The Little Mute Boy by Federico Garcia Lorca

Lorca may have been the most important Spanish poet of the 20th Century. His surrealist work like "The Little Mute Boy"--which sought to tap into the unconscious--had a profound impact on American poetry.


The Little Mute Boy

The little boy was looking for his voice.
(The king of the crickets had it.)
In a drop of water
the little boy was looking for his voice.
I do not want it for speaking with;
I will make a ring of it
so that he may wear my silence
on his little finger

In a drop of water
the little boy was looking for his voice.

(The captive voice, far away,
put on a cricket's clothes.)


Translated by William S. Merwin

Federico Garcia Lorca was born in Granada, Spain in 1899. He later moved to Madrid where he became part of a group of surrealists that included the painter Salvador Dali. He was killed by Franco's soldiers in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.