Where El Cid Defends His Honor

The Poem of the Cid by Anonymous
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been wanting to read this for ever, and I'm glad I finally did. Not that hard; very readable; very instructive.

I'd like to be able to read it in Spanish, and that's kinda impossible, but I was surprised at how nearly readable it actually is. Printed with the original text on the left and the translation on the right, I found I understood more of the old Spanish than I expected. It is, after all, about 900 years old, and 900-year-old English is incomprehensible to most of us. But a lot of this is readable (with English help).

Example: "¡Ya, Campeador! En buen ora fuestes nacido..." translated is "Campeador, born in a fortunate [good] hour..." That's pretty close to modern Spanish, and many passages are similar.

Still, I read it in English, and the translators made it very readable, with a helpful introduction in the front and excellent notes in the back. Nicely done. It rhymes in Spanish, and I'm grateful that the translators didn't try to recreate that in English; that ruins translations, IMO. Instead, they wrote in simple prose, and it sounds great.

The story of the original poem is interesting all on its own, telling how El Cid left Castile in disgrace but fought his way through neighboring kingdoms, taking booty and collecting tribute, until his gifts to the king earned him into his good graces one more. The best part of the story (IMO) is the third part, which begins with his sons-in-law beating his daughters and leaving them for dead in the wilderness. (That's not the good part.) They recover and return to their father's home, and El Cid demands justice from the king. The king agrees. Cid defeats them in court and his champions defeat the cowards in combat. This section is more personal, more realistic, and gives a more concrete view of life in that time--the life of nobles, anyway--and I learned a lot.

Turns out, tugging on other people's beards was huge in those times; a man had to be vigilant to prevent someone doing it or he'd be shamed forever. Did not expect that. Good to know. :)

The English version in only about 100 pages long and is easily read in a short time. If you've thought about looking into it like I have, you oughta go ahead and read it. Recommended.



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