Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.

Spain: Valladolid

Bull-fight at Valladolid

By Luis de Góngora (1561–1627)

Translated by Edward Churton

THE PLACE, a garden gay,—the round stockade

Festooned with flowers,—the bulls, some twelve or more,

Fierce as fleshed tigers in their rush and roar,

Right gallantly despatched with lance and blade:

The riders on their posts in troops arrayed,

Princes and peers, who thronged the grassy floor;

Their rival hues, such gorgeous suits they wore,

Outspangled heaven’s bright rainbow ere it fade.

Their steeds Valencian children of the wind,

For whose rich bits Peru gave bars of gold,

Whose burnished reins threw back the dazzling sun:

And when o’er western hills the sun declined,

A game of shields Pisuerga might behold,

That had old Genil’s Moorish vaunts outdone.