Tuesday 26 May 2020

Our Moon Is The Moon Moon - Shirley-Anne McMillan

One of the nice things about having a space-obsessed six year old at the minute is that even though I have to watch the same clip of Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about black holes three times a day, he also enjoys talking about the moon. I love the moon right now. We're familiar with it- we see it every night, we've even been there and we've sent robots there to take pictures. But there's nobody on it right now. It's completely peaceful. It's quiet. No stupid arguments on the moon internet, because there is no moon internet. No stupid politicians messing everything up. No coronavirus. Sometimes people talk about getting away from earth and going to the moon. But I like it because that's not possible. Not yet anyway. For now, the moon is unspoilt by humans. My son will sometimes say 'Other planets have moons with names, but our moon is the moon moon.' It always makes me think of this poem and I imagine my boy as the boy who escapes with the moon across the sky. I hope you're all doing OK. x


Ballad of the Moon Moon

TRANSLATED BY SARAH ARVIO
For Conchita García Lorca
Moon came to the forge
in her petticoat of nard
The boy looks and looks
the boy looks at the Moon
In the turbulent air
Moon lifts up her arms
showing — pure and sexy — 
her beaten-tin breasts
Run Moon run Moon Moon
If the gypsies came
white rings and white necklaces
they would beat from your heart
Boy will you let me dance — 
when the gypsies come
they’ll find you on the anvil
with your little eyes shut
Run Moon run Moon Moon
I hear the horses’ hoofs
Leave me boy! Don’t walk
on my lane of white starch

The horseman came beating
the drum of the plains
The boy at the forge
has his little eyes shut
Through the olive groves
in bronze and in dreams
here the gypsies come
their heads riding high
their eyelids hanging low

How the night heron sings
how it sings in the tree
Moon crosses the sky
with a boy by the hand

At the forge the gypsies
cry and then scream
The wind watches watches
the wind watches the Moon

Photo by my older son.

3 comments:

Adelaide Dupont said...

Some people call the Earth's Moon Luna.

That Lorca poem is really special.

Shirley-Anne McMillan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shirley-Anne McMillan said...

I had made a comment and then another thing occurred to me. Our kids speak Spanish (I do not but their dad does) and so when the wee one hears 'Luna' and 'Moon' he is undoubtedly thinking of them as the same word. (I had initially said that when we say 'the moon' we are only ever thinking of our own moon, but that is from my own point of view and not his, on reflection!) Many thanks for causing the thought!