4th rv a traveler's memoirs- flying to Madrid 3

 Flying to Madrid

    3.

Madrid, Apr.
Dear Lau
Back again to Madrid, safe and sound. Sangria-drunken,

I am looking back on my Spain trip.
Madrid will be remembered  to me as a city of rain.  

The first night when I was going to this city by taxi from the airport,

it drizzled. And now again it was drizzling in the evening

when I was returning to Madrid by bus from Granada.
Granada, a grand cave, in which jewels of flamenco twinkled,

would be the past legends of glory Washington Irving loved.
Cadiz by the roaring sound of the sea reminded me

of the sea scenery in Moby Dick by Hermann Melville.
Malaga was a triste city where I breathed in the sweet sea smell

for the first time since my Spain trip for Flamenco.
Jerez was an inspiring city full of sherry scent.

Somewhat for my writing, because this city seemed to keep

the essence of flamenco as what it is.
Thinking of a line which a flamenco said:

'Flamenco is the tragedy in the first person'.
abrazos
Mn

Madrid, Apr., 2006
Dear Lau:

My visit to Madrid would be ended as just a
short tourism, If I had not had a good luck, as below, 
to meet a street guitarist playing a Bach ,
to take a long walk in the Museo of MNCARS where I
stood looking at a modern painting titled Louvre
together with other several modern artworks familiar to me,
and lastly to find an time-worn  cinema hall 5 minutes walk away
from the hostel MAD where I have stayed, which gave me

as a gift a movie regarding Carmen Amaya dancing flamenco.
 
Late at my last night in Spain here, dim and drizzling outside
I smoke tobacco in a bar alone with my ears given to classical music.
In Madrid, that is a rare experience for me to taste a deep solitude,
a kind of an odor of nostalgia, pure and dry.
different from the loneliness, sorrowful and wet.

Adios

Mn

In Madrid,

April,

Hello Juana

This is Moon Kim, who saw in Granada you and your performances twice .

This is the last day of my flamenco journey to Spain.

Tomorrow I will fly back to my country.

My flamenco journey through Andalusia was much more meaningful

because I was there twice in Darro, a flamenco café where you were

dancing. It was a great experience to see a dancer

dancing flamenco ,not on the stage ,but on the very floor of the hall

close by a score of guests sitting on it in such a small space

like a flamenco cave of Sacramonte.

Prior to this, I  went to the flamenco cave of the gypsy village, expecting

to meet gypsy flamenco. But it was disappointing to me,

because it  seemed to me to be a dried performance, with no deep emotion,

 just for foreign tourists rather than flamenco lovers

In contrast to the cave show, I was deeply moved by your dancing

in Darro. If I had no chance to be there and to  see you dancing,

my journey to Spain would be  a stale experience.

Seeing you dancing there, I could understand a little more the meaning

of what is called duende. Your dance was self-involving, and you lost

yourself in it . At that moment, I felt, dancer and the spectators

were made one through the ecstatic nature of your dance. I saw

the torso twist and shudder, the head jerk violently from side to side

, the hair fly and the head be thrown back in your solea dance.

The buildup of tension and release of it!

In the moment of climax known as desplantes, when the dancer does

address the audience and seemed to be demanding  applause.

(*song of the outcasts)

Any way, last winter at my hometown in Kora,

we had a flamenco recital  performed by Korean flamenco artists .

 Next year in March we are scheduled to have another performance

to cherish the momory of the anti-dictatorship movement heroes here,

this time with Spanish bailaora , if possible, whom we hope to invite

from Spain.

 May I contact you by email as ever ?

Or may I  contact any flamenco artist ,

with whom I can share ideas in this relation?

 

I would appreciate your reply,

Moon