Post by Kukul-Kan on Jul 19, 2004 17:18:04 GMT -5
English poet praising a Spanish girl.‘ Is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence?
Description of Dulcinea in “Don Quixote”:
"I cannot say positively whether my sweet enemy is pleased or not that the world should know I serve her; I can only say in answer to what has been so courteously asked of me, that her name is Dulcinea, her country El Toboso, a village of La Mancha, her rank must be at least that of a princess, since she is my queen and lady, and her beauty superhuman, since all the impossible and fanciful attributes of beauty which the poets apply to their ladies are verified in her; for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her fairness snow, and what modesty conceals from sight such, I think and imagine, as rational reflection can only extol, not compare.
_____
Now I found this very interesting piece of information in another board(the phora). A Moorish noble praising the blondness of a slave girl:
"The family tree of the Iberian Umayyads that is presented by historians of the modern era as well as the classical period of Islam is comprised of sons of an uncomplicated Arab patriarchal genealogy. Muslim names are likewise patriarchal: in the medieval Arabic histories and biographies, a man's name is followed by the names of his male forebears, usually traced for five generations. Thus, he is the son (ibn) of the son of the son of the son of a man. The mother is almost never mentioned, except in the case of dynastic rulers, and then presumably only so as to distinguish between brothers of the womb and half-brothers. Hence, while histories written in Arabic by premodern Muslim historians do not provide a family tree of the sort that Gayangos offers, the writing of a man's full name was itself a summary of his male ancestors.
The men of the Hispano-Umayyad house traced their ancestry to the Umayyad house of Damascus, and thus they appear to be of pure, noble, Muslim, and Arab stock. However, the mothers of these Umayyad heirs were predominantly Christian women from the north. Ibn Hazm, writing in the early eleventh century, tells us that, with but one exception, all the Umayyad caliphs and their children were blond like their mothers and predominantly blue-eyed. Ibn Hazm's lengthy description of the fairness of the Umayyads and their predeliction for blonde women indicates that fair hair was not a common or universally admired genetic trait in al-Andalus in his day. Indeed, he composed a poem defending the beauty of a blonde woman:
Quote:
They criticized her to me on account of the blondeness of her hair,
And I said: "That is exactly what makes her pretty to me!"
They blame the colour of light and gold in great error,
Has anyone ever blamed the colour of freshy-unfolded narcissus?
Or the colours of stars blossoming forth in the distance?
Ibn Hazm had fallen in love with a blonde slave girl; probably fair hair was common among slave women and their children, since a great many female slaves were obtained from the northern Iberian frontier. But he tells us that it was also a distinguishing characteristic of the Umayyad rulers of al-Andalus, for in addition to being the proud sons of Arab men, they were the blond sons of northern, non-Arab concubines. These early rulers of Islamic Spain were the progeny of a very intimate form of convivencia, literally "living together" or cohabitation."
Dr. Fairchild Ruggles, 'Mothers of a Hybrid Dynasty: Race, Genealogy, and Acculturation in al-Andalus', The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies Vol 34., no.1, 2004, pp.68-69
____
And now for those who say blond women are more beautiful here’s Lord Byron’s “Girl of Cádiz” in which she describes a beautiful dark Spanish girl:
Oh never talk again to me
Of northern climes and British ladies;
It has not been your lot to see,
Like me, the lovely girl of Cadiz
Although her eye be not of blue,
Nor fair her locks, like English lasses,
How far its own expressive hue
The languid azure eye surpasses !
Prometheus-like, from heaven she stole
The fire, that through those silken lashes
In darkest glances seem to roll,
From eyes that cannot hide their flashes:
And as along her bosom steal
In lengthen'd flow her raven tresses,
You'd swear each clustering lock could feel,
And curl'd to give her neck caresses.
Our English maids are long to woo,
And frigid even in possession;
And if their charms be fair to view,
Their lips are slow at Loves confession:
But, born beneath a brighter sun,
For love ordain'd the Spanish maid is,
And who, --- when fondly, fairly won, ---
Enchants you like the Girl of Cadiz ?
The Spanish maid is no coquette,
Nor joys to see a lover tremble,
And if she love, or if she hate,
Alike she knows not to dissemble.
Her heart can ne'er be bought or sold ---
Howe'er it beats, it beats sincerely;
And, though it will not bend to gold,
'T will love you long and love you dearly.
The Spanish girl that meets your love
Ne'er taunts you with a mock denial,
For every thought is bent to prove
Her passion in the hour of trial.
When thronging foemen menace Spain,
She dares the deed and shares the danger;
And should her lover press the plain,
She hurls the spear, her love's avenger.
And when, beneath the evening star,
She mingles in the gay Bolero,
Or sings to her attuned guitar
Of Christian knight or Moorish hero,
Or counts her beads with fairy hand
Beneath the twinkling rays of Hesper,
Or joins Devotion's choral band,
To chaunt the sweet and hallow'd vesper; ---
In each her charms the heart must move
Of all who venture to behold her;
Then let not maids less fair reprove
Because her bosom is not colder:
Through many a clime 't is mine to roam
Where many a soft and melting maid is,
But none abroad, and few at home,
May match the dark-eyed Girl of Cadiz.
Description of Dulcinea in “Don Quixote”:
"I cannot say positively whether my sweet enemy is pleased or not that the world should know I serve her; I can only say in answer to what has been so courteously asked of me, that her name is Dulcinea, her country El Toboso, a village of La Mancha, her rank must be at least that of a princess, since she is my queen and lady, and her beauty superhuman, since all the impossible and fanciful attributes of beauty which the poets apply to their ladies are verified in her; for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her fairness snow, and what modesty conceals from sight such, I think and imagine, as rational reflection can only extol, not compare.
_____
Now I found this very interesting piece of information in another board(the phora). A Moorish noble praising the blondness of a slave girl:
"The family tree of the Iberian Umayyads that is presented by historians of the modern era as well as the classical period of Islam is comprised of sons of an uncomplicated Arab patriarchal genealogy. Muslim names are likewise patriarchal: in the medieval Arabic histories and biographies, a man's name is followed by the names of his male forebears, usually traced for five generations. Thus, he is the son (ibn) of the son of the son of the son of a man. The mother is almost never mentioned, except in the case of dynastic rulers, and then presumably only so as to distinguish between brothers of the womb and half-brothers. Hence, while histories written in Arabic by premodern Muslim historians do not provide a family tree of the sort that Gayangos offers, the writing of a man's full name was itself a summary of his male ancestors.
The men of the Hispano-Umayyad house traced their ancestry to the Umayyad house of Damascus, and thus they appear to be of pure, noble, Muslim, and Arab stock. However, the mothers of these Umayyad heirs were predominantly Christian women from the north. Ibn Hazm, writing in the early eleventh century, tells us that, with but one exception, all the Umayyad caliphs and their children were blond like their mothers and predominantly blue-eyed. Ibn Hazm's lengthy description of the fairness of the Umayyads and their predeliction for blonde women indicates that fair hair was not a common or universally admired genetic trait in al-Andalus in his day. Indeed, he composed a poem defending the beauty of a blonde woman:
Quote:
They criticized her to me on account of the blondeness of her hair,
And I said: "That is exactly what makes her pretty to me!"
They blame the colour of light and gold in great error,
Has anyone ever blamed the colour of freshy-unfolded narcissus?
Or the colours of stars blossoming forth in the distance?
Ibn Hazm had fallen in love with a blonde slave girl; probably fair hair was common among slave women and their children, since a great many female slaves were obtained from the northern Iberian frontier. But he tells us that it was also a distinguishing characteristic of the Umayyad rulers of al-Andalus, for in addition to being the proud sons of Arab men, they were the blond sons of northern, non-Arab concubines. These early rulers of Islamic Spain were the progeny of a very intimate form of convivencia, literally "living together" or cohabitation."
Dr. Fairchild Ruggles, 'Mothers of a Hybrid Dynasty: Race, Genealogy, and Acculturation in al-Andalus', The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies Vol 34., no.1, 2004, pp.68-69
____
And now for those who say blond women are more beautiful here’s Lord Byron’s “Girl of Cádiz” in which she describes a beautiful dark Spanish girl:
Oh never talk again to me
Of northern climes and British ladies;
It has not been your lot to see,
Like me, the lovely girl of Cadiz
Although her eye be not of blue,
Nor fair her locks, like English lasses,
How far its own expressive hue
The languid azure eye surpasses !
Prometheus-like, from heaven she stole
The fire, that through those silken lashes
In darkest glances seem to roll,
From eyes that cannot hide their flashes:
And as along her bosom steal
In lengthen'd flow her raven tresses,
You'd swear each clustering lock could feel,
And curl'd to give her neck caresses.
Our English maids are long to woo,
And frigid even in possession;
And if their charms be fair to view,
Their lips are slow at Loves confession:
But, born beneath a brighter sun,
For love ordain'd the Spanish maid is,
And who, --- when fondly, fairly won, ---
Enchants you like the Girl of Cadiz ?
The Spanish maid is no coquette,
Nor joys to see a lover tremble,
And if she love, or if she hate,
Alike she knows not to dissemble.
Her heart can ne'er be bought or sold ---
Howe'er it beats, it beats sincerely;
And, though it will not bend to gold,
'T will love you long and love you dearly.
The Spanish girl that meets your love
Ne'er taunts you with a mock denial,
For every thought is bent to prove
Her passion in the hour of trial.
When thronging foemen menace Spain,
She dares the deed and shares the danger;
And should her lover press the plain,
She hurls the spear, her love's avenger.
And when, beneath the evening star,
She mingles in the gay Bolero,
Or sings to her attuned guitar
Of Christian knight or Moorish hero,
Or counts her beads with fairy hand
Beneath the twinkling rays of Hesper,
Or joins Devotion's choral band,
To chaunt the sweet and hallow'd vesper; ---
In each her charms the heart must move
Of all who venture to behold her;
Then let not maids less fair reprove
Because her bosom is not colder:
Through many a clime 't is mine to roam
Where many a soft and melting maid is,
But none abroad, and few at home,
May match the dark-eyed Girl of Cadiz.
