Seymour Resnick - Nine Centuries of Spanish Literature (Dual-Language)

NINE CENTURIES OF
SPANISH LITERATURE

______

NUEVE SIGLOS DE
LITERATURA ESPAOLA

A Dual-Language Anthology

EDITED BY

Seymour Resnick

AND

Jeanne Pasmantier

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
NEW YORK

For MASON, KATHY, and JOHNNY

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

This Dover edition, first published in 1994, is a slightly abridged and corrected republication of Highlights of Spanish Literature, originally published by Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York, in 1963.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Nueve siglos de literatura espaola = Nine centuries of Spanish literature: a dual-language anthology / edited by Seymour Resnick and Jeanne Pasmantier.

p. cm.

Corr. ed. of: Highlights of Spanish literature. 1963.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 0-486-28271-6 (pbk.)

1. Spanish literature. 2. Spanish literatureTranslations into English. I. Resnick, Seymour. II. Pasmantier, Jeanne. III. Highlights of Spanish literature. IV. Title: Nine centuries of Spanish literature.

PQ6172.R46 1994

860.8dc20 94-16769

CIP

Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editors and the publishers are grateful for the cooperation of those individuals and publishers who granted permission to use their copyrighted material. Every effort has been made to trace and to acknowledge properly all copyright owners. If any acknowledgment has been inadvertently omitted, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary correction in the next printing.

Burns & Oates, Ltd. For the translations by E. Allison Peers of poems by San Juan de la Cruz, from Poems of Saint John of the Cross.

The Clarendon Press. For the following selections from Spanish Poems and Poetry by Ida Farnell: Luis de Len, Ode to Salinas; Campoamor, If Only I Could Write!; Machado, Fields of Soria. For the ballad The Prisoner from European Balladry by W. J. Entwistle.

The Dolphin Book Co. Ltd. For Green and I Would That All My Verses by Juan Ramn Jimnez from his Fifty Spanish Poems with English translations by J. B. Trend.

Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. For the Sonata of Spring from The Pleasant Memories of the Marquis of Bradomin by Ramn del Valle-Incln, copyright 1924 by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. and reprinted with their permission.

Hispanic Society of America. For their courtesy in granting permission to use several selections from Translations from Hispanic Poets: Axa, Fatima, and Marien; Grace and Beauty Has the Maid; and Pirates Song.

Harvill Press Ltd. and Pantheon Books. For a translation by Roy Campbell of Verses Written after an Ecstasy of High Exaltation from Poems of St. John of the Cross.

Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. for Count Arnaldos and last stanza of Santillana, Serranilla VI from The Heritage of Spain by Nicholas B. Adams. Copyright 1959 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. For Bcquers Rima II from Main Currents of Spanish Literature by J. M. D. Ford. Copyright 1919, copyright renewed 1947 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. All reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

The Johns Hopkins Press. For Riders Song from Contemporary Spanish Poetry, translated by Eleanor Turnbull.

Elisha K. Kane. For quotations from his translation of The Book of Good Love.

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. For selections reprinted from The Tree of Knowledge by Po Baroja and from Mist by Miguel de Unamuno, each copyright 1928, 1956 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. For the selection reprinted from The Cabin by V. Blasco Ibez, copyright 1919, 1947 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. All by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Penguin Books Ltd. For the translation by J. M. Cohen of selections from Cervantes Don Quixote, copyright 1950 by Penguin Books Ltd.

Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. For the selection from Chapter 3 of Paul, the Spanish Sharper.

Charles Scribners Sons. For the selection from The Bonds of Interest reprinted with the permission of Charles Scribners Sons, from Plays, First Series, by Jacinto Benavente, translated by John Garrett Underhill. Copyright 1917 John Garrett Underhill; renewal copyright 1945. For the selection from The Sheep Well reprinted with the permission of Charles Scribners Sons from Four Plays by Lope de Vega, translated by John Garrett Underhill. Copyright 1936 John Garrett Underhill.

Sheed and Ward, Inc., New York, and Sheed and Ward, Ltd., London. For I Die Because I Do Not Die from The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Volume III, translated and edited by E. Allison Peers, from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, D.C., published in three volumes by Sheed and Ward, Inc., New York.

University of California Press. For the selection The Poem of the Cid from The Lay of the Cid, translated by Rose and Bacon.

PREFACE

To help make accessible to English-speaking readers the rich and varied literature of Spain, the present editors prepared a comprehensive Anthology of Spanish Literature in English Translation, published in 1958 by Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. Ideally, translations should be accompanied by the original works, but limitations of space prevented inclusion of the Spanish in our previous anthology. In this new volume, therefore, we have now chosen those selectionscomprising a little more than one-third of the earlier anthologywhich we consider indispensable as an introduction to Spanish literature, with the Spanish originals and the English translations on facing pages.

This bilingual edition should be of special value to readers who have previously studied Spanish and can enjoy the masterpieces of Spanish literature as they were written. For those whose grasp of Spanish does not yet allow a facile reading of the original alone, the facing translations help overcome linguistic difficulties. In addition, students of the art of translation will be able easily to compare the original with the English rendering. The great majority of the translations included here are faithful in word and feeling to the original works. An occasional translation, however, is relatively freesuch as Harry Kemps transmutation of Tirso de Molinas Burlador de Sevillayet it captures the spirit and artistic intent of the Spanish selection. Among the translators represented in this volume are such well-known British and American authors as Lord Byron, Robert Southey, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant and John Masefield. Spanish literature has had a special appeal to some of our finest writers, and we are indebted to them for many excellent translations.

The Spanish language has not changed as much as has English during the past eight centuries. Since the language of the medieval period can be read today without too much difficulty, we have used Spanish editions which have modernized little more than the orthography of these early selections. An exception is our first selection, the Poem of the Cid, which we present in a modern poetic version.

Highlights of Spanish Literature is designed to serve as a text in a survey of Spanish literature course in college or in the fourth year of high-school Spanish. It may also be used to advantage in world literature classes where some of the students may not know Spanish.

Spanish-American literature has not been included here since it merits an extensive treatment of its own. We have, however, provided a short bibliography of Spanish-American literature for the English-speaking reader.

The introduction offers a basic outline of Spanish poetry, prose and drama, and the selections themselves are preceded by brief introductory remarks about the authors. For a more detailed background the reader is advised to consult one of the histories of literature listed in the Bibliography.