express that the play was aFilipino rendition. Besides, the title was in Filipino. My puzzlementis not over the fact that it was translated at all. The original,after all, would have been impossible for us to comprehend since itwas in Spanish. But why not in Filipino? Either way, it wastranslated. Therefore, some of the scathingly disturbing images ofLorcas dialogs may have been lost.However, I do not hypothecate the play was in such a serious t wholeness -sad, yes,but not too high-brow and tight-lipped. It is amazing to think of howa man like Lorca, who troubles himself with the endeavors andtragedies of bugs and insects can be considered one of the greatpoets of the 21st century. The play had the makings of a fairy tale-what with animals thinking and contriving, a beetle obsessing overlove, and a beautiful bray collapsing into their care. It wasenough to exact the little girl in me swoon with memories of childhooddreams, and hope that the beetle, with his troubadourian serenades,and the crush end up together. To add to this effect, theproduction was very pretty. Seeing the play through the artistry ofDulaang UP was a visual delight. The dainty lights command processing overhead theaudience brought us into the enchantment of the beetles ov er finding abutterfly in their midst. The choreography, too, moved the fantasticmood along. I didnt know one could create a whole routine out ofbeetles and scorpions scamperings.But amid the equity of the set and choreography, I found a terrorin a tragedy that was still beautifully distressing. Here came out thepain of a longing frustrated by conventions in the young boy beetlesache for a love he cannot have. Here is the brilliance of Lorcaspoetry, the way he combines fear (in the scorpions menacing advances)and pain (in the love that cannot be reciprocated) with beauty. Thatwas where my confusion comes in, where I appealed to symbolism to make