The Last of the Abencerrajes

Aben-Hamet, the last of the Abencerages. Transl by François-René de Chateaubriand

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read A. S. Kline's 2011 translation, found at: http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PI....

This story of chivalry from the time shortly after the Spanish Christian reconquest of Granada and the Alhambra presents all the chivalry and love that is at the heart of Cervantes' Don Quixote.

The story can be read just as easily changing the Christian and Muslim characters around.

The theme of love and restraint has the Andalusian strength described by Lorca as innate in the Southern Spanish human character and as transmitted in the music originally brought with the Arabs from Damascus and their entourage from Persia and the Indian sub-continent.

I am left with historical and cultural questions. So who are the Spanish? Who were the Spanish before Tarek invaded in the eight century? And how African are the Moors? And how Moorish are the Spanish Christians today?





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