I, The Dark Woman is a modern English translation of Yo me soy la morenica, a villancio de navidad (Christmas carol) found in the Cancionero de Upsala (1556). Please see my Original Work page for more translations of medieval and Renaissance works.
Resources
Sheet music and lyrics (PDF)
Sheet music and lyrics for original words (PDF)
YouTube video of a performance of original (I sing it a touch more slowly and without the spoken word interlude)
Documentation for my historically informed performance of the original (PDF)
Notes
Background
The song comes from the Cancionero de Upsala [sic], a
songbook whose actual title runs “Villancicos by various composers, in two,
three, four and five parts, now newly corrected. There are also eight tonos in
plainchant and eight tonos in polyphony, which may be used by those learning to
sing.” It was printed in Venice in 1556
by Jeronimo Scotto, a music printer. It
somehow reached the Uppsala University Library in Sweden, where it lay
unnoticed until a diplomat and musicologist named Rafael Mitjana discovered it
there in the early 20th century.
It contains 55 villiancicos of various types, mostly anonymous, and the 16 tonos mentioned in its title. The songs are arranged by type and by number
of parts; Yo me soy la morenica is
found in the section for villancicos de navidad (Christmas carols) for four
voices.
At first glance, there is nothing especially Christmas about the song’s lyrics, which run:
Refrain:
| Yo me soy la morenica | I am the dark girl |
| Yo me soy la morena | I am the dark one |
Verses:
| Lo moreno bien mirado | The dark handsome man |
| Fue la culpa del pecado | Was guilty of that sin |
| Que en me nunca fue hallado | Which I never was |
| Ni jamas se hallara | Nor ever will be |
| Soy la sin espina rosa | I am the rose without thorns |
| Que Salomon canta y glosa | Of which Solomon writes and sings |
| Nigra sum, sed formosa | Black I am, but beautiful |
| Y por mi se cantara | For me they will sing |
| Soy la mata inflamada | I am the flaming bush |
| Ardiendo sin ser quemada | Burning without being consumed |
| Ni de aquel fuego tocada | The fire will not touch me |
| Que a los otros tocara | That will touch all of the others |
The imagery seems to drawn more on the Song of Solomon and the Old Testament than the New. The morenica of the refrain sounds like the lover of the Song of Solomon, and the second verse also seems to recall that poem. Indeed, “nigra sum sed formosa” is the Latin translation of the Song of Songs 1:4 (Vulgate). The first verse recalls the story of Susannah (although the judges in that story were hardly “bien mirado”). The burning bush, of course, is in Exodus.
It seems likely that this song was either associated with Christmas although not about it (much like Good King Wenceslas is for us today), or else the morenica is meant to be the Virgin Mary – certain guilty of no sins, and often associated with roses (along with lilies). That she is dark seems exceptional, and one wonders if there is any connection to the Black Maddonas found in some places in Europe, including Montserrat in Spain, from which that earlier Spanish songbook, the Llibre Vermell, comes.
Rhyme scheme
The original has a refrain that is only very loosely rhymed or
unrhymed ("morenica" with "morena;" they both end in "-a" but that's
it). The verses go aaaB, where the a's can vary between verses but the
B's are all the same. I decided to forgo any rhyme in the refrain, and the verses are aaab. The a's change between verses, but the same b is used throughout.
Meter
There are some rough patches in the
original, too; I'm fairly sure the first verse tries to stuff two
syllables of "Que en" into a single, slurred "que-en." (At least,
that's how I sing it.) "Ni de aquel" in the third verse is also three
syllables in the melodic space of two. So if I needed to subdivide a
note here or there to make things fit, I didn't worry too much about it.
Final Translation
I, the lovely darksome woman
I, the beauty who is dark
Handsome man, tall, dark, good-looking
He was guilty of that same sin
That in me, no never has been
And not ever shall it be.
I, the rose that is not thorny
Solomon sang of my glory
Black I am, but still I'm lovely
And they will all sing for me
I, the bush that is on fire
Untouched as the flames rise higher
It is a flame that will inspire
Among the others, it runs free
Blog Posts
First attempt
Working on the second verse
Second verse finalized
Finished
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