I don’t remember how the
subject came up, perhaps Benito had his copy of the “100 Best Lyrical Poems of
the Spanish Language” out in 2005 at Mayfair Manor when his sister-in-law’s
husband Manuel Lopez was visiting and it triggered his memory, but there in the
kitchen Manolo launched into a recitation of a poem and Benito chimed in.
The poem they were
reciting is a madrigal (a serranilla in Spanish) about a beautiful cowgirl
(vaquera), horse-mounted I presume, that the writer encounters after getting
lost on the road between the castles of Calatrava and Santa Maria in what is
now the Cordoba province of Spain. I am guessing they learned it in school or
at a university literature class.
The madrigal is known by its first line “Moza Tan
Hermosa” (“Girl So Beautiful”), the only poem in Medieval Spanish in the book.
It was one of the first poems ever written down in Spanish, predating the
famous “Song of El Cid.” Every stanza ends with the same refrain,
which they would loudly emphasize with relish.
I have it here below. It is written in Medieval Spanish but if you know Spanish and pronounce it out loud you can understand it. The funny looking “ç” is pronounced like “z”, the “x” like the Spanish “j”. Many leading “F”s of medieval Spanish words mutated to silent “H”s so Fermosa is now Hermosa, Finojosa is now Hinojosa (a small village in rural Cordoba province) and Fablar is now Hablar.
I have it here below. It is written in Medieval Spanish but if you know Spanish and pronounce it out loud you can understand it. The funny looking “ç” is pronounced like “z”, the “x” like the Spanish “j”. Many leading “F”s of medieval Spanish words mutated to silent “H”s so Fermosa is now Hermosa, Finojosa is now Hinojosa (a small village in rural Cordoba province) and Fablar is now Hablar.
Since the only way I can
fully understand written Spanish is to translate it to English first, I provide
you with my translation. Thickly romantic, I found it, like the sonnets I
studied in school way back when.
SERRANILLA
Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana
(1398–1458)
Moça
tan fermosa
Non
vi en la frontera,
Como
una vaquera
De
la Finojosa.
Faciendo
la vía
Del
Calatraveño
A
Sancta María,
Vençido
del sueño
Por
tierra fragosa
Perdí
la carrera,
Do vi
la vaquera
De
la Finojosa.
En un
verde prado
De
rosas e flores,
Guardando
ganado
Con
otros pastores,
La vi
tan graciosa
Que
apenas creyera
Que
fuese vaquera
De
la Finojosa.
Non
creo las rosas
De la
primavera
Sean
tan fermosas
Nin
de tal manera,
Fablando
sin glosa,
Si
antes sopiera
D’aquella
vaquera
De
la Finojosa.
Non
tanto mirara
Su
mucha beldat,
Porque
me dexara
En mi
libertad.
Mas
dixe: «Donosa
(Por
saber quién era)
¿Dónde
es la vaquera
De
la Finojosa?...»
Bien
como riendo,
Dixo:
«Bien vengades;
Que
ya bien entiendo
Lo
que demandades:
Non
es desseosa
De
amar, nin lo espera,
Aquessa vaquera
De la Finojosa».
|
Girl so beautiful, I saw you in the countryside in the
form of a cowgirl from Hinojosa.
Following the road from the Calatraveño to Santa
Maria, defeated by lack of sleep and rough terrain, I lost my way and
saw the cowgirl from Hinojosa.
On a green pasture with roses and flowers, guarding cattle
with other herders, I saw her—so graceful—that I could hardly believe she was
a cowgirl from Hinojosa.
I don’t believe springtime roses are as beautiful, nor in
their way as lustrous as I previously thought when compared to that cowgirl
from Hinojosa.
I could not risk continuing to behold such beauty, for it
left me in danger of losing my freedom. “Young lady,” I asked (to learn more
about her), “from where is the cowgirl from Hinojosa?”
Smiling she said, “Greetings to you; I understand what you
are seeking: She has no desire for love, nor will she accept it, that cowgirl
from Hinojosa.”
|
You can hear medieval
Spanish in the movie Pan’s Labyrinth.
Also, on the Spanish soundtrack to Star
Wars Episode 1, Yar Yar Binks speaks in medieval Spanish.
