From the Letrillas

Of  Luis de Góngora, freely adpated by PC

 

Ande yo caliente

Y Ríase la gente

 

Your Prince eats off golden vessels

Bolting food with his thousand worries

Me, I eat without fear or hurry

Off a kitchen table stood on Tressles

With half-inched wine,

I warmly dine

And  a pantry maid, a bit of a looker

Slips  bits of meat, and cakes so sweet

That happen to’ve fallen, off the cooker.

And the people, they look at me and sneer

At the figure I make so quaint and queer  …

 

Other men in silks may govern

The world with its seething kings and kingdoms

My clothes, and days, are slack and sloven

Ruled by sugar-bread filched from the oven

By Ladies fair and frilled and fancy.

And on winter morns, when the weather’s chancy

Whisky and oranges they, kind, bring down

Meanwhile the  children,run  grimacing  after

Rattling the streets with raucous laughter.

 

Acorns and chestnuts, those winter finds

Fill my sizzling winter brazier

Warmed by tales of crazy kings

From storytellers even crazier

Those freezing winds of January

Tear at my topcoat’s slack-slopped buckles

And the people, yes, they look at me

A tap their heads with knowing  chuckles

 

In  good hour, the merchant
Seeks out markets very urgent
Me, I trade in worn out sea shells
That on the sand from the tide emergent
Or profit from nightbirds, gently singing
Like the fountain’s song, but softer
And the people, yes, they see me,
And turn away* with mocking Laughter 

Aye, piss themselves with mocking laughter).

Pc from Luis de Góngora