And were there some light pretext to keep
him at her side,
In chains of love she’d bind him
there, whate’er the land betide.
Or, if ’twere fair that dames should
dare the terrors of the fight,
She’d mount her jennet in his train
and follow with delight.
For soon as o’er the mountain ridge
his bright plume disappears,
She feels that in her heart the jealous
smart that fills her eyes with
tears.
Yet when he stands beside her and smiles
beneath her gaze,
Her cheek is pale with passion pure, though
few the words she says.
Her thoughts are ever with him, and they
fly the mountain o’er
When in the shaggy forest he hunts the
bristly boar.
In vain she seeks the festal scene ’mid
dance and merry song,
Her heart for Abenamar has left that giddy
throng.
For jealous passion after all is no ignoble
fire,
It is the child of glowing love, the shadow
of desire.
Ah! he who loves with ardent breast and
constant spirit must
Feel in his inmost bosom lodged the arrows
of distrust.
And as the faithful lover by his loved
one’s empty seat
Knows that the wind of love may change
e’er once again they meet,
So to this sad foreboding do fancied griefs
appear
As he who has most cause to love has too
most cause for fear.
And once, when placid evening was mellowing
into night,
The lovely Adelifa sat with her darling
knight;
And then the pent-up feeling from out
her spirit’s deeps
Rose with a storm of heavy sighs and trembled
on her lips:
“My valiant knight, who art, indeed,
the whole wide world to me,
Clear mirror of victorious arms and rose
of chivalry,
Thou terror of thy valorous foe, to whom
all champions yield,
The rampart and the castle of fair Granada’s
field,
In thee the armies of the land their bright
example see,
And all their hopes of victory are founded
upon thee;
And I, poor loving woman, have hope in
thee no less,
For thou to me art life itself, a life
of happiness.
Yet, in this anxious trembling heart strange
pangs of fear arise,
Ah, wonder not if oft you see from out
these faithful eyes
The tears in torrents o’er my cheek,
e’en in thy presence flow.
Half prompted by my love for thee and
half by fears of woe,
These eyes are like alembics, and when
with tears they fill
It is the flame of passion that does that
dew distil.
And what the source from which they flow,
but the sorrow and the care
That gather in my heart like mist, and
forever linger there.
And when the flame is fiercest and love
is at its height,
The waters rise to these fond eyes, and
rob me of my sight,
For love is but a lasting pain and ever
goes with grief,
And only at the spring of tears the heart
can drink relief.
Thus fire and love and fear combined bring
to my heart distress,
With jealous rage and dark distrust alarm