Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.
The Monte Santo at Granada
By Luis de Góngora (1561–1627)Translated by Edward Churton
B
Like Mongibel or Etna through the night
It burns, but with a holier, softer light,
A light to comfort, not a fire to wound;
Faith rears her trophies here on sacred ground,
Not like those piles upheaved in heaven’s despite,
Beneath whose wrecks, as fabling poets write,
Groaning and crushed the giant brood lies bound.
Yet giants here too rest; these caverns rude
Confine their forms; whose holy force made head
Against high heaven, and heaven at will subdued;
Here o’er their hallowed bones meek pilgrims tread;
If tears be thine, check not the gracious mood,
And with soft steps revere the mighty dead.