flamenco journey 1

                                  A Personal Journey of Flamenco: 

                             

 

contents:

 

 1. Preface

     *Translator makes a remark

 

 II.   Flamenco fever

      1. Roomsharing

      2. Korean song fits Spanish steps

      3. Ay! ay! ay!

 

 III.  Bailaora and writer 

      1. You are inspiring!

      2. Morning Dews    

      3. Leaving Portland

 

 IV. Dance of  the soul 

      1. Bailaora flies to Korea

      2. Andalusian cities of Spain

      3. Flamenco ,bullfight and ballet

 

 V.  A poem can be pure dance

1. Pure desire

  2. Writer makes his 3rd trip to Portland

      1) emails

2) Interview

3. Let Back to Heaven be Solea'-danced.

 

 VI.  Epilogue

 

*glossary

*bibliography

                        

                   

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                       I. Preface

 

    *- translator makes a remark-

      

  A literary book of ' Deep Song' in Korean was published in June ,2007 at Seoul, South Korea. It was several months before Gohk, the writer of it made his one-month trip to Russia. The book 'Deep song' was almost the same in content with this book of 'A Personal Journey of Flamenco' in English. In a meaning, it is right to say that half of this book is made of the translation of Deep Song, and the other half his new creative work.

 

Last year in Autumn Gohk was away on a very important trip to Portland and Tokyo to have flamenco performances prepared. Returning home he was kept busy in relation with the matter. But he has not seen since. he left Seoul to live in seclusion at a seaside hamlet by the coast of the South Sea. He relapsed into TB which he had suffered 4 years in his twenties. He is now nursing himself at the hamlet, maping out a plan of writing a new book on the running train through Siberia.

 

  Earlier, for ten years or more Gohk travelled throughout North America as well as  many cities of  several European nations, vaguely expecting to get  a writing way appropriate to himself. He once said  to me that whenever he pondered about  it, he was reminded of the  anecdotes of two persons: Charles Lamb of Essays of Elia, an English essayist and Franz Schubert, the world-wide composer of Der Lindenbaum and the song of Ave Maria. It is well known that the former, who wanted to write great novels, could only be good at his ingenious personal essay style. and the latter ,who tried in vain to compose grand symphonies or concertos, did much better in composing music to lyric songs or pretty string musics.

 

 Singing the pain,

 The pain gets forgotten.

 

 Gohk said that he loved to recite the above part of Solea', a song form of flamenco, conscious of  a pain in his heart. The pain seemed to be something for him never to get free of. He said that it was what he should keep to himself , sharing with nobody. So he tried to get it forgotten through his own way, that is, by writing.

 

 For him to travel was to go beyond the sealine to the remote, exotic lands. He has had a vague yearning to be a traveller getting 'the juice insider of the grape', not a tourist fed only with the 'skin of the grape. He seemed to be often put under an irresistible temptation to drag him out of the humdrum daily routine ,to snatch him away from the comfort and  to separate him from his native language.

 

  He would wander alone anywhere far from home, be it Portland, New York, or Paris with no other particular purpose with the exception of his simple desire to be free on the road of the exotic lands. once he stayed in Portland as a house keeper for a hostel. Another time He was tramping around Andalusian cities, particularly in Granada over peeping in the caves of gypsies in Sacromonte, one of the heartland of Gypsy flamenco.

 

  Staying at home or free on the road, he was in the habit of murmuring to himself :"Can I write novels?  No. A dramatist ?  No.  If so, what  genre is it where I can do well?" As a personal experience of flamenco, the Spainish Gypsy's culture, this book has such questions hidden between lines.

 

 The keynote of this book is made up of the emails which Gohk has exchanged for more than 8 years with Lau, an American flamenco bailaora. So I suggested to Gohk that this book be published as a semi non-fiction with two names of  co-writers on it. 

 

 Having the original book in Korean of 'a flamenco story'  published in Seoul Gohk never failed to write in it  his deep gratitude for Lau and her friends in Portland - Mark, Rubina, Marcos, Oscar- saying that without these, the book would not exist.

 

 At his request  I, as a translator and  an old friend of his, take the lead in having it published ,by translating the parts in Korean of manuscripts into English , by assorting the emails in his Yahoo mailbox. And sometimes I helped him to pigeonhole data in need.

 

Joining Gohk for this work, I have been caught by a cantaora's word he would often recite alone : 'When I sing as I please, I taste blood in my mouth.'

                                                                                                  Acting for Gohk Ma,

 

                                                                                                    J.    H.    K.

                                                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                            II. Flamenco fever

 

 

                                  1. room-sharing

 

From Gohk Ma 

Portland, July, 2001 

 

Hi, Joon!

 Saving trouble,

I hasten to inform you of how I am getting on here in USA.

 

Strange things will happen in strange places. Now I am in a city named Portland, Oregon, enjoying a strange, heart-beating, experience of room-sharing you would not believe. It would probably  be no way in Korea. Would you believe me if I whispered to you that I am spending days and nights with a lady student from Germany in her twenties named Dani  in a small studio, with the room divided into halves by a partition no better than a curtain?

 

 Well, it is now taking place here to me! Since last May, in so small a space originally for a single person or newlyweds I have lived together with her. As for the divided foom, the other part of it screened off is Dani’s space and this one for me is convertible, as occasion demands, to my sleeping space  at night or to a shared living room. We share a bath and a toilet near the  doorway and also the telephone at the kitchen. This space like a one-room apartment is now where I stay.

 

Yes, I am greeting nights in such a queer space, feeling sweetly comfortable. This luxury is now given to me as a rare good luck for the first time since I wandered from hostel to hostel in Vancouver and Seattle, where in most cases no less than ten people stay in a single room. It would be not easy to picture in your mind an actual situation that this reckless friend has been enjoying this strange life in  a divided room  with only such a partition wall set up between her and me for more than 3 months .

 

It was very confusing for the first few days. In the night pricking my ears up, I can sense a delicate movement that occurs at the opposite side of the panel which is as thin as a blanket,  one night I could not sleep well with the sound that raised an image of her undressing, which was not a trifle. You can easily imagine  that the next day I couldn't do well at my job as a housekeeper of a hotel because of the irresistible drowsiness.

 

What is more confusing happens when this blue-eyed roommate is wanted on the telephone. In such cases ten to one I hurriedly open the door in spite of myself without knock  to inform of it. Then she gets very angry for it eyeing me with contempt . She meant that it is a common sense that you should not open the door without permission. she one time confused me by  spitting out straight warnings  to me opening the door with care, worried whether she might be ill in bed,because she didn't answer me though I knew she was in.

 

Once I had to suffer a bitter insult because of garlic smell. The day before I enjoyed with a Korean acquaintance in the bar a Korean dish thickly flavored with garlic over liquors. The next day around noon when I barely woke up was drinking cold water, she came up to me and yelled to open all the windows because the air , she said, was filled with offensive smell of garlic. Well, The previous night I was excessively happy to enjoy the dish with garlic to my taste after a long time. At this I was  for a while in a fit of anger, but no more. Because her arrogant behavior is just a trifling thing compared with her bright attractiveness.

 

ONe day in the afternoon after that, Dani came in, exchanged nods with me, and went into her room without saying a word, as if completely worn out. Next day, she made no indication of being even present in the room (although she was in the room), so I was worried and felt the necessity of knocking on her door. Then I knocked to open the door and without a word put on the desk a plateful of blueberries that she loves. She seemed to be barely able to rise up to sit. Still in her bed she said ,with tender eyes and graceful voice, that she appreciated my concern and that she wanted to sleep more.

 

 That night  she came into my space for the first time and unexpectedly gave me a ticket for the musical ‘Aida,’ saying that she didn’t have time to see it. We talked to each other for a while in the kitchen. That night was wonderful. I came to know that before I shared the room she lived with a student from Finland, and the student  was an English major who was fond of Klimt. There is a copy of ‘Die Erfullung’ by Klimt hanging on my wall, attached by that student before I came in. 

 

 Under such a warm atmosphere Danny laughed out loudly when I said to her that living together with her  in a shared  room  is such a big thing for me (since I have a wife in Korea), adding that in Koea this would be easily regarded as a accident of immorality. She said that there is no problem of sharing a room with anybody in orer to save money. But she said her case is a little bit special, because it is not common for a female student in her twenties to share the room with an old traveler like me in my fifties.

 

 Then I came to know that Dani, as a self-supporting student,  has been earning money for her education and living through such a part time physical labor as is  unbearable even for men. And I realized, too, that in particular  the next day after she did her duty as a part-time painter, she could not get up from her bed for the entire day. That was another  beautiful aspect of hers. She already made me look shabby with her beauty, pride and fluent English. what a beautiful soul she is!  .

 

 Anyway, we became friendlier after that day. When she did not wake up early in the morning, I would get ready for her breakfast, thinking that she was utterly exhausted from the previous day’s work. Sometimes I even washed her dishes . We had some time together in her room, conversing to each other about art and music.

 

 She let me borrow albums of famous flamingo singers after she knew that I am deeply interested in flamenco. Whenever I ask her, she dances flamenco without any hesitation in this small place. At the moment of her dancing flamenco I feel like I were meeting the legendary girl  born of the tree under the helpf of 4 travellers in the Swartzwalt of Germany !

 

 These days we go out together to watch flamenco performances at the Broadway theaters . But dating with her in the middle of Portland is not just a pleasant thing for me. It is bitter and sweet. Can you imagine it?  A man of small figure in his fifties dating with a tall and slender girl in her twenties! Please give me your ears. Here I have a skeleton yo myself on the cupboard. Listen  to your poor friend! These days I dye secretely my hair in light color to hide my half- white hair. What is more,I wear high-heeled slippers to match her height during her presence with me in the apartment.

 

 The lines ,as below, in my diarybook  written about her at a moment would help you to guess how important a part of my life here does Dani's being itself consist of:

 

Oh, Daniella! Were July full of the sweet scent oh Blackberry ,

I will cross over Hawthorn Bridge of the Willamette, 

with the fruits in my backpack,

to cafe Bolero,

where at night of every saturday 

the lady of Schwarzwalt dances flamenco.

Smiling compassionately, gazing remotely,

she whispered at me once in our sharing room like this:

my first favority is flamenco and the second is blackberries.

And she added that when she was sick in bed, dreary and lonely ,

she  calmed down her thirst  with a handful of f berries I gave her. 

I have never forgotten a day of my life in a kind of strange cohabitation

when seeing me entering with a bottle of Pignot Noir in my hand,

she smiled brightly and suggested ,'how would you like me dance 

flamenco tonight?'

'Why not.' That night I uncorked the wine for her and

she danced  flamenco for me singing a song, 'la guitara.'

 

 

Joon! 

Please keep it  only to yourself. My wife there should be completely kept ignorant of such a thrilling life as her husband is enjoying here. What I have searched for as a poltical scientist you know ,is to keep status quo, not to be in conflict in the family politics . As a one-time political scientist, I really don't want to break the balance of power, as if kept on thin ice, among wife, me and my aged mother .

 

 I am writing this letter with my restless heart, because Danny is going to introduce a flamenco bailaora  who studied deep baile  in Jerez of Andalusia to me. Her name is Lau Maronne whose arms in the movement, she says, is  fantastically enchanting. I am waiting for the upcoming July when I can see Lau dancing. Dani promised that she would sure do it for me  before her flying to Jamaica in July in the Caribbean Sea.

 

As you know, It was simply because of my curiosity about flamenco, in particular baile,   that  I chose Portland instead of familiar LA and Hawaii as my first destination of Norh American journey .I heard before coming here that I could often see flamingo performances if I went to Portland. In fact, I have now and then had an imagination of  ‘a dancing woman with far-seeing eyes turned toward the invisible path of a bird  flying to the other world.’ I love to imagine a blind gypsy bailaora dancing barefooted,  whom Jean Grenier saw at a café on the Mediterranean.

 

Now I taste a rare feeling free and sweet , improper to say,given by my age of fifties which passed over the hot-blooded of the youth full of vigor, which is out of  the turnel of confusion due to sexual imaginations in the mind. Did you happen to see the film of video of 'as good as it get', in which Jack Nicholson  plays? In it I was moved by the 2 or 3 lines of what the heroine said to Jack in the meaning as below:'Sex is not so great as we think it is! Last night I and he shared a wonderful feeling of fullness that sex can never gives.' Alas, less than a week before she leave me !

 

 

 I wish you well.

Gohk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                            2. Korean song fits Spanish steps

 

Once in Portland, as mentioned before, I had a rare, happy moment of 2 months or so, when even a day passed without my opening email box at the Central Library in the downtown. Then it was almost everything to me to write emails to Lau and to find out her reply in the box with my heart throbbing.

 

And in Seoul, South Korea, on the other hand. there was another moment, 30 years or so older than that, much happier and brighter. It was the spring semester of the university I attended. In the campus there was a straight road of 10 minutes walk from the gate to the main office building.Then the road with white populars on either side of it proud of their leaves glittering silver and white in the breeze of May often got much brighter by the song of Whispering Hope sung by me and another freshman, catching the eyes and minds of lots of passers-by.

 

Between the two dreamy moments is there a big distance of more than 30 years in time. In quality, the older one seems to me more pictorial and more dreamy ! But the one with images and sounds never appears alone before my mind's eyes. It has always come to me together hand in hand with the other one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portland, Aug. . 2001

 Hi Gohk!

 My friend Stephen Blair will be contacting you to arrange a time to interview you for a story in the Portland Tribune newspaper.  I passed along your email address to him, so you can expect to hear from him soon.  He will also arrange a time to take a photo of you and me together!

Abrazos!!

Lau

 

 

Portland, Aug., 2001

Hello Gohk!

Would you please tell me who is the original author of Morning Dew?

When was it written? Also, would you please give me a short biography

of yourself for the concert program? Just a bit about you,

how you came to Portland, books you have written, etc. 

Then I need you to come by the studio and sing Morning Dew for me again.

Here I have the Spanish version you can listen to while you are there!

Hope all is well.

 I am so nervous!

Abrazos! 

 Lau

 

 

Portland, Aug., 2001

Hi Lau,

At the very moment of the performance probably
something alcoholic should be indispensible to me.
 I will be there at your new studio on Thursday. at 7:30,

with a paper regarding what you want to know today.
Thinking of you dancing,

Gohk

 

Portland, Aug., 2001

From: Bl

Hi Gohk, 
 I'm a writer at the Portland Tribune, and I'm planning to do a story on
"The night of Juerga," the Flamenco event on Saturday, September 15.

I recently spoke with my friend Lau Marrone,

and she told me that you two developed a Flamenco piece

that is based on a Korean song. I don't recall the exact details, but
I would very much like to hear more about this and write about it.
Are you available for an interview sometime between

Tuesday, August 28 and Thursday, August 6 ?

It might be nice to discuss your involvement in "The night of Juerga"
over coffee or tea.
Please contact me at your earliest convenience.

 Feel free to e-mail me, or
call me at 503-546-0000.

Thank you, 
Bl
Features Writer

 

 

 

 

Portland, Aug., 2001

Hi, Lau!
I got a massage from BL that he would like to
meet me on either tue. or thu.30 Aug ,as expected,
and replied back soon, saying on Thu.30 Aug preferable",

and added "being interviewed is a new thrilling challenge 

to me, an ex-editorial writer, whose job is interviewing,

not being interviewed. Unbelievable!

Before a thing unlikely except in a fiction or a drama,

Gohk

 

 

 

 

 Portland, Aug., 2001

Hi Gohk,
Thank you very much for sending me background information

about the Flamenco story.

I look forward to meeting with you this week

to discuss this in person.
Is Thursday, August 30 still a good date for you?

Please let me know what time you'd like to meet.
I have a broken toe, so I'm not able to walk very far.

 Would you be able to meet me downtown ?

 I work very close to Pioneer Place.

Sincerely,
Bl

Features writer

 

 

Portland, Aug.,2001

Hi Gohk! 

I heard from Bl, too, that the meeting was wonderful! 

 So glad that you enjoyed it. 

Have a fun weekend and see you soon!

 

'P.S.'

We will have a rehearsal on Friday, September 14 in the afternoon

so that you can meet the singer and work with her on Morning Dew.   

 I will confirm! the time with you soon

Abrazos!

Lau

 

 

 

 

Portland, Aug., 2001

Hi, Lau

In the morning today I got a sparkle of
inspiration and could barely hold the tail of the comet,

as below, before it disappeared
 

"Pioneer Square landscape"

In the Pioneer Square Cafe
by the street-side window
sits a man in his fifties
with a large paper cup filled up

a half with starburg coffee

and another half with time,
looking in his mind at those passing by,
one by one.

 

The first  goer is a shepherd in his teens
with his ears given to the stars at night,

twinkling and whispering up in the sky.

A dog and dozens of lambs.

 

The second goer is a good-for-nothing in his twenties
saying to his first date ,in a bold and sweet voice,
'Shall we kiss?'

 

The third one is a poet in his thirties
with an aesthetic spirit, 

mummering lines of an old Japanese poem-

'if man were never to fade away like the dews of Adashino,

but lingered on forever in the world,

how things would lose their power to move us!'

 

The man by the window looking at them

drinks a sip of coffee and

another sip of time.

 

And the man is greatly envious
of a Spanish goer in his forties
with a gift of cold elegance
entering the bull ring
facing his destiny aloof
to his death. 
   
abrazos
Gohk

 

 

 

 

Portland, Sept., 2001

 Hi, Bl.
 Yes.

It means the very Starbuck Cafe of the Pioneer Square.
I will be there at 2:00 pm ,Thrusday. Okay? 
Gohk

 

 

 

 

Portland, Sept., 2001

Hi, Gohk!

Good.

See you there.
Bl
Features Writer
 

 

 

Portland, Sept., 2001

Hi ,Gohk,

Please come to rehearsal on Friday at the studio at 2 p.m. 

 For Saturday, I need to know which seat you will sit in

so that an usher can come

and bring you backstage after the intermission. 

 I hope that you are doing well

 in the aftermath of such a tradgedy. 

 I am just shocked and stunned. 

 As you know, I was born and raised in New York City.

 

Un abrazo,

Lau

 

 

 

 

Portland, Sept. 2001

 

  Born of Southern Spain's Gypsy culture , flamenco dancing and music can pierce the stoniest of hearts. The sorrowful facial ｅxpression!!!!s, theatrical body movements and seductive guitar rhythms leave and indelible imprint on viewers.

 

 This saturday, Portlanders have a rare opportunity  to catch flamenco at its finest when  a program called 'The night of Juergao' hits the Dolores Winningstad Theatre. Lau Marrone , a local performer and flamenco instructor who has trained extensively in Spain, will be joined by Seattle- based musician Jose and Monica. Rommel Nieto, a Vanouver ,B. C. resident who has toured Europe as a bailaor- will make his debut. 

 

 Joining the lineup of seasoned performers is Gok Ma  a writer from Korea. Currently living in a downtown studio , the 56- year-old plans to make a permanent move to Portland next year with his wife, who is still in Korea. Gohk Ma developed a taste for the art form during a visit to Portland 2 years ago. In his book ' The Magic Flute', he describes seeing a flamenco dancer at the 1999 Art in the Pearl festival . How tender is the wave of her waist moving! Fascinating!

 

 Upon returning to Portland earlier this summer , Gohk Ma pursued his interest in flamenco by attending  a class at Morrone's studio in Portland.' I had a great desire to meet a flamenco dancer. This meeting unexpectedly blossomed into a creative partnership between Gohk Ma and Marrone.

 

  During his visits to Lau's studio, Gohk drew a parallel between the sorrow of flamenco music and dance and the sad tone of "Morning Dew", a protest song about the former military dictatorship in South Korea . He sang the song for Lau and suggested that it be translated into Spanish and performed during "The night of Juerga".

 

  Though Lau couldn't understand a word of Korean, she was moved to tears. Convinced that " Morning Dew" was a good candidate for the flamenco treatment, Lau asked Monica Carmona to translate the piece into Spanish.

 

  The  results of this cross-cultural effort will premiere during "The night of Juerga". At the Gohk's rendition of the song , performed in Korean, will be followed by a Spanish version with singing by Monica and guitar playing by Jose .

 ...............

 

Bl,

reporter,

Portland tribune

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                 3.Ay! Ay! Ay!

 

 Do you love flamenco? if so. please to listen to  Manolo Caracol  singing the siguiryia , a deep song of flamenco, if available, on movie or video disc. He would  begin the cante with an introductory !Ay!, the lament with which all siguiryias begin. You would give your ears to his heart-rending sound, sometimes wavering and meandering, of the !Ay! held for around 40 seconds. It's sound is like the wind through the trees, The opening of the cante is not made of words, it is made of sounds. They tremble telling us nothing. After the sounds comes the verse of copla, a piece of the cantaor's soul. Listening to his siguiriya, You would be attracted by the lines, as below, of the song in spite of yourself:

 

Cuando viene el dia

mis penas s'agrandan;

so'lo las sombras de la noche oscura

consuelan mi alma

 

When the daylight comes

my griefs began to grow;

only the shadows of darkest night

comfort my soul.

 

 Deriving from the seguidilla, a traditional folksong with  stanzas of four line, the siguiriya was almost always sung  by a man. Generally regarded as the most emotional type of flamenco song, it is the cry of someone afflicted by destiny. If there is one style to which the singer has to give everything, every bit of himself , it is the siguiriya. Were there a lover of modern paintings with his sensitive ears given to the triste vioce of the siguiriya, what would his feeling be like? The beginning of the voice probably would call back to his mind a woodcut print of the painter Munc titled 'cry', which would have you filled with the ｅxpression of anguish and desperation .

 

 Now you could come to roughly guess how did a viewer feel listening to the song of siguiryia sung by a gypsy cantaor on the out-door stage of flamenco performance at sunset in Portland. He was a travelling foreigner who happened to drop in this city  on his way  to Seatle and Vancouver. and for him this was the first experience to contact flamenco ! There at the end of the first half of the flamenco performance he turned his face toward a man viewer by him and said ,with the sound of Ay! Ay! kept in the mind, to him,' Hello, A strange song! Ah... You seem to really enjoy this cante' .

 

" Yes. I love it, particularly the harsh voice beginning with  Ay!,,,,,.And how would you like it?"

" To me the sound is completely unfamiliar, but fascinating!"

"Oh! I am Bob, living here as a carpenter. Nice to meet you",

 

He exchanged such words of greeting with me, and introduced a woman looking in her twenties on the wheel chair beside him,' This Ann, my daughter ,' adding ' We two live here in the downtown'

 

"Hi, Ann!, I am Gohk, a traveller", 

Gohk said to Ann

 

"......."

 

"?......."

 

  So he said to her daughter ,"Ann, This gentleman is here to see our Pearl festival", and turning his face toward me, he passed a line of hint about her in a lower voice, "Hi, gohk , Ann remains 5 years old in mentality." Then I lost no time in replying to Bob, sensing the situation, "Oh!, ........Bob. you must be a flamenco afficionado!" , and again whispered to her as if to a little girl, " Hi, Ann, you love flamenco, too? '

 

Bob replied, "Ya. We are flamencos. flamenco is indispensible for both of us. It has become a  very important part of my life", adding with his eyes toward her daughter again, " Ann likes baile, particularly Alegrias, kind of group dance, more buoyant and more rhythmic. She even dances it on her wheel chair, well copying alegrias as bailaoras dance."

 

 "Hi, Ann, Your father said you dance alegrias well. It is a beautiful dance?", I said with my eyes turned to her, and after a pause to her father, " As for me, I have the first encounter with the cante siguiryia, but strangely it seems not unfamiliar to me. Furthermore, on listening to it, I felt tears gathering in my eyes. As you know, I have never been present at the flamenco performance before, neither did I hear it sung."

 

 " I got it. Oh, Gohk, you must be hooked by flamenco.  From now on, I am sure, you will be unable to resist its lure  any more", he replied with a significant laughter, and added, " if you are okay , I will take you to a flamenco cafe named Albaisin 5 minutes walk away by the riverside. There on saturday You can see a live  flamenco. And remember no vino, no flamenco! No art without intoxication!"  

 

 " Interesting! I heard that flamenco is a  traditional dance of Spain. Is it from the gypsy culture ? is it right?", I asked.

 

 To this question He replied with a long explanation," Sure. It comes from Andalusian Gypsie. and present day flamenco mainly consists of cante( singing), baile( dancing) and toque( guitar playing), which are all distinctive arts in thier own right and can stand alone,but it is not just theirs. It  now come to be universal beyond the geographical boundary. And it is much more than just dance, just song .That flamenco originated in the outpouring of suffering, lamentation and protest among the gypsies ane other oppressed peoples of Spain. So, flamenco in its awesome spontaneity is in him who can suffer from the world and feel within him- like the dawning - an irresistible urge to cry out." 

 

 "Oh, You are a amazing guide. Your comment helps my eyes to see flamenco farther and wider", I appreciated for it. And he added one more, "Hey, Gohk. Keep this point: when it comes to flamenco, the cante of Caracol is best!" That's it. Such was my first encounter with flamenco at Portland in the year of 1999.

 

From then on, I have been influenced by the invisible hand of flamenco. You know, as mentioned before, that I was irresistibly signed by the invisible hand to fly to Portland, where I was destined to meet Lau as a bailaora. In retrospect, with this as the beginning, in a sense, flamenco and lau as a bailaora have dominated my life. It is true ,for I have been exchanging emails with her for about 8 years. Above all thingsI have always met with flamenco by reading books on it  or seeing concerts on Tv or video. I happened to see a drawing, by Goya, of a blind couple singing, or another drawing, by Gustave Dore, of Travelling musicians. I The more I read about, the more I become unable to resist its lure.

 

  Fortunately I could hear Caracol on video singing flamenco songs. That dark timbre, that roughness, that dramatic register in the voice of that Caruso of the caves.! On hearing him ,his eyes wet, singing the siguiriya I was reminded of the image of 'Obert church', a painting by  Van Gogh. The church in the painting stand alones with the roof of it  rising high, twisted and  in cobalt blue. particulaely I have loved a poetic phrases on the gypsy siguiriya expressed by Garcia Lorca, a Spainish poet:

 

 ' The infinite melody of Bach is round: the phrase could repeat itself forever in a circular manner; but the melody of the siguiriya disappears into the horizontal; It escapes through our fingers and we see it off in the distance like a perfect point of common hope and passion-where the soul can never arrive'.

 

 

 Jean Grenier must have heard the Siguiryia sung somewhere in Spain.

If not, how could have the French writer written

an ｅxpression! of such meaning as below:

 

"There is nothing in the world, whatever it may be, 

that can deliver our mind.

Neither words, actions, images, nor dreams..........

However, a cry with no verbal meaning in a moment

sets us free!"

 

Then how comes it that I am a flmenco affacionado?

Unbelievable! 10 years ago I was completely ignorant of flmenco.

It was just exotic to me!

Now I am deeply in love of flamenco and a bailaora.

 

When I flied to Portland for the second time, Who would believe me saying that a cry kept alive in my mind, remote and abstract, was an irresistible call to me? Any who would believe me saying that there I was destined to meet a bailaora and to stand with her on the stage of her flamenco performance? "Korean song fits Spanish steps', which is the title of the newspaper article on the performance held in the city, as stated before, is vivid in my memory

 

Unexpectedly 5 or so years after she flied to Korea to have the Morning Dews danced by herself in flamenco, which dance was strange and exotic here at my home town. What is more, 2 exciting things followed it one after another. A Spanish bailaora named Shasha came to my hometown in korea in order to have flamenco workshops. An other to follow it was my going on a journey to Spain. To wander about Andalusian cities with a yearning to feel flamenco closer.

 

In retrospect, Without the fateful encounter with the cry of Ay! Ay!, Flamenco and Lau who has shared the partnership with me might be strange to me, And the Andaluisan cities of Spain would remain exotic in no relations with me. Suddenly a thinking hit me that in our life we happen to have fateful encounters which drive us toward a direction of life never imagined before!

Gohk