“I see outstretched before my eyes thy green and beauteous shore,
  Those meadow-lands and gardens that with flowers are dappled o’er. 
  The wind that lingers o’er those glades received the tribute given
  By many a trembling calyx, wet with the dews of heaven. 
  From Genil’s banks full many a bough down to the water bends,
  Yon vega’s green and fertile line from flood to wall extends;
  There laughing ladies seek the shade that yields to them delight,
  And the velvet turf is printed deep by many a mounted knight. 
      I see thee shining from afar,
      As in heaven’s arch some radiant star. 
      Granada, queen and town of loveliness,
      Listen to my lament, and mourn for my distress.

  “Ye springs and founts that sparkling well from yonder mountain-side,
  And flow with dimpling torrent o’er mead and garden wide,
  If e’er the tears that from my breast to these sad eyes ascend
  Should with your happy waters their floods of sadness blend,
  Oh, take them to your bosom with love, for love has bidden
  These drops to tell the wasting woe that in my heart is hidden. 
      I see thee shining from afar,
      As in heaven’s arch some radiant star. 
      Granada, queen and crown of loveliness,
      Listen to my lament, and mourn for my distress.

  “Ye balmy winds of heaven, whose sound is in the rippling trees,
  Whose scented breath brings back to me a thousand memories,
  Ye sweep beneath the arch of heaven like to the ocean surge
  That beats from Guadalquivir’s bay to earth’s extremest verge. 
  Oh, when ye to Granada come (and may great Allah send
  His guardian host to guide you to that sweet journey’s end!),
  Carry my sighs along with you, and breathe them in the ear
  Of foes who do me deadly wrong, of her who holds me dear. 
  Oh, tell them all the agony I bear in banishment,
  That she may share my sorrow, and my foe the King relent. 
      I see thee shining from afar,
      As in heaven’s arch some radiant star. 
      Granada, queen and crown of loveliness,
      Listen to my lament, and mourn for my distress.”

CELIN’S RETURN

  Now Celin would be merry, and appoints a festal day,
  When he the pang of absence from his lady would allay: 
  The brave Abencerrages and Gulanes straight he calls,
  His bosom friends, to join him as he decks his stately halls. 
  And secretly he bids them come, and in secret bids them go;
  For the day of merriment must come unnoticed by his foe;
  For peering eyes and curious ears are watching high and low,
  But he only seeks one happy day may reparation bring
  For the foul and causeless punishment inflicted by the King. 
      “For in the widest prison-house is misery for me,
      And the stoutest heart is broken unless the hand is free.”