1.
A cry is heard
From the Basque mountain's midst.
Etcheco Jauna, [196] at his door erect,
Listens, and cries, "What want they? Who goes there?"
At his lord's feet the dog that sleeping lay
Starts up, his bark fills Altabiscar [197] round.
2.
Through Ibañeta's* pass the noise resounds,
Striking the rocks on right and left it comes;
'Tis the dull murmur of a host from far,
From off the mountain heights our men reply,
Sounding aloud the signal of their horns;
Etcheco Jauna whets his arrows then.
3.
They come! They come! See, what a wood of spears
What flags of myriad tints float in the midst!
What lightning-flashes glance from off their arms!
How many be they? Count them well, my child.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
4.
Twenty, and thousands more!
'Twere but lost time to count.
Our sinewy arms unite, tear up the rocks,
Swift from the mountain tops we hurl them down
Right on their heads,
And crush, and slay them all.
5.
What would they in our hills, these Northern men?
Why come they here our quiet to disturb?
God made the hills intending none should pass.
Down fall the rolling rocks, the troops they crush!
Streams the red blood! Quivers the mangled flesh!
Oh! what a sea of blood! What shattered bones!
6.
Fly, to whom strength remaineth and a horse!
Fly, Carloman, red cloak and raven plumes!
Lies thy stout nephew, Roland, stark in death;
For him his brilliant courage naught avails.
And, now, ye Basques, leaving awhile these rocks,
Down on the flying foe your arrows shower!
7.
They run! They run! Where now that wood of spears?
Where the gay flags that flaunted in their midst?
Rays from their bloodstained arms no longer flash!
How many are they? Count them well, my child.
20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13,
12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
8.
One! There is left not one. 'Tis o'er!
Etcheco Jauna home with thy dog retire.
Embrace thy wife and child,
Thine arrows clean, and stow them with thine horn;
And then, lie down and sleep thereon.
At night yon mangled flesh shall eagles [198] eat,
And to eternity those bones shall bleach.
(This translation is due to the kindness of a friend.)
The history of this song is very curious, and shows the little value of
subjective criticism in any but the most competent hands. The MS. of
it is alleged to have been found on the 5th of August, 1794, in a
convent at Fuenterrabia, by La Tour d'Auvergne, the celebrated "premier
grenadier" of the French Army. It was printed about the year 1835, by
Monglave, and accepted as a genuine contemporary document by Fauriel,
Chaho, Cenac-Moncaut, and many other French writers; by Lafuente,
Amador de los Rios, and other Spanish authors; by Araquistain,
and by the Editors of the "Revista Euskara" and of the "Cancionero
Vasco" among the Basques. It is needless to say that all guide-books,
tourist sketches, et hoc genus omne, have adopted it. It was inserted
as genuine by Fr. Michel, in the Gentleman's Magazine, in 1858, and in
more recent years a translation appeared in another London magazine. In
the "Basques et Navarrais" of M. Louis Lande, lately published, it is
alluded to as genuine; and the Saturday Review of the 17th of August,
1878, quotes it as a corroboration of the "Chanson de Roland." [199]
There have been some, however, who have stoutly opposed these claims;
among them M. Barry, of Toulouse, M. Gaston Paris, and M. J. F. Blade,
which last writer, both in a separate pamphlet and in his "Études
sur l'Origine des Basques" (Paris, 1859), has shown from internal
grounds its want of authenticity. M. Alexandre Dihinx, a Basque, in
a series of articles in the Impartial, of Bayonne, for 1873, which
have since been reprinted by M. J. Vinson, in L'Avenir, of Bayonne,
May of the present year, conclusively proved both the incorrectness
and the modern character of its Basque. But all these authors seem
either to have been unaware of, or to have unaccountably overlooked,
the true history of the piece. When M. Fr. Michel published this,
and another song called "Abarcaren Cantua," in the Gentleman's
Magazine, in 1858, as specimens of ancient Basque poetry, a letter
from M. Antoine d'Abbadie, Membre de l'Institut, appeared forthwith in
the number for March, 1859, stating that the Abarca song had actually
been among the unsuccessful pieces submitted for the prize in the
poetical competition at Urrugne, of the previous August; and he adds:--
"I am sorry that the Altabiscarraco cantua, mentioned in your
same number, is acknowledged as a gem of ancient popular poetry.
Truth compels me to deny that it is universally admitted as such,
for one of my Basque neighbours has often named the person who,
about twenty four years ago, composed it in French, and the other
person, who translated it into modern but indifferent Basque. [200]
The latter idiom, on purely philological ground, stands peerless
among the most ancient languages in Europe, and I have felt it my
duty to disclaim unfounded pretensions of which it has no
need.--I am, etc.,
"Antoine d'Abbadie,
"London, Jan. 31, 1859."
Correspond. de l'Institut de France.
In the next number M. Fr. Michel writes, "henceforth I will believe
that the songs called Abarcaren Cantua and Altabiscarraco Cantua are
forgeries"; this testimony is decisive. It has often been repeated by
M. d'Abbadie, with the additional assurance that he knows not only the
house, but the very room in which the song was first composed. That
the language is modern and indifferent Basque is very evident in the
text given by M. Fr. Michel in "Le Pays Basque, Paris, 1857." That
above, taken from the "Cancionero Vasco" of the present year, is
considerably corrected and improved. All attempts, and many efforts
have been made, to force these irregular lines into any known form
of Basque rhythm have hitherto signally failed. For the amusement of
some of our readers we give below a list of the more evident foreign
words in this and in the "Leloaren Cantua." The relative antiquity
will thus be seen at a glance:--
L, Latin; S, Spanish; F, French; G, German words.