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Pérdida de Antequera

A Brief Introduction

This poem is a romance, which is a poetic form that has been part of Spanish literature for centuries, originating in the oral tradition of medieval Iberia. It is characterized by lines of eight syllables (with caveats), and rima asonante in the even-numbered lines, meaning that the final vowel sound in every other line will be the same throughout the poem. For example, the rhyming sound in this poem is ‘a’. Romances were performed by minstrels and the oldest among them originate from this oral tradition, a form in which some still survive today. They arose in an era when language was more fluid than today, and many of these romances viejos are attested in different forms across different languages.

Romances were very popular in their time, and from the Renaissance onward they would be composed by various authors, including some of the most prominent figures in Spanish literature, such as Lope de Vega. These poems differ from true romances viejos, however, in that they are not the product of an oral tradition and are instead penned by a single author. Though it is sometimes difficult to differentiate, this poem is likely of the older class, and at the very least still contains traces of its form within the medieval oral tradition.

More specifically, the poem is also a romance morisco in that it follows Muslim or Moorish protagonists. This type of romance is written by Christian author(s) about Muslim subjects, and they are known for being far more charitable in their depiction than a modern reader might expect. For more on why I find these poems important, see Convivencia, Romances Moriscos, and Religious Conflict Today.

The poem depicts the fall of Antequera, a city in the modern day province of Málaga, to Christian forces in 1410. Importantly, it also includes an ahistorical ensuing battle that is won by the Moors. I find it very interesting that a Christian oral tradition would invent a fictitious victory for the Muslims, even when depicting a real historical event. This episode is absent from some versions of the poem.

The poem is set on St. John’s day, which is puzzling for a few reasons. It of course strange that this day would be celebrated by the Muslim Moors, but the element may have entered this poem over the years due to contact with other poems, as it was not necessarily an uncommon setting. Multiple modern notes on this poem claim that this holiday was celebrated by both Muslims and Christians, but I find this idea dubious. The Romancero compiled by Paloma Díaz Más notes that the mentioned St. John is the Evangelist as opposed to the Baptist, though neither of their feast days fall on the date Antequera was historically captured by the infante don Fernando (Ferdinand I of Aragon) in September of 1410.

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Pérdida de Antequera

Anónimo
Traducido por Jasper Cunningham

La mañana de Sant Juan
al tiempo que alboreaba
gran fiesta hacen los moros
por la vega de Granada
revolviendo sus caballos
y jugando de las lanzas,
ricos pendones en ellas
broslados por sus amadas,
ricas marlotas vestidas
tejidas de oro y grana;
el moro que amores tiene
señales d’ello mostraba
y el que no tenía amores
allí no escaramuzaba.
Las damas mozas los miran
de las torres de Alhambra,
tambíen se los mira el rey
de dentro del Alcazaba.
Dando voces vino un moro
con la cara ensangrentada:
– Con tu licencia, el rey,
te dire una nueva mala:
el infante don Fernando
tiene Antequera ganada;
muchos moros deja muertos
yo soy quien mejor librara:
siete lanzadas yo traigo,
el cuerpo todo me pasan;
los que conmigo escaparon
en Archidona quedaban. –
Con la tal nueva el rey
la cara se le demudaba.
Manda juntar sus trompetas
que toquen todos alarma,
manda juntar a los suyos,
hacen muy gran cabalgada;
y a las puertas de Alcalá
que la Real se llamaba
los cristianos y los moros
una escaramuza traban.
Los cristianos eran muchos,
mas llevaban orden mala;
los moros, que son de guerra,
dado les han mala carga:
d’ellos matan d’ellos prenden,
d’ellos toman en celada.
Con la victoria los moros
van la vuelta de Granada;
a grandes voces decían:
– ¡La victoria ya es cobrada!

Notes
1: See introduction
2: Reference to some kind of jousting game being played is an incredibly common element of romances and is almost always mentioned when any celebration is involved. It is often called el juego de cañas.
3: I chose to render this as the Arabic word the Spanish is derived from because it is notable that the poem uses this loan word as opposed to something more general. The literal meaning is “fortress.”
4: lit. “the royal”
5: It is notable that the word used in this line, escaramuza, is the same as is used in the line which I translate as “there did not vie.” It means “battle,” coming from the same root as “skirmish.” Just as the poem generally juxtaposes the festivities with the war, it also uses this word to refer to both the war game played in the beginning of the poem with the true conflict at the end.
6: Though it is not necessarily a kind of weapon one associates with this era, this line does refer to firearms.
Sources
This version of the text is from the Romancero compiled by Paloma Díaz Más (2001) whose notes were also consulted, in addition to the notes found in Flor Nueva de Romances Viejos by Ramón Menéndez Pidal (2nd Edition, 1933). Historical dictionaries used are the Diccionario de Autoridades by the Real Academia Española and the Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana o Española by Sebastián de Covarrubias. Wiktionary was used to comfirm the etymology of skirmish and escaramuza. No AI was knowingly used for any aspect of this work.