Inspiration is certainly to my mind the analytical, intellectual, academic essence of duende.

But that is only a small part of what the term means to me. For the inspiration to be duende, it has to come from the heart, or rather the gut. To burst out, ripping a jagged hole through the artist's flesh.

You know it when you see it in a tablao in Andalusia.

If one were forced to pick a single, compact word in English to get as close as possible to a translation (which is not very close at all), I would suggest soul.

It has many far more contemplative, less explosive connotations, of course, but soul in the sense of Billie Holiday or Aretha Franklin, say. Urgent, anguished, a mighty tidal wave of emotion driven by generations of injustice and suffering, but also of refined creativity, sensibility, the capacity to internalise and erupt those feelings.

Lorca was, after all, drawn to Black culture in the USA as a parallel to his perception of Gypsy tradition in Andalusia.

Soul. That's the best I can offer.

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower...

The force that drives the water through the rocks

Dylan Thomas's words spring to mind also.