A Song About Amancaes

Vivien Bouffard vbouffard55@msn.com
Sat, 25 Mar 2017 04:34:19 PDT
Hi Judy - I was just (re)reading that book a couple weeks ago and enjoyed your brother's tidbit and the rest of the book, too.  I suppose a lot of nomenclature has changed since you wrote it.  That must be frustrating after working so hard to make everything correct.



I look forward to your posts as you are geographically not so far from Massachusetts.  We had early warmth here, which made the snowdrops and snow crocuses bloom and then 12-18 inches of snow and temps in the teens.  The snow is receding now and the bunnies are hard at work eating any foliage they can find.  Remains to be seen how much damage was done to the tree buds, but ground-level everything is fine.



I'm coping with spring fever by planting absurd numbers of seeds from the NARGS seedex.



Vivien

Norwood, MA

Zone 6



<< Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2017 11:27:30 -0400

From: Judy Glattstein <jgglatt@gmail.com<mailto:jgglatt@gmail.com>>

To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>

Subject: [pbs] A Song About Amancaes

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My brother, an anthropologist, gave me this tidbit when I was writing a book about bulbs. From my research notes:



_Amencaes_ is the Peruvian name for their native summer daffodil, used as its species name, _Hymenocallis_ _amencaes_. My brother, Ben Orlove, remembers a song he'd heard, a "vals criollo" that mentions the flowers.

Written and composed by Chabuca Granda, this kind of waltz used to be popular on the coast of Peru. The lyrics go something like this:

"Elegantly dressed in traditional style, wearing a poncho of white linen, "Jose Antonio" is an accomplished horseman, showing fine mastery riding his horse. Why, asks the woman, why did he leave her, hoping that when he returns to see the amancay in bloom, he will sweep her up on his horse."



Enjoy.



Judy in New Jersey where there are gray and gloomy skies but

temperatures are high enough for precipitation to descend as rain rather

than the white stuff>>




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