Popular “Cantigas.”
Of the fascinating popular quatrains (quadras) an immense collection might be formed, indeed some of those already in existence are not trifling, as, for instance, the 10,000 Cantos populares portuguezes, collected in four volumes by A. Thomaz Pires (Elvas, 1902-10). Those who are alarmed by so great a number may read the Cancioneiro popular (Porto, 1914), selected by Snr. Jaime Cortesão, which contains 563. Or, still better, make a selection of their own, writing them down at the dictation of many a peasant who can himself neither write nor read. These cantigas or quadras spring up continually like mushrooms, and perish unrecorded, or go from mouth to mouth of the illiterate in endless variation. They are delightful examples of unpremeditated art, many of them showing real delicacy and poetical imagination, more so than the melancholy fado or ballad of fate of the professional fadistas. A vague melancholy underlies most of these cantigas. Sadly in the soft summer evenings many a canção perdida is sung to the slow and plaintive accompaniment of the guitar—
Triste canta uma voz na syncope do dia.
(Guerra Junqueiro, Os Simples, 1892):
Com os passaros do campo
Eu me quero comparar:
Andam vestidos de pennas,
O seu allivio é cantar.
(With the birds of the air
I compare