The Göngorine Lyrical-burlesque Style.

Just finishing the English translation of la Tisbe (1618) of Göngora, that will be included in the collected poems I translated for the All Göngora in English blog (englishgongora.blogspot.com, 2014-2017). La Tisbe was not included in the blog, so you can acquire the book Göngora et labora and have a nice laugh at his wit, imagination, and fusion between popular and learned terms, the true Göngorine Joco-serious style, the Göngorine Lyrical-burlesque style. Here it is an advance of the first 100 and odd lines, of a total 508 lines.

YEAR 1618. POEM 317

Antonio Carreira writes (1998:149-157): “Góngora, in fine, parodies his literary activity all along his works ... in Góngora all, or nearly all, leads inevitably to [la Tisbe].”

FABLE OF PYRAMUS AND TISBE

                            The urban city of Babylon,

                         famous, not for her walls
                         (were they of earth baked
                         or be they of earth raw),

5                          but for those two lovers
                         wretched, children of her,

                         who dead, and in one rapier,
                         have wandered the world,

                            sweet zitherist, daughter

10                    of the fair-haired Archpoet,

                        if to my instrumentʼs arm

                        you solicit it the pulse,

                           worthy subject shall be

                        of the ears of the people:

15                    popular applause I want,

                        excuse me their tribunes.

                           Pyramus, were, and Thisbe,

                        whom verse made he cult
                        the licentiate Ovid Naso,

20                   be he blunt or big-nosed,
                           to leave the sweet candour
                        pathetically rather obscure
                        to the (which barrow of silk
                        was, of the two birdbrain ones)
25                      mulberry that hosted them
                        and was condemned at once,
                        if of the Tigris not in roots,
                        of the young lovers, in fruits.

                           These, then, two Babylonians

30                   neighbours were born, indeed,

                        and so much, that one wall
                        of some ears not very sharp,

                           in the years of their infancy,

                        heard from the cradles the jolts,

35                    from the babies the gurgles,

                        and from the nannies the lulls;

                           heard them, and those days

                        so well the hearing pleased it,
                        that years later it was made
40                   some chinks in their service.

                           In the interim they tell us,

                        the badly-formed sketches

                        of a gooseʼs paintbrushes,

                        the two next fair drawings;

45                      terse ivory its splendour,

                        with no modesty, interposed

                        ʼtween the billows of a sun

                        and the light of two carbuncles.

                           Liberty says that was cried

50                   the curved and sweet yoke
                        of the eyebrows, whose bows
                        did not serenate deluges.

                           Lucent smooth crystal,

                        the skin, I mean, of her face,
55                   vase was of carnations

                       and of jasmines, confused.

                          Umpire of so many flowers,

                       a place the smell obtained

                       in the shape, not of a nose,

60                  but of a white almond.

                          A ruby concedes or denies

                       (as she to alternate wanted)

                       among twenty clean pearls

                       twelve minute clear gems.

65                     Of burnished silver, was,

                       well-proportionated cane,

                       the organ of the voice,

                       the blowgun of the taste.

                          The breasts, if was Phoenix,

70                 hers are; if there was none,
                      of the gardens of Venus

                      pomes were they unripe.

                         The etcetera is of marble

                      whose those hidden reliefs

75                  terse insult made they

                      to the divine naked ones,

                         back when Paris dressed

                      the long gown of Lycurgus,

                      when Pallas, for being hairy,

80                 and for knock-kneed lost Juno.

                         This, then, since the glorious

                      threshold of her first lustrum,

                      girl estimated her, Love,

                      as the eyes that he lacked.

85                    Did grow deity, did grow envy

                      from one sex and another: So what,

                      that the faith erected altars

                      to whom emulation cult?

                         So many times, from the temples

90                 to their inns did reduce she

                      with no liberty the galants,

                      and the ladies, with no pride,

                         that seeing, who dressed her

                      (nine months that she bore her)

95                 with the velvet of her tummy,

                     her danger in those contests,

                        the relics of little Thisbie

                     set in the most reclusive

                     part of her inner room, denied

100              even to the pure specks of dust.

                        Oh Pyramus what he does,

                     young lad now he robust

                     that wingless could but be

                     Venusʼ son he the second!

105                  Narcissus not, of the flowers

                     pomp, he who vocal sepulcher

                     did build to his naïve simpleton

                     in some vale the most deepest,

                        but a Chaldean Adonis,

110               nor snappy nor he burly,

                     who had those ears of him

                     in the cages of two locks;

                        his front hair, was a nap,

                     if taffeta was his nape,

115               his cheeks, much smooth,

                     his fuzz, with very few hair;

                        two fencing swords were, black

                     sweetly shaped were and curly,

                     his brows, that couldʼve been bent

120              by two handgrip short thrusts.

                        In fine, in Pyramus wanted

                     to incarnate Cupid a pike,

                     the best of his own armory,

                     with his usual tool as well.

125                 This, then, was the neighbour,

                    the beloved, and even the buddie,

                    of the damsel turtledove,

                    bewailing she like a widow;

                       that for the pains of Love

130             itʼs the most highest extoll

                   to listen to billows thirsty

                   whom feels fruits fasting.

Göngora et labora...