Chapter XVII: Canto IV: (after Stanza 40)

The corresponding deaths of Spanish knights.

“Velasquez dies with Sanches de Toledo, 1
A mighty hunter this, and that a clerke:
Galbes eke perisheth surnamed ‘Sem Medo,’[130]
For thus his comrades called for countermark:
Montánchez, Oropésa, Mondonhedo
(Albeit skilled in arms, in sinews stark),
Fell by Antonio’s hand, stout youth and brave
Whose lance more dext’erous drave them to the grave.

2

“Guevara roncador, que o rosto untava,
Mãos e barba, do sangue que corria;
Por dizer, que dos muitos que matava
Saltava nelle o sangue, e o tingia:
Quando destes abusos se jactava,
De través lhe dá Pedro, que o ouvia,
Tal golpe, com que ali lhe foi partida
Do corpo a vãa cabeça e a torpe vida.

“Braggart Guevára, who his front had dyed, 2
And hands and beard with blood that tinged the plain;
That he might bluster how the gory tide
Had spurted painting him with honour’d stain:
Him, bell’owing such bravados in his pride,
Pedro who heard the vauntings loud and vain,
Felled with such side stroke, that his empty head
Flew from his body and his base life fled.

3

“Pelo ar a cabeça lhe voou,
Inda contando a historia de seus feitos:
Pedro, do negro sangue que esguichou,
Foi todo salpicado, rosto e peitos;
Justa vingança do que em vida usou.
Logo com elle ao occaso vão direitos
Carrilho, João da Lorca, com Robledo;
Porque os outros fugindo vão de medo.

“Flew high in airy space his feckless pate 3
While still a-boasting of some blatant Geste:
Pedro, besprinkled by the squirt and jet,
Feels black blood trickling down his beard and breast;
Wherewith the mal’apert pays his vengeance debt.
Carrilho’s sun eke setteth in its west,
Joam de Lorca and Robledo follow;
While th’ other braves in flight their boasts must swallow.

4

“Salazar, grão taful, e o mais antigo
Rufião, que Sevilha então sostinha;
A quem a falsa amiga, que comsigo
Trouxe, de noite só fugido tinha.
Fugio-lhe a amiga, emfim, para outro amigo,
Porque vio que o dinheiro com que vinha,
Perdeo todo de um resto; e não perdera,
Se huma carta de espadas lhe viera.

“Salazar, famous par’asite, and the head 4
Pander who made Sevilha town infame;
Whom his false leman had at night-tide fled
Though to the ’campment she had brought her shame;
Lief would with other friend this fair friend bed,
For-that the ducats wherewithal he came,
Were lost upon a cast; nor were they lost
Had but a hand of spades came uppermost.

5

“O desprezo da amiga o desatina;
E o mundo todo, a terra, e o ceo vagante,
Blasphemando ameaça, e determina
De vingar se em qualquer que achar diante:
Encontra com Gaspar (que Catharina
Ama em extremo) e leva do montante,
Que no ar fere fogo; e certo cria,
Que um monte da pancada fenderia.

“His she-friend’s treason gars him wits to tyne; 5
And threaten un’iverse, earth and vagueing skies
Blaspheming; and resolve with rage indign
All who dare cross his valour to chastise:
Encount’ering Gaspar (who his Catherine
Loves as his life) the broadsword fast he plies,
Till air fire-smitten makes him fain believe
Such stroke of mighty blade a hill could cleave.

6

“Bem cuida de corta-lo em dous pedaços;
Porém Gaspar, vendo o montante erguido,
Cerra com elle, e leva-o nos braços:
Commettimento destro e atrevido.
Braceia o Castelhano, e de ameaços
Se serve ainda; e estando já vencido,
O Portuguez forçoso, em breve móra,
Lhe leva a arma das mãos, e salta fóra.

“Fondly he hopes the foe to hew in twain; 6
But Gaspar, sighting overhead the blade,
Runs in, and catcheth him with gripping strain:
’Twas a fair feat of skill and hardihead:
The Spaniard clippeth, yet doth not restrain
His boastful threat’ening, although conquerèd;
The forceful Portingall with short delay
Unarms his hands and leaps from out his way.

7

“E porque elle não lhe use a propria manha
Que este lhe usara já, de ponta o fere:
Nos peitos o montante, emfim, lhe banha,
Porque de outra vingança desespere.
Fugio-lhe a alma indigna, e na montanha
Tartárea inda blasphema; ali refere
De mais não açoutar a imiga ingrata.
Que os açoutes de Alecto o pena e mata.

“Then, lest his foeman use such crafty mode 7
Himself had used, he deals stoccado-thrust:
In fine the broadsword in his bosom-blood
He bathes that naught to vengeance mote he trust.
Flieth the furious ghost and in the wood
Tartarean still blasphemes; relates his lust
For vengeance, who no more can scourge his quean,
While him Alecto scourgeth long and keen.

8

“E do metal de espadas aos damnados
Diz males e blasphemias sem medida;
Que já por não lhe entrar perde os cruzados,
E agora por entrar-lhe perde a vida.
Por pena quer Plutão de seus peccados,
Que se lhe mostre a amiga já fugida,
Em brincos de outro, e beijos enlevada:
Remette elle pera elles, e acha nada.”

“The Spatha’s[131] metal to the damnèd host 8
Ill-names he calleth heaping curses dread;
Which, when it entered not, his ducats lost,
And lost his life when it had enterèd.
Pluto to gar him pay Sin’s scot and cost,
Shows him the trait’orous ladye-friend who fled
’Joyed by his rival raining greedy kisses:--
He starts to strike them but the Shades he misses.”

Canto IV.

“Oh pensamento vão do peito humano!
Agora neste cego error cahiste?
Agora este fermoso e ledo engano
Da sanguinosa e fera guerra viste?
Agora que com sangue, e proprio dano,
A dura experiencia acerba e triste,
T’o tem mostrado. E agora, que o provaste,
Os conselhos darás, que não tomaste.