Van tomar consolacion,
Sino es la tortolica
Que esta viuda y con dolor,
Por ay fue a passar
El traydor del ruyseñor
Las palabras que el dezia
Llenas son de traicion:
“Si tu quisiesses, Señora,
Yo seria tu servidor.”
Ticknor speaks truly when he says of the Spanish ballads: “To feel their true value and power we must read large numbers of them, and read them, too, in their native language; for there is a winning freshness in the originals, as they lie embedded in the old romanceros, that escapes in translations, however free, or however strict.”