The Spanish Ballad in English

Shasta M. Bryant

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780813187907
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Critica letteraria europea

This study offers an introduction to an important branch of Spanish literature—the romance, or ballad. Although a great many of these poems have been translated into English by various authors, they are not generally known nor easily accessible. Collected here for the first time in a single volume is a broad and representative sampling of romances in translation that encompasses historical ballads (including those about Spain's greatest folk hero, el Cid), Moorish ballads, and ballads of chivalry, love, and adventure.

For the collection, Shasta M. Bryant has written a perceptive commentary and critique in which he discusses the individual poems and compares the translation with the original; both texts are presented to facilitate comparison. For those who wish to pursue their reading further there is an index of romances that have been translated into English, along with the names of the translators. Although the text has been written with the non-specialist in mind, this book will be equally valuable for students of comparative literature and of medieval Spain.

CHAPTER I

THE CID BALLADS

THE POPULARITY OF SPAIN’S GREATEST FOLK HERO, El Cid Campeador, dates from a few years after his death in 1099. He was born Rodrigo, or Ruy, Diaz de Vivar, near the city of Burgos in northern Spain around the middle of the eleventh century. His deeds, both legendary and real, were first celebrated in the twelfth-century epic El poema de mío Cid and later in the much more romantic and extravagant Mocedades de Rodrigo (The Youth of Rodrigo) of the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. The most complete account of the Cid’s life and adventures is to be found in the hundreds of ballads in which he appears either as the principal or secondary figure. Not only does he seem to have been the favorite topic for the unknown authors to whom we are indebted for the romances, but a substantial number of these poems have been put into English. Some of the ballads of the Cid may be fragments or reworkings of portions of the old epic, but the majority are relatively late compositions which reflect the tendencies and tone of the Mocedades, rather than the austere realism of the Poema. They are usually arranged so as to trace the chronology of the Cid’s life from boyhood to his death. Accordingly, the first translation in James Young Gibson’s collection is the ballad relating how Rodrigo was tested by his father, Diego Lainez, to determine if the youth had the qualities necessary to avenge an insult which the old man had suffered from the arrogant Count Lozano. The opening lines are as follows:

Cuidando Diego Laínez Por las menguas de su casa, Fidalga, rica y antigua, Antes de Iñigo y Abarca; Y viendo que le fallecen Fuerzas para la venganza Y que por sus luengos años Por sí no puede tomalla, Y que el de Orgaz se pasea Libre y exento en la plaza, Sin que nadie se lo impida, Lozano en el nombre y gala No puede dormir de noche Ni gustar de las viandas, Ni alzar del suelo los ojos Ni osa salir de la sala; Nin fablar con sus amigos, Antes les niega la fabla, Temiendo que les ofenda El aliento de su infamia. Estando, pues, combatiendo Con estas honrosas bascas, Para usar desta esperiencia Que no le salió contraria

Diego Lainez brooding sat, His house was on decline, More ancient, rich and noble Than old Abarca’s line. He saw the Count Lozano, Each day that flitted by, Ride past his door with mocking lip And insult in his eye. He had no hope of vengeance, He had no strength to fight, His drooping arm with weight of years Had lost its power to smite. By night he could not slumber, By day he could not eat, Nor lift his eyes from off the ground, Nor walk along the street. He dare not meet his comrades, Nor talk of bygone fame, Lest they should shrink with horror back Before his breath of shame. But while he writhed in anguish, And mourned his honor true, The wisdom that had come with years Now taught him what to do.

The verse pattern used here is the quatrain of four- and three-stress lines, eight and six syllables, iambic, with frequent omission of the fourth stress in the first line. This type of meter was a favorite with all translators and is used by Gibson more than any other pattern. Some transposition of verses is noticeable in the first three stanzas, but there is little addition to or omission of ideas. For the most part, Gibson prefers to stay even closer to a line-for-line translation, as illustrated by his handling of the remaining stanzas of this ballad:

Mandó llamar sus tres fijos Y sin fablalles palabra, Les apretara uno a uno Los fidalgos tiernas palmas.	He bade his sons be summoned Of words he uttered none, But took their noble tender hands, And grasped them one by one.
Non para mirar en ellos Las chirománticas rayas, Que aquel fechicero abuso No había nacido en España. Y poniendo al honor fuerza A pesar del tiempo y canas, A la fría sangre y venas, Nervios y arter...