{"id":657,"date":"2020-04-25T20:17:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T19:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/databassist.com\/music\/?p=657"},"modified":"2020-05-16T16:47:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T15:47:49","slug":"triste-espana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/databassist.com\/music\/archives\/657","title":{"rendered":"Triste Espa\u00f1a"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the three weeks since this blog first considered the distressing loss of life from COVID-19 — focussing particularly on Italy: see Weep with songs of sadness<\/a><\/em> — the crisis in Spain quickly became the second most acute in Europe, with 23,000 deaths attributed to the virus so far. Such large numbers represent an amount of grieving that is beyond our imagining and can leave us bewildered and growing numb to its misery. How do we even try to remember so many individuals and their suffering families as well as mourn for a whole country?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two songs by the great poet-composer Juan del Encina (1468\u20131529) help to make that connection between mourning the unexpected death of an individual and expressing the pain and grief of the nation. The first, Triste Espa\u00f1a sin ventura<\/em>, laments the premature death in 1497, at the age of 19, of Juan, Prince of Asturias, the only son of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and heir to their kingdoms. His loss from an infection (probably tuberculosis) was a tragedy for all of Spain and for its European dynastic alliances. The second, Todos los bienes del mundo<\/em>, reminds us to honour the true worth of the individual (their reputation and personal qualities), for after their death their worldy possessions mean nothing. Despite the funereal manner of the music in two of these three performances, poems like these, in the vernacular, belong in the secular realm and may be at odds with the official line of the Church about a loving God. Triste Espa\u00f1a sin ventura<\/em> is remarkable for how Encina’s words represent the despair of the bereaved who cannot understand why their loved one was cruelly ‘taken’ by a God who had ‘made you happier so as better to hurt you’. There must be many thousands of people in Spain today, who, in their pain, share that inability to reconcile their shocking and unexpected loss with matters of faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Triste Espa\u00f1a sin ventura,\ntodos te deven llorar.\nDespoblada d'alegr\u00eda,\npara nunca en ti tornar.\n\nTormentos, penas, dolores,\nte vinieron a poblar.\nSembr\u00f3te Dios de plazer\nporque naciesse pesar.\n\nH\u00edzote la m\u00e1s dichosa\npara m\u00e1s te lastimar.\nTus victorias y triunfos\nya se hovieron de pagar.\n\nPues que tal p\u00e9rdida pierdes,\ndime en qu\u00e9 podr\u00e1s ganar.\nPierdes la luz de tu gloria\ny el gozo de tu gozar.\n\nPierdes toda tu esperan\u00e7a,\nno te queda qu\u00e9 esperar.\nPierdes pr\u00edncipe tan alto,\nhijo de Reyes sin par.\n\nLlora, llora, pues perdiste\nquien te hav\u00eda de ensal\u00e7ar.\nEn su tierna juventud\nte lo quiso Dios llevar.\n\nLlev\u00f3te todo tu bien,\ndex\u00f3te su desear,\nporque mueras, porque penes,\nsin dar fin a tu penar.\n\nDe tan penosa tristura\nno te esperes consolar.<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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Sad Spain without fortune,\neveryone should weep for you.\nBarren, devoid of happiness\nthat shall never return.\n\nStorms, sorrows, pains\ncame and took residence in you.\nGod sowed pleasures in you\nso pains would grow.\n\nHe made you happier\nso as better to hurt you.\nFor your victories and achievements\nyou had to pay dearly.\n\nSince you keep sustaining such losses,\ntell me, what should you ever win?\nYou lose the light of your glory\nand the joy of being joyful.\n\nYou lose all your hope,\nand are left with nothing to hope for,\nyou lose so high a prince,\nthe son of peerless kings.\n\nCry, cry, for you lost\nhe who was to sing your praises.\nIn his tender youth\nGod saw fit to take him.\n\nHe took all good away from you,\nand left you with his longing,\nso you could die, so you could pine,\nwith no end to your grieving.\n\nOf such pitiful sadness, \nhope not ever to gain relief.<\/pre>\n
Translation adapted from lyricstranslate.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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