National Epics Part 35

When from a distance the son of the valiant Saum Became visible to the ill.u.s.trious maiden, She opened her gem-like lips, and exclaimed: "Welcome, thou brave and happy youth!

The blessing of the Creator of the world be upon thee; On him who is the father of a son like thee!

May destiny ever favor thy wishes!

May the vault of heaven be the ground thou walkest on!

The dark night is turned into day by thy countenance; The world is soul-enlivened by the fragrance of thy presence!

Thou hast travelled hither on foot from thy palace; Thou hast pained, to behold me, thy royal footsteps!"

When the hero heard the voice from the battlement, He looked up and beheld a face resplendent as the sun, Irradiating the terrace like a flas.h.i.+ng jewel, And brightening the ground like a naming ruby.

Then he replied: "O thou who sheddest the mild radiance of the moon, The blessing of Heaven, and mine, be upon thee!

How many nights hath cold Arcturus beholden me, Uttering my cry to G.o.d, the Pure, And beseeching the Lord of the universe, That he would vouchsafe to unveil thy countenance before me!

Now I am made joyful in hearing thy voice, In listening to thy rich and gracious accents.

But seek, I pray thee, some way to thy presence; For what converse can we hold, I on the ground, and thou on the terrace?"

The Peri-faced maiden heard the words of the hero; Quickly she unbound her auburn locks, Coil upon coil, and serpent upon serpent; And she stooped and dropped down the tresses from the battlement, And cried: "O hero, child of heroes, Take now these tresses, they belong to thee, And I have cherished them that they might prove an aid to my beloved."

And Zal gazed upward at the lovely maiden, And stood amazed at the beauty of her hair and of her countenance; He covered the musky ringlets with his kisses, And his bride heard the kisses from above.

Then he exclaimed: "That would not be right-- May the bright sun never s.h.i.+ne on such a day!

It were to lay my hand on the life of one already distracted; It were to plunge the arrow-point into my own wounded bosom."

Then he took his noose from his boy, and made a running knot, And threw it, and caught it on the battlement, And held his breath, and at one bound Sprang from the ground, and reached the summit.

As soon as the hero stood upon the terrace, The Peri-faced maiden ran to greet him, And took the hand of the hero in her own, And they went like those who are overcome with wine.

Then he descended from the lofty gallery, His hand in the hand of the tall princess, And came to the door of the gold-painted pavilion, And entered that royal a.s.sembly, Which blazed with light like the bowers of Paradise; And the slaves stood like houris before them: And Zal gazed in astonishment On her face, and her hair, and her stately form, and on all that splendor.

And Zal was seated in royal pomp Opposite that mildly-radiant beauty; And Rudabeh could not rest from looking towards him, And gazing upon him with all her eyes; On that arm, and shoulder, and that splendid figure, On the brightness of that soul-enlightening countenance; So that the more and more she looked The more and more was her heart inflamed.

Then he kissed and embraced her, renewing his vows-- Can the lion help pursuing the wild a.s.s?-- And said: "O sweet and graceful silver-bosomed maiden, It may not be, that, both of n.o.ble lineage, We should do aught unbecoming our birth; For from Saum Nariman I received an admonition.

To do no unworthy deed, lest evil should come of it; For better is the seemly than the unseemly, That which is lawful than that which is forbidden.

And I fear that Manuchahar, when he shall hear of this affair, Will not be inclined to give it his approval; I fear, too, that Saum will exclaim against it, And will boil over with pa.s.sion, and lay his hand upon me.

Yet, though soul and body are precious to all men, Life will I resign, and clothe myself with a shroud-- And this I swear by the righteous G.o.d-- Ere I will break the faith which I have pledged thee.

I will bow myself before Him, and offer my adoration, And supplicate Him as those who wors.h.i.+p Him in truth, That He will cleanse the heart of Saum, king of the earth, From opposition, and rage, and rancor.

Perhaps the Creator of the world may listen to my prayer, And thou mayest yet be publicly proclaimed my wife."

And Rudabeh said: "And I also, in the presence of the righteous G.o.d, Take the same pledge, and swear to thee my faith; And He who created the world be witness to my words, That no one but the hero of the world, The throned, the crowned, the far-famed Zal, Will I ever permit to be sovereign over me."

So their love every moment became greater; Prudence was afar, and pa.s.sion was predominant, Till the gray dawn began to show itself, And the drum to be heard from the royal pavilion.

Then Zal bade adieu to the fair one; His soul was darkened, and his bosom on fire, And the eyes of both were filled with tears; And they lifted up their voices against the sun: "O glory of the universe, why come so quick?

Couldst thou not wait one little moment"

Then Zal cast his noose on a pinnacle, And descended from those happy battlements, As the sun was rising redly above the mountains, And the bands of warriors were gathering in their ranks.

_Robinson's Translation._

THE POEM OF THE CID.

Rodrigo Ruy Diaz, El Cid Campeador, was born near Burgos, in Spain, about 1040. The name Cid was given him by the Moors, and means lord. Campeador means champion.

Ruy Diaz was the trusty lord of Sancho, King of Castile, who at his death divided his kingdom among his children. He then espoused the cause of the eldest son, Sancho, and a.s.sisted him in wresting their portion of the kingdom from his brothers Garcia and Alfonso. Sancho having been treacherously slain while besieging his sister Urraca's town of Zamora, the Cid attached himself to Alfonso, humiliating him, however, by making him and his chief lords swear that they had had no hand in Sancho's death.

For this, Alfonso revenged himself by exiling the Cid on the slightest pretexts, recalling him only when his services were needed in the defence of the country.

This much, and the Cid's victories over the Moors, his occupation of Valencia, and his army's departure therefrom in 1102, led by his corpse seated on horseback, "clothed in his habit as he lived", are historical facts.

A great ma.s.s of romances, among them the story of his slaying Count Don Gomez because he had insulted his father, Diego Laynez; of Don Gomez's daughter Ximena wooing and wedding him; of his a.s.sisting the leper and having his future success foretold by him, and of his embalmed body sitting many years in the cathedral at Toledo, are related in the "Chronicle of the Cid" and the "Ballads."

The Poem of the Cid narrates only a portion of his career, and "if it had been named," says Ormsby, "would have been called 'The Triumph of the Cid.'"

The Poem of the Cid was written about 1200 A. D. Its authors.h.i.+p is unknown.

It contains three thousand seven hundred and forty-five lines, and is divided into two cantares. The versification is careless; when rhyme hampered the poet he dropped it, and used instead the a.s.sonant rhyme.

The Poem of the Cid is of peculiar interest because it belongs to the very dawn of our modern literature, and because its hero was evidently a real personage, a portion of whose history was recorded in this epic not long after the events took place. The Cid is one of the most simple and natural of the epic heroes; he has all a man's weaknesses, and it is difficult to repress a smile at the perfectly natural manner in which, while he slaughters enough Moors to secure himself a place in the heavenly kingdom, he takes good care to lay up gold for the enjoyment of life on earth. The poem is told with the greatest simplicity, naturalness, and directness, as well as with much poetic fire.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM, THE CID.

Robert Southey's Chronicle of the Cid. . . . Appendix contains Poetry of the Cid by J. H. Frere, 1808, new ed., 1845;

Matthew Arnold's Poem of the Cid, MacMillan, 1871, vol. xxiv., pp.

471-485;

George Dennio's The Cid: A short Chronicle founded on the early Poetry of Spain, 1845;

Butler Clarke's The Cid (in his Spanish Literature, 1893, pp. 46-53); E. E. Hale and Susan Hale's The Cid (in their Story of Spain, 1893, pp.

248-261);

Stanley Lane Poole's The Cid (in his Story of the Moors in Spain, 1891, pp. 191-213);

Sismondi's Poem of the Cid (in his Literature of the South of Europe, 1884, vol. ii., pp. 95-140);

George Ticknor's Poem of the Cid (in his History of Spanish Literature, ed. 6, 1893, vol. i., pp. 12-26);

W. T. Dobson's Cla.s.sic Poets, (1879, pp. 35-138);

J. G. von Herder's Der Cid, nach spanischen Romanzen besungen (in his works, 1852, vol. xiv.), translated.

STANDARD ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS, THE POEM OF THE CID.

The Poem of the Cid, Tr. by John Ormsby, 1879;