Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.

Spain: Alhama

Romance

By From the Spanish

Guerras de Granada

Translated by John Bowring

“MOORISH warden, Moorish warden,

Grisly-bearded captain; thou,—

The king has ordered thee to prison,

Thou hast lost Alhama now.”

“If thou hast the kingly order,

Unresisting will I go,—

’T was not I who lost Alhama,

’T was not I who lost it,—no!

“I was far away, in Ronda,

At my cousin’s wedding feast,

And I left it safely guarded,

Guarded by the noblest, best.

If the king have lost the city,

I have lost far more, far more,—

I have lost my wife and children,

All I loved,—and now deplore.”