Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IMAGES: 3 by VALERY LARBAUD

First Line: BETWEEN CORDOVA AND SEVILLE
Last Line: THROUGH THEIR CIGAR-STENCH, IN THE DINING-CAR.
Subject(s): ANDALUSIA, SPAIN; POVERTY; RAILROADS; TRAVEL; RAILWAYS; TRAINS; JOURNEYS; TRIPS;

Between Cordova and Seville
There's a little station where, for no apparent reason,
The Southern Express always stops.
The traveler vainly looks around for a village
Beyond the little station asleep under the eucalyptus trees:
He sees only the Andalusian landscape: green and gold.
However, right on the other side of the way,
There's a hut built of blackened sticks and clay.
At the noise of the train a swarm of prattling brats comes out.
The older sister comes first, steps forward right to the platform
And without a word, but smiling,
Dances for pennies we fling.
Her feet seem black in the dust,
Her dim and dirty face is beautiless;
She dances, and through great rents in her ash-colored skirt
Are glimpses of her thin, moving thighs
And her little yellow belly as it rolls;
And invariably some fellows laugh at that,
Through their cigar-stench, in the dining-car.



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