The Duende (continues)

Duende, The
American Poetry Review, The, Jul/Aug 1999 by Hirsch, Edward
I wish I'd been in Buenos Aires on October zo, 1933, when Federico Garcia Lorca invoked the Dionysian spirit of art and delivered a lecture which he called "Juego y teoria del duende." Lorca was testifying to his own poetic universe, as his biographer Ian Gibson has recognized. It would have been electrifying to hear him because on that night, addressing the members of the Friends of Art Club, the spirit of artistic mystery entered the room. It moved at the speed of Lorca's voice and burned like incense in the rich air. It was palpable to the audience, as if Lorca had thrown open the windows so that everyone present could hear the primitive wing beats shuddering in the darkness outside. The floor shifted a little under everyone's feet. The lamps trembled. Thinking about it now, 66 years later, I can still see the stammering flames coming off the typescript of Lorca's talk. I feel the ancient heat.