1. 1.
lelo. yl lelo; Lelo, dead (is) Lelo;
lelo. yl lelo; Lelo, dead (is) Lelo;
leloa çarat [193] Lelo, Zara (?) [193]
il leloa. Killed Lelo.
2. 2.
Romaco armac The arms of Rome
aleguin eta do all they can, and
Vizcayac daroa Biscay raises
Zanzoa. The song of war.
3. 3.
Octabiano Octavianus,
munduco jauna Of the world lord,
le coby di [193] Lecobidi (?) [193]
Vizcayocoa. of Biscay.
4. 4.
Ichasotati By sea
eta leorres and by land
y mini deusco he has placed us
molsoa. the siege.
5. 5.
leor celayac The dry plains
bereac dira are theirs;
menditan tayac the high mountains,
leusoac. the caverns (are ours).
6. 6.
lecu yronyan In favourable ground
gagozanyan when we are,
nocbera sendo each one firm
daugogoa. has heart (?)
7. 7.
bildurric guichi Little fear
armabardinas (with) equal arms,
oramayasu (but) our kneading-trough
guexoa. (goes) ill.
8. 8.
Soyacgogorrac Hard corselets
badyri tuys wear they;
narrubiloxa Bare body;
surboa. (more) agility (?)
9. 9.
bost urteco For five years,
egun gabean by day, by night,
gueldi bagaric without ceasing,
pochoa. (lasts) the siege (?)
10. 10.
gurecobata One of ours
ylbadaguyan when he is dead,
bost amarren five tens
galdoa. they lose (?)
11. 11.
aecanista They many and
gue guichitaya we few (?)
asqugudugu at last we have made
lalboa. the peace.
12. 12.
gueurelurrean In our land
ta aen errian and in his village
biroch ainbaten are tied in the same way
zamoa. the loads (of wood).
13. 13.
Ecin gueyago (It is) impossible more.
(The rest of this
verse is lost through
a rent in the paper.)
14. 14.
tiber lecua Tiber the place
gueldico zabal remains broad (?)
Uchin tamayo Uchin Tamayo (?)
grandoya. very large.
15.
(Torn.)
16. 16.
andiaristac The great oaks
gueisto syndoas yield
beticonayas to the constant strokes
narraca. (of) the woodpecker.
The history of the above song is as follows: At the close of the
sixteenth century a notary of Zornoza, J. Iñiguez de Ibargüen, was
commissioned by the Junta of Biscay to search the principal libraries
of Spain for documents relating to the Basques. In the archives of
Simancas he discovered an ancient MS. on parchment, containing verses
in Basque, some almost, others wholly obliterated. Of these he copied
what he could, and inserted them in p. 71 of his "Cronica general de
España y sumaria de Vizcaya," a work which still exists in manuscript
in the town of Marquina. From this history of Ibargüen the song was
first reproduced by the celebrated Wilhelm von Humboldt, and published
by him in 1817 in a supplement to Vater's "Mithridates." The text
above given is taken from that of the "Cancionero Vasco," Series
2, iii., pp. 18, 20, and claims to be a new and literal copy from
the MS. "Cronica" of Ibargüen. From the date of its publication by
Humboldt, this piece has been the subject of much discussion. That
it is one of the oldest fragments of Basque poetry hardly admits
of doubt. But, when asked to believe that it is contemporary with
Augustus, we must hesitate. The question arises: Did Ibargüen copy
the almost defaced original exactly as it was, or did he suffer
his declared predilections unconsciously to influence his reading
of it? [194] Many of the words are still very obscure, and the
translation of them is almost guess work. The first verse has little
or no apparent connection with the rest of the poem, and has given
rise to the most fanciful interpretations. Lelo has been imagined by
some to be the name of a Basque hero; Zara, or Zarat, who kills him,
the name of another; and the two reproduce the story of Agamemnon and
Ægisthus. Others, with more probability, take Lelo, as is certainly
the case in other poems, for a mere refrain (the everlasting Lelo,
as a Basque proverb has it) used by the singer merely to give the
key to the tune or rhythm to which he modulates the rest. Chaho, with
his usual audacity, would translate it "glory," and render it thus:--
Finished is the glory! dead is the glory,
Our glory!
Old age has killed the glory,
Our glory!
But it has been very plausibly suggested [195] that the verse bears a
suspicious likeness to a vague reminiscence of the Moslem cry "Lâ Êlah
Ulâ Allah!" &c.; and if so, this, in the north of Spain, would at one
bound place the poem some eight centuries at least after the time of
Augustus. The proper names have a too correct look. Octabiano, Roma,
and Tiber are far too much like the Latin; for if Greeks and Romans
complained, as do Strabo and Mela, of the difficulty of transcribing
Basque or Iberian names into their own language, the Basques might
possibly find a somewhat corresponding difficulty in transcribing
Greek and Latin names into Basque. Moreover, in a later verse appears
"Uchin," a sobriquet for "Augustino," as a baptismal name in use among
the Spanish Basques to this day. What the poem really refers to we
dare not assert. We present the "Leloaren Cantua" to our readers
simply as one of the oldest curiosities of Basque verse, without
pledging ourselves to any particular date or interpretation thereof.
Fortunately, we shall be able to speak with much more decision of the
"Altabiskarco Cantua," of which the following is the latest text:--