Reviews

Canciones. Federico García Lorca by Federico García Lorca

dame_samara's review

4.0

This was gorgeous, and I enjoyed the poetry. Especially since it shows the orginal Spanish and the English translations on the same page as part of the art.

I will say this art at times feels like a fever dream, but it really works well.

What I didn't care for was the cursive font that they chose. While I typically don't struggle to read cursive this particular font I had great difficulty.

joshgauthier's review

4.0

Excellent.

Full review at No Flying No Tights: https://www.noflyingnotights.com/blog/2022/02/01/canciones/

shirin_mandi's review

5.0

Dual-text of twenty Lorca's poetry with awesome pictures, great graphics, very special, I loved it. Beautiful, glorious poems with the sun, moon, trees, sea, wind, animals, and human characters. I enjoyed it.

Song of November and April
The Deceiving Mirror
Conch

jandi's review

4.0

* Thanks to Papercutz, NBM Publishing and Netgalley for an advance copy for review purposes *

What a beautiful book! I wish I had a paper copy.
I am a native Spanish speaker and have watched several performances of Lorca's [b:Bodas de sangre|77903|Bodas de sangre|Federico García Lorca|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386923336l/77903._SY75_.jpg|376778] and the chilling [b:La casa de Bernarda Alba|22995|La casa de Bernarda Alba|Federico García Lorca|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328758570l/22995._SY75_.jpg|1144595]. I am also a flamenco dancer, and am familiar with some of his poems as lyrics of flamenco songs - e.g. "El Café de Chinitas".

I am thrilled at this stunning book to make Lorca's poems more accessible to English speakers. The text comes in both English and Spanish, so it would also be ideal for people learning Spanish.

Lorca's poems are short, so you could read this in 10 minutes. But why would you, when you can spend hours savouring the gorgeous, surreal Dali and Miro inspired art.

The one drawback is that the orange color used for half of the text blended too much into the art, and I ended up honing on the blue text, regardless of the language. I guess there are benefits to being bilingual. Reading the poems out load (specially in Spanish) really lets you enjoy the lyricism of Lorca's words.

Lorca's words are meant to be heard, so I leave you with a song by Enrique Morente, with lyrics from Lorca's [b:Yerma|77920|Yerma|Federico García Lorca|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316734728l/77920._SY75_.jpg|1853986]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT6m39PKk0M

And a dance performance of "El Café de Chinitas" with no music, for full appreciation of the musicality of Lorca's words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xw1_qHgJRY

magneto's review against another edition

reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

I've enjoyed García Lorca's writing before so grabbed this at the library when I stumbled upon it. Rating not based on the poetry itself but on the illustrations. Quick read but the art style was not my fave, a mix of fantastical and face value interpretations. I do appreciate that the artist included the original Spanish as well as the translations. Would stick to just reading a different poetry collection in the future without illustrations. 

awwsunshine's review

5.0

*I was kindly sent this in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley*

“Por tu amor me duele el aire, el corazón y el sombrero”
vs
“Because I love you, the air, my heart and my hat hurt me”.

Bilingual edition of Lorca’s songs (or Canciones, in Spanish).

Thank god this is a bilingual edition because I would’ve hated to miss the original poems. I think the translator did a very good job with Lorca’s poems, but translating poetry is always so hard, thus the Frost quote “Poetry is what gets lost in translation”. The essence of the poems is there, but the rhymes (as it is obvious) are missing, the syntax differs in each language, and the general rhythm of the poem changes too.

It is super interesting to see the translator’s word choices, especially when a term exists in one language but not in the other.
The illustrations are gorgeous although some of them are quite eerie.

leticiatoraci's review

4.0

Garcia Lorca is one of my favorite poets, so I really liked his poems and the idea of a bilingual comic book with his poetry.
I also understand the artistic choices made to illustrate the poems even if the art wasn't subjectively to my taste.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

booklovingnerd87's review

5.0

Amazing, magical, just so good. The art was so beautiful. The words told a wonderful story. It was almost like it was told thru a poetry like story of love and adventure. I lovd this whole thing the story, the polt and the characters. I loved that it was written in 2 languages.

isabella_hansen's review

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley and to Scratch Books for this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

I love the poems of Frederico Garcia Lorca, and in Canciones by Tobias Tak, we get a small sample, both translated as well as in its original spanish.

The accompanying beautiful illustrations together with the order of the poems tells a story of a very daliesque world. And by turning them into a comic inspired book, Lorca’s poems become more available and attractive to a new audience.

A job very well done.

grise's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0