Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Spain: Pisuerga, the River | | Romance | | From the Spanish |
| | (From Sylva de Romances, 1644)
Translated by Sir John Bowring
IN the vale of Pisuerga, | |
| Midst the rocks I saw an angel, | |
| ’T was a lovely mountain maiden | |
| ’Neath the heaven of Manzanares. | |
| Every river, every streamlet, | 5 |
| Flowed to be her silvery glasses, | |
| Hurrying from their beds to meet her,— | |
| Crystals in the gentle valley. | |
| But her cheeks are pale and gloomy, | |
| Chilled by melancholy sadness, | 10 |
| Careless she of all around her, | |
| Sports, and songs, and joyous dances. | |
| Solitude is her enjoyment, | |
| And to her the day is darkness, | |
| Good and evil, bliss and suffering, | 15 |
| Neither wounds and neither gladdens. | |
| Fellow-maidens now invite her, | |
| Flower-crowned to the vale she hastens, | |
| Witnessing the laughing revels, | |
| Swains and nymphs alike partakers. | 20 |
| Then there came an unknown shepherd, | |
| Thither not in vain he wandered: | |
| When he saw the nymph of beauty, | |
| How his eyes with passion sparkled! | |
| But the dance is still continued, | 25 |
| And the shepherd, as he watched her, | |
| To the song of oaks and willows, | |
| Thus her tale to heaven related: | |
| |
| “Virgin, thy cheeks as the snow are white, | |
| They are ashes sure of love’s fire so bright.” | 30 | | | |
|
|
