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 echò en el fuego,

Y al mensagero matava.

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 Elvira's gates to those

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.

Woe is me, Alhama!

4.

When the Alhambra walls he gain'd,

On the moment he ordain'd

That the trumpet straight should sound

With the silver clarion round.

Woe is me, Alhama!

5.

And when the hollow drums of war

Beat the loud alarm afar,

That the Moors of town and plain

Might answer to the martial strain,

Woe is me, Alhama!