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

Lorca's El Maleficio De La Mariposa Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish poet who explored universal themes of love, lust, death and violence under the semblance of whimsical tragedies. The self-proclaimed gay had fanciful reveries declaring his almost child-like take on the chaotic conditions of his time. Although disguised as nothing more than a dark fairy tale, Lorca's El Maleficio De La Mariposa, like all his succeeding plays, is replete with symbolism that is quite impossible to grasp for minds clouded over by years of the world's sensibilities. UP's Filipino translation of Lorca's earliest work was entitled Ang Malupit na Encanto ng Mariposa. I found it puzzling that the actors delivered English lines when the ticket said that the play was a Filipino rendition. Besides, the title was in Filipino. My puzzlement is not over the fact that it was translated at all. The original, after all, would have been impossible for us to comprehend since it was in Spanish. But why not in Filipino? Either way, it was translated. Therefore, some of the scathingly disturbing images of Lorca's dialogs may have been lost. However, I do not think the play was in such a serious tone -sad, yes, but not too high-brow and tight-lipped. It is amazing to think of how a man like Lorca, who troubles himself with the endeavors and tragedies of bugs and insects can be considered one of the greatest poets of the 21st century. The play had the makings of a fairy tale -what with animals thinking and contriving, a beetle obsessing over love, and a beautiful butterfly collapsing into their care. It was enough to make the little girl in me swoon with memories of childhood dreams, and hope that the beetle, with his troubadourian serenades, and the butterfly end up together. To add to this effect, the production was very pretty. Seeing the play through the artistry of Dulaang UP was a visual delight. The dainty lights overhead the audience brought us into the enchantment of the beetles over finding a butterfly in their midst. The choreography, too, moved the fantastic mood along. I didn't know one could create a whole routine out of beetles' and scorpions' scamperings. But amid the loveliness of the set and choreography, I found a terror in a tragedy that was still beautifully distressing. Here came out the pain of a longing frustrated by conventions in the young boy beetle's pining for a love he cannot have. Here is the brilliance of Lorca's poetry, the way he combines fear (in the scorpions' menacing advances) and pain (in the love that cannot be reciprocated) with beauty. That was where my confusion comes in, where I appealed to symbolism to make