Lorca's famous Gypsy Ballads were composed in the 1920s, when his poetic style was evolving from the traditional towards the surrealist. The combination of the ballad's perennial narrative format with startling and allusive imagery has intrigued readers ever since. Dr Havard argues that the fatalism and tribalism of the gypsy settings relate to Lorca's own subjective dilemma and sexual anxieties, and that they ultimately make a deeply personal statement. The translations are broadly into free verse which aims to preserve the directness and the rhythm of the Spanish original so that the force of the poems may be appreciated by English readers. 162p
