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Ballads
A romance, or Spanish ballad, is a poem of popular anonymous origin presenting a variable series of eight-syllable lines with assonantal rhyme, employing as subject matter either a narrative derived from the canciones de gesta or an episode of a more lyrical character. Ballads began to be printed in broadsides during the fifteenth century.
The romances brought medieval poetry to the Golden Age and spread their themes, characters, and lyricism into the national theater. Later they influenced poets from the romantic period to the present day. Lord Byron translated them into English, other poets into many other languages; Sir Walter Scott, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Herder, Grimm, and Schlegel all praised the romance as the most lyrical genre in Spanish literature. Spain itself has been called the âland of the Romancero.â
The romances are of many types. The romances viejos, or old ballads, are anonymous, orally transmitted poems which are laconic in language and fragmentary in development. They include historical ballads, dealing with Don Rodrigo or other heroes of Spanish medieval life; frontier and Moorish ballads, dealing with relationships between Christians and Moors; chivalric ballads, with subjects like Charlemagne and his Twelve Peers or King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; and novelescos and lyrical ballads, such as the ballad included here of Count Arnaldos. Later, after the romances viejos, came artistic ballads, written by known poets from the sixteenth century up to our own time.
The juglar, or popular poet, when reciting, always tried to emphasize some aspect in the life of the hero that would be of most interest to his audience. The audience in turn retained his wording, transmitting it to other audiences. In this way Spanish literature was provided with the genre most distinctly its own.
The first selection included here concerns the attempt of King John II to conquer Granada in 1431. In the ballad Granada is represented as a beautiful woman to whom the King proposes. She rejects him, saying that she is already married to her Moorish lover.
The second ballad, widely praised as one of the most interesting of its type, deals with the fictional character of Count Arnaldos, who, upon listening to the song of a sailor, asks him to teach him the song. From the approaching boat the sailor answers, in a manner that conveys the mystery of poetry, or death: âI will only tell this song to him who sails with me.â
Dos romances anĂłnimos
AbenĂĄmar
ÂĄAbenĂĄmar, AbenĂĄmar,
moro de la morerĂa,
el dĂa que tĂș naciste
grandes señales habĂa !
Estaba la mar en calma,
la luna estaba crecida:
moro que en tal signo nace,
no debe decir mentira !â
AllĂ respondiera el moro,
bien oirĂ©is lo que decĂa:
âYo te la dirĂ©, señor,
aunque me cueste la vida,
porque soy hijo de un moro
y una cristiana cautiva;
siendo yo niño y muchacho
mi madre me lo decĂa:
que mentira no dijese,
que era grande villanĂa:
por tanto pregunta, rey,
que la verdad te dirĂa.
âYo te agradezco, AbenĂĄmar,
aquesta tu cortesĂa.
¿Qué castillos son aquéllos?
ÂĄAltos son y relucĂan!
âEl Alhambra era, señor,
y la otra la mezquita;
los otros los Alixares,
labrados a maravilla.
El moro que los labraba
cien doblas ganaba al dĂa,
y el dĂa que no los labra
otras tantas se perdĂa.
Desque los tuvo labrados,
el rey le quitĂł la vida,
porque no labre otros tales
al rey del Andalucia.
Two Anonymous Ballads
AbenĂĄmar
âAbenĂĄmar, AbenĂĄmar,
Moor of the Moorish people,
on the day you were born
great signs appeared!
The seas were calm,
the moon was full:
a Moor born under such a sign
should never tell a lie!â
Then the Moor answered,
you shall hear what he said:
âI will tell the truth, my lord,
though it cost me my life,
for my father was a Moor
and my mother a captive Christian;
and when I was but a boy,
my mother used to tell me
that I should never lie,
for it is a great villainy:
so you may ask, my king,
and I will tell you the truth.â
âI thank you, AbenĂĄmar,
for your courtesy.
What are those castles?
How high they are and how they shine!â
âThat is the Alhambra, my lord,
and the other is the mosque;
the others, the Alixares,
fashioned so marvelously.
The Moor who worked on them
earned a hundred gold coins daily,
and the day he did not work
so many did he lose.
When his work was finished,
the king put him to death,
lest he fashion others similar
for the king of Andalusia.
El otro es Generalife,
huerta que par no tenĂa;
el otro Torres Bermejas,
castillo de gran valĂa.â
AllĂ hablĂł el rey don Juan,
bien oiréis lo que decia:
âSi tĂș quisieses, Granada,
contigo me casarĂa;
daréte en arras y dote
a CĂłrdoba y a Sevilla.
âCasada soy, rey don Juan,
casada soy, que no viuda;
el moro que a mĂ me tiene,
muy grande bien me querĂa.
The other is Generalife,
garden without equal;
the other is Torres Bermejas,
a castle of great value.â
And then King John spoke,
you shall hear what he said:
âIf you were willing, Granada,
I would marry you;
and for dowry I would give you
both Cordova and Seville.â
âI am married, King John,
I am married, and not a widow;
and the Moor to whom I belong
loves me very well.â
El conde Arnaldos
¥Quién hubiese tal ventura
sobre las aguas del mar,
como hubo el conde Arnaldos
la mañana de San Juan!
Con un falcon en la mano
la caza iba a cazar,
viĂł venir una galera
que a ti...
