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He called together all his horsemen:
"Hear me, my knights, let no heart be heavy.
I own little; I would give you your portion.
Listen and learn what must be done:
In the morning when the cocks sing,
have the horses saddled without delay;
in San Pedro the good abbot will ring matins
and sing us the Mass of the Holy Trinity.
We shall set out when Mass has been sung,
for time runs out and we have far to go."
All will do as the Cid has commanded.
The night passes and morning comes;
at the second cock they saddle their horses.
With all dispatch the matins are rung;
My Cid and his wife into the church have gone.
Poem of the Cid, Texto Espanol de R.M. Pidal, transl. by W.S.Merwin, A Mentor Classic, The New American Library, New York, 1962, p. 61.
PLACE: Spain
TIME: Eleventh century
CIRCUMSTANCE: The cock and the bells are time indicators, which everybody understands.
The tents are pitched and the dawn comes;
with a quickening stroke the Moors beat on the drums.
My Cid rejoiced and said, "A day of delight is this."
His wife is frightened, thinks her heart must shatter;
the ladies are frightened also and both the daughters;
they had not known such terror since the day they were born.
He stroked his beard, the good Cid Campeador.
"Have no fear! for all this is to your favor;
before these two weeks have gone, if it please the Creator,
we will have wrenched from them those same drums;
they shall be fetched before you and you shall see what they are,
then they shall be given to the Bishop Don Jerome
and hung in the Church of Santa Maria, mother of God."
This is the vow the Cid Campeador made.
The ladies are reassured and their fear goes from them.
Poem of the Cid., Texto Espanol de R.M. Pidal, transl. by W.S. Merwin, A Mentor Classic, The New American Library, New York, 1962, p. 159.
PLACE: Spain
TIME: Eleventh century
CIRCUMSTANCE: The sound of the Moors' drums and their effect on various people.
As they speak thus, the armies draw together.
The drums are sounding through the ranks of the Moors,
and many of these Christians marveled much at the sound,
for they had come lately to the war and never heard drums.
Don Diego and Don Fernando marveled more than any;
they would not have been there if the choice had been theirs.
Hear what he said, he who was born in good hour:
"Ho, Pedro Berm-ridez, my dear nephew,
watch over Don Diego and watch over Don Fernando,
my sons-in-law, for whom I have much love,
and with God's help the Moors will not keep the field."
Poem of the Cid, Texto Espanol de R.M. Pidal, transl. by W.S. Merwin, A Mentor Classic, The New American Library, New York, 1962, p.209.
PLACE: Spain
TIME: Eleventh century
CIRCUMSTANCE: The sound of the drums had never been heard before in the armies of Europe.
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