Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.
Valladolid
By Luis de Góngora (1561–1627)Translated by Edward Churton
V
Whose are the eyes that weep, I need not say;
The Vale of Josaphat for gloom all day,
A gloom which light of judgment never clears:
A sham each hearer deems it, when he hears
That thou dost hold Spain’s Court; he wonders how
Thy burly form should play the courtier now,
Who wast so fine a clown in other years.
Thy titled Counts we know them to our cost,
Well may the Andalusian say, who rests
In lodging dark as purgatory-shade;
While no good Earl of Fairlight plays the host,
But evermore Lord Knox, and, winter guests,
Count Rainham, Snowdown, and Lord Slough and Slade.