Original Blog Entry: "Vaquera de la Finojosa" Verse or whatever it is + Some Good Links.

LANTERN — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:46:26 GMT

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2000

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/139

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/551

http://www.online-literature.com/cervantes/don_quixote/

A serranilla

by I igo L pez de Mendoza Santillana

From Calatrava as I took my way

At holy Mary's shrine to kneel and pray,

And sleep upon my eyelids heavy lay,

There where the ground was very rough and wild,

I lost my path and met a peasant child:

From Finojosa, with the herds around her,

There in the fields I found her.

Upon a meadow green with tender grass,

With other rustic cowherds, lad and lass,

So sweet a thing to see I watched her pass:

My eyes could scarce believe her what they found her,

There with the herds around her.

I do not think that roses in the Spring

Are half so lovely in their fashioning:

My heart must needs avow this secret thing,

That had I known her first as then I found her,

From Finojosa, with the herds around her

I had not strayed so far her face to see

That it might rob me of my liberty.

I questioned her, to know what she might say:

Has she of Finojosa passed this way?

She smiled and answered me: In vain you sue,

Full well my heart discerns the hope in you:

But she of whom you speak, and have not found her.

Her heart is free, no thought of love has bound her,

Here with the herds around her.

Translated by J.P.P. Rice, 1920.

The original goes:

Serranilla

Mo a tan fermosa

non vi en la frontera

com' una vaquera

de la Finojosa.

Faziendo la v a

del Calatraveno

a Santa Mar a,

ven ido del sue o,

por tierra fraguosa

perd 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 gra iosa

que apenas creyera

que fuesse vaquera

de la Finojosa.

Non creo las rosas

de la primavera

sean tan fermosas

nin de tal manera.

Fablando sin glosa,

si antes supiera

de aquela vaquera

de la Finojosa,

non tanto mirara

su mucha beltad,

porque me dexara

en mo libertad.

Mas dixe: Donosa

(por saber qui n era),

donde es la vaquera

de la Finojosa? .

Bien commo riendo,

dixo: Bien vengades,

que ya bien entiendo

lo que domandades:

non es desseosa

de amar, nin lo espera

aquessa vaquera

de la Finojosa .

-----------

My own translation: Not so good at all as I have forgotten most of the Spanish that I once knew.

A more beautiful girl

I have not seen on the border

like a cowgirl

of the Finojosa

Facing the road

of the Calatraveno

to Santa Maria,

so sleepy, I failed to translate this line quite right, but only close.

for rough terrain

lost the hurry,

I saw the cowgirl

of the Finojosa

On a green garden

of roses and flowers,

guarding the herd

with other shepperds,

I saw her so full of grace

that I could not believe

that she was a cowgirl

of the Finojosa.

-----

Did the first 3, but I am too tired to try to translate the last 3, it is a real workout to try now-days,

my Spanish used to be so good, so long ago.

Should had tried to finish, but it is so hard to translate right, after so many years of not using Spanish.

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