* Saint John's Day is on the 24th of June
ROMANCE DEL CONDE OLINOS (Spanish)
(Anonymous – supposed to be from the 15th century)
Madrugaba el Conde Olinos mañanita de San Juan
a dar agua a su caballo, a las orillas del mar.
Mientras el caballo bebe, canta un hermoso cantar,
las aves que iban volando, se paraban a escuchar.
- Bebe, mi caballo, bebe. Dios te me libre de mal,
de los vientos de la tierra y de las furias del mar.
La reina lo estaba oyendo desde su palacio real.
- Mira, hija, como canta la sirena de la mar.
- No es la sirenita, madre, que esa tiene otro cantar,
es la voz del Conde Olinos, que me canta a mí un cantar.
- Si es la voz del Conde Olinos, yo lo mandaré matar,
que para casar contigo, le falta la sangre real.
- No le mande matar, madre, no le mande usted matar,
que si mata al Conde Olinos, a mí la muerte me da.
Guardias mandaba la reina al Conde Olinos buscar,
que le maten a lanzadas y echen su cuerpo a la mar.
La infantina con gran pena, no dejaba de llorar;
él murió a la medianoche, y ella a los gallos cantar.
A ella como hija de reyes la entierran en el altar,
y a él como hijo de condes cuatro pasos más atrás.
De ella nació un rosal blanco, de él nació un espino albar;
crece el uno, crece el otro, los dos se van a juntar.
La reina llena de envidia, ambos los mandó cortar,
el galán que los cortaba, no dejaba de llorar.
De ella naciera una garza, de él un fuerte gavilán,
juntos vuelan por el cielo, juntos se van a posar*.
* Or "juntos vuelan par a par" (together they fly)BALLAD OF COUNT OLINOS
Count Olinos rose early on Saint John's Day* morning
To water his horse by the sea side.
While the horse drank, he sang a beautiful song,
The birds that were flying by, stopped to listen.
"Drink, my horse, drink, may God spare you from evil,
From the winds of the earth and the furies of the sea".
The queen was listening [to it] from her royal palace,
"Look, daughter, how the mermaid of the sea sings".
"It's not the little mermaid, mother, for she sings a different song,
It's the voice of Count Olinos, who sings a song for me."
"If it's the voice of Count Olinos, I'll have him killed,
Because to marry thee, he lacks royal blood".
"Don't have him killed, mother; don't have him killed,
For if you kill Count Olinos, you assassinate me."
The queen sent guards to fetch/bring Count Olinos,
To spear him dead and toss his body into the sea.
The princess, with great sorrow, could not stop crying,
He died at midnight, and she [did] at cockcraw.
She, as the daughter of kings, was buried in the altar,
And he, as the son of counts, four steps behind.
From her was born a white rose bush, from him a white hawthorn,
One grows, and so does the other, they're going to intertwin/get together.
The queen, full of envy, ordered to cut them down,
The courtier who cut them could not stop crying,
From her was born a heron, from him a strong hawk,
Together they fly through the sky, they sit together.
The count in this ballad can be "El conde Olinos" or "El conde Niño" among some others.
Live rendition by a much younger Joaquín Díaz (now 75) for a Japanese TV channel. Here is what he tells before singing…
"El Romance del Conde Olinos es uno de los más populares entre los romances castellanos. Su primera versión escrita está en el cancionero manuscrito de Londres, y posteriormente existen muchas versiones escritas, por supuesto muchas versiones tradicionales cantadas y trasmitidas oralmente de padres a hijos. La versión que voy a cantar ahora está recogida en Mojados, y como casi todas las versiones, cuenta la historia de dos amantes, un conde y una princesa, a los que la madre de ella, la reina, persigue y no deja que se casen. Ordena matar al conde y la princesa muere de amor al día siguiente. Ellos cambian, digamos, sus estratos vitales, varían de seres humanos a ser animales primero, después vegetales y, después, finalmente, minerales. Y este paso de sus almas por diferentes estadios culmina con la venganza que toman de la reina que se va a curar a la ermita, a la fuente en que se han convertido ellos. Y ellos no quieren curar a la reina porque les trató mal durante su vida."
"The Romance of Count Olinos is one of the most popular among Castilian romances. Its first written version is in the London manuscript songbook [Add MS 29987 – British Library], and later there were many written versions, of course many traditional versions sung and transmitted orally from parents to children. The version that I am going to sing now was collected in Mojados, and like almost all the versions, it tells the story of two lovers, an earl and a princess, who are persecuted by her mother, the queen, who does not let them get married. She orders the count to be killed and the princess dies of love the next day. They change, let's say, their vital strata, they vary from human beings to being animals first, then vegetables, and then, finally, minerals. And this passage of their souls through different stages culminates in the revenge they take on the queen who goes to the hermitage to be cured, to the fountain they have become. And they don't want to cure the queen because she treated them badly during her lifetime."
The last part refers to several versions in which the two lovers become two bushes (as in Barbara Allen) but the queen have them cut or unrooted, so they become birds but the queen have them shot, then they become a fountain and a spring that cure many illnesses. The queen is losing sight in one eye and she goes to the fountain to be cured. She's denied to be cured or she's told her eye will be cured but she'll lose sight in the other, or she's told she'll lose sight in both eyes instead of one.
Let's note also that sometimes the evil parent is not the queen but the king. In some versions the queen is Moorish and the count is Christian but in some versions it's the other way round, their difference in religion being the reason why their love is denied.
A shorter version to a different tune from Joaquín Díaz website -a website that I'll always highly recommend!
A live recording by José Negrete
Live rendition by the "Flamenco medievalista" band Zalema (their FaceBook page -"Zalema" is "Peace" in Mozarabic language Cf. Hebrew Shalom and Arabic Salam)
Live rendition by the folk band Alalumbre
Live rendition of a slightly different version by Paco Ibáñez
You'll find 432 versions of this song in Hispanic and Portuguese languages on this University of Washington Pan-Hispanic Ballad Project page.
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