ERES ALTA Y DELGADA (Montana region)
(literal translation)

You are tall and slim like your mother
A brunette and as graceful as your mother

You are like the rose of Alejandria
Red at night and white in the daytime

I think of you all the night through, my child
I am dying of love since I have seen you.

Cynthia Gooding sang the Spanish songs well, using common texts and not inventing new lyrics. Like all folk songs, there are variants; Gooding is not necessarily 'wrong.'

I have recently obtained a copy of "Cantos Populares Españoles," Francisco Rodriquez Marin, 1882, which runs to 900 pp. of fine print, and contains many variants.
The pages are mostly uncut and the verses are given without title or index, so it will be some time before I can search out particular songs (lyrics only).

My favorite renditions of these old Spanish songs, however, are on two albums by Germaine Montero, made in the 1950's; The first contains "Eres Alta y Delgada, and won the Grand Prix du Disque, and was for a long time in the Vanguard catalogue.

LA MOLINERA (The Miller's Wife)

There are many, many verses about the miller's wife; a comic song open to invention. This note in a children's book-
"Sometimes she is sad, sometimes gay, and often plays tricks on other people. No matter how mischievous she is, the Spaniards love, her, for she is such fun. The miller's wife cheats her clients so she can buy pretty jewels. The poor miller, however, doesn't even own a pair of shoes! While the wind blows, inside the windmill the big round millstone turns, grinding grain into flour. The chorus tells that the miller's wife urges the stone to spin faster and faster."

Gasta la molinera ricos collares (2x)
(Wears the miller's wife rich necklaces)

de la harina que toma de los costales (2x)
(from the flour that she takes from the sacks)

Chorus:
La molinera pica la piedra con aire que vuela
(The miller's wife spurs on the millstone which spins with wind)

Gasta la molinera ricos pendientes (2x)
(The miller's wife wears rich earrings)

de la harina que toma de los clientes (2x)
(from the flour that she takes from the customers)

Gasta la molinera ricos zapatos (2x)
The miller's wife wears expensive shoes)

y el pobre molinero anda descalzo (2x)
(and the poor miller goes barefoot)

pp. 59-60, Henrietta Yurchenco, 1967, "A Fiesta of Folk Songs from Spain and Latin America," G. P. Putnam's Sons, NY.