But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,

In the endurance, and repulse

Of thine impenetrable Spirit,

Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,

A mighty lesson we inherit:

Thou art a symbol and a sign

To Mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,

A troubled stream from a pure source;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny;

His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence :
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself an equal to all woes,

And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.

ROMANCE MUY DOLOROSO

DEL

SITIO Y TOMA DE ALHAMA.

The effect of the original Ballad (which existed both in Spanish and Arabic) was such that it was forbidden to be sung by the Moors, on pain of death, within Granada.

ROMANCE MUY DOLOROSO

DEL

SITIO Y TOMA DE ALHAMA, EL QUAL DEZIA EN ARAVIGO ASSI.

1.

PASSEAVASE el Rey Moro
Por la ciudad de Granada,
Desde las puertas de Elvira
Hasta las de Bivarambla.

Ay de mi, Alhama!

2.

Cartas le fueron venidas
Que Alhama era ganada.
Las cartas echo en el fuego,
Y al mensagero matava.

Ay de mi, Alhama!

3.

Descavalga de una mula,
Y en un cavallo cavalga.

Por el Zacatin arriba

Subido se avia al Alhambra.

Ay de mi, Alhama!

A VERY MOURNFUL BALLAD

ON THE

SIEGE AND CONQUEST OF ALHAMA,

Which, in the Arabic language, is to the following purport.

1.

THE Moorish King rides up and down

Through Granada's royal town,

From Elzira's gates to those

Of Bivarambla on he goes.

Wo is me, Alhama!

2.

Letters to the monarch tell
How Alhama's city fell;

In the fire the scroll he threw,

And the messenger he slew.

Wo is me, Alhama!

3.

He quits his mule and mounts his horse, And through the street directs his course ; Through the street of Zacatin

To the Alhambra spurring in.