V.
JUAN BAUTISTA DE ARRIAZA.[1]
In the history of the literature of every country, it is interesting to observe with what noiseless steps true genius generally proceeds to win popular favour, compared with the means to which mediocrity resorts for whatever share of notice it can attain. There are some writers who, with great talent, have some counterbalancing deficiency, respecting whose merits more discussion will be consequently excited, than respecting the superior qualities of others, not liable to the same observations. To obtain that kind of notoriety, it is often requisite to belong to some school or party, whose praise will give a temporary importance to works written, according to their taste or system, while those out of their pale will be passed over with at best only cold commendations. In Spain, as elsewhere, poetry has had its classical and romantic schools, and the merits of all writers, belonging to one or the other of them, were fully set forth by their respective partisans; while, if there happened to be one who could not be claimed by either, like Arriaza, he was allowed to pass comparatively unnoticed by the critics of the day.
Of this very pleasing author no detailed biography has
- ↑ This poet's name is pronounced Arriatha; the two poems selected for translation are taken, the first from p. 60 of Book III. of his works, edition of 1829. 'The Parting, or the Young Sailor's Farewell,' from ibid., Book I. p. 77.
The eighth stanza, beginning in the translation, 'With venal aid of hate assists,' is in the original—
Which stanza is thus translated by Maury:—
Qué de ministros vendes a su encono,
Anglia infecunda! de las nieblas trono,
Campos que el sol no mira,
Que en sonrisa falsa, Flora reviste
De estéril verde, en que la flor es triste,
Y Amor sin gloria espira.Combien te sied le mal, Angleterre infèconde,
Amante de vapeurs, jetèe oú l'œil du monde
Te regarde si peu!
Champs où la brume arrose une oiseuse verdure,
Où Flore est sans gaieté, l'automne sans parure,
L' Amour sans traits de feu!Of thirty-three stanzas in the original, Maury has only taken fifteen for his translation, and of 'The Parting' he has only taken eighteen out of twenty-five. The four concluding stanzas are in the original—
Crisol de adversidad claro y seguro
Vuestro valor probò sublime y puro,
O Marinos Hispanos!
Broquel fue de la patria vuestra vida
Que al fin vengada y siempre defendida
Serà per vuestras manos.
Rinda al Leon y al Aguila Neptuno
El brazo tutelar, con que importuno
Y esclavo al Anglia cierra:
Y ella os verà desde las altas popas
Lanzar torrentes de invencibles tropas
Sobre su infausta tierra.
Bàsteos, en tanto, el lùgubre tributo
De su muerte Adalid doblando el luto
Del Tàmesis umbrio,
Que, si, llenos de honrosas cicatrices
Se os ve, para ocasiones mas felices
Reservar vuestro brio.
Sois cual leon, que en Libico desierto
Con garra atroz, del cazador experto
Rompiò asechanza astuta;
Que no inglorioso, aunque sangriento y laso
Temido si, se vuelve paso à paso
A su arenosa gruta.
