Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.
Praise of Cordova
By Luis de Góngora (1561–1627)Translated by Edward Churton
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Of honor, princely state, and knightly worth,
Where Guadalquivir, like a king, goes forth,
Of nobler name than streams with sands of gold;
And thou, fair plain, and stately mountains old,
Which heaven indulgent hangs with wreaths of light;
My land forever loved, in glory bright,
The Muses’ bower, and nurse of warriors bold:
If e’er amidst these wrecks and spoils of Time,
Where Genil’s arrowy waves and Darro roar,
Thy memory fill not still my mind’s glad eye,
Banish me, Fate, for such forgetful crime
From thy fair towers and river rolling by,
Thy palmy plain, thy glens and mountains hoar.