Luis de Gongora y Argote. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Onward, to España, where the Bullfights in Pretzels and Bullfights got its fame! This week, we’re examining a piece by one Luis de Góngora y Argote, a masterful lyric poet of the Spanish Baroque variety.
One of the most prominent Spanish poets of his time (late 1500s to early 1600s), Luis’s writings are characterized by what we now call today, Gongorism, in honor of the man. The style–also known as Culteranismo–is an ornamental one, utilizing vast vocabulary and a message often swimming in an ocean of metaphors and a complex syntactical order. It even had a counterpart, produced by one of Luis’s contemporaries–Francisco de Quevedo. Francisco’s style, Conceptismo, counteracted Culternaismo with a more witty style despite simple vocabulary, and attempted to put multiple meanings into as few words as possible.
Today’s piece, “Not All Sweet Nightingales,” offers a fine sampling of Luis’s style.
“NOT ALL SWEET NIGHTINGALES”
THEY are not all sweet nightingales
That fill with songs the flowery vales;
But they are little silver bells,
Touched by the winds in the smiling dells;
Magic bells of gold in the grove,
Forming a chorus for her I love.
Think not the voices in the air
Are from the wingéd Sirens fair,
Playing among the dewy trees
Chanting their morning mysteries;
Oh! if you listen, delighted there,
To their music scattered o’er the dales,
They are not all sweet nightingales
That fill with songs the flowery vales;
But they are little silver bells,
Touched by the winds in the smiling dells;
Magic bells of gold in the grove,
Forming a chorus for her I love.
Oh! ’twas a lovely song — of art
To charm — of nature to touch the heart;
Sure ’twas some shepherd’s pipe, which played
By passion fills the forest shade;
No! ’tis music’s diviner part
Which o’er the yielding spirit prevails.
They are not all sweet nightingales
That fill with songs the flowery vales;
But they are little silver bells,
Touched by the winds in the smiling dells;
Magic bells of gold in the grove,
Forming a chorus for her I love.
In the eye of love, which all things sees,
The fragrance-breathing jasmine trees–
And the golden flowers — and the sloping hill–
And the ever melancholy rill–
Are full of holiest sympathies,
And tell of love a thousand tales.
They are not all sweet nightingales,
That fill with songs the cheerful vales;
But they are little silver bells,
Touched by the wind in the smiling dells,
Bells of gold in the secret grove,
Making music for her I love.
Till I too shared thy heavenly rest.
- ~Written by Luis de Argote y Góngora,
Translated by John Bowring
dVerse 
nice..you take us around the world with your bookshelf poetry… i love how spanish poetry sounds..may try to find the original and let my daughters read it to me…smiles… gracias senor chris
This is really beautiful. I am always fascinated by tales of the nightingales.
I loved whisper-reading this in the night here at my computer. It is lilting and lovely. Mostly, however, I so enjoyed learning about Gongorism/Culteranismo — descriptions new to me. An absolutely fascinating post. Thank you.
def loving the lyrical flow to this chris…thank you for continuing to expand my poetic horizons…
This is my favorite part of the poem:
“The fragrance-breathing jasmine trees–
And the golden flowers — and the sloping hill–
And the ever melancholy rill–
Are full of holiest sympathies,
And tell of love a thousand tales.”
I think I’d be more interested in Quevedo’s work. Off to check him out. Thanks for introducing me to something new, Chris. Excellent post.
Here is a link to a Quevedo bio, along with 5 loosely “translated” versions of his poems. I think you’ll find it interesting as well.
http://calquezine.blogspot.com/2007/08/francisco-de-quevedo-five-poems.html
Hi Chris, so interesting. What’s amazing to me (from modern perspective) is I thought he would say–they are not all sweet nightingales, there are also some raucous crows–but he went the silver bell route! Very interesting! K.
This is very sweet…sing song like.
Wind and movement and color.
Thanks for sharing this poem…I read it aloud and enjoyed the way it sounded. Thanks also for your other posts as I am learning something new each time.