The verses of the Spanish poet here translated refer to the "woman who had been a sinner," mentioned in the seventh chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, and who is commonly confounded with Mary Magdalen. FATIMA AND RADUAN. This and the following poems belong to that class of ancient Spanish ballads, by unknown authors, called _Romances Moriscos_--Moriscan romances or ballads. They were composed in the 14th century, some of them, probably, by the Moors, who then lived intermingled with the Christians; and they relate the loves and achievements of the knights of Grenada. LOVE AND FOLLY.--(FROM LA FONTAINE.) This is rather an imitation than a translation of the poem of the graceful French fabulist. THE ALCAYDE OF MOLINA _These eyes shall not recall thee_, &c. This is the very expression of the original--_No te llamaran mis ojos_, &c. The Spanish poets early adopted the practice of calling a lady by the name of the most expressive feature of her countenance, her eyes. The lover styled his mistress "ojos bellos," beautiful eyes; "ojos serenos," serene eyes. Green eyes seem to have been anciently thought a great beauty in Spain, and there is a very pretty ballad by an absent lover, in which he addressed his lady by the title of "green eyes;" supplicating that he may remain in her remembrance. iAy ojuelos verdes! Ay los mis ojuelos! Ay, hagan los cielos Que de mi te acuerdes! THE DEATH OF ALIATAR. _Say, Love--for thou didst see her tears_, &c. The stanza beginning with this line stands thus in the original:-- Dilo tu, amor, si lo viste; iMas ay! que de lastimado Diste otro nudo a la venda, Para no ver lo que ha pasado. I am sorry to find so poor a conceit deforming so spirited a composition as this old ballad, but I have preserved it in the version. It is one of those extravagances which afterward became so common in Spanish poetry, when Gongora introduced the _estilo culto_, as it was called. LOVE IN THE AGE OF CHIVALRY. This personification of the passion of Love, by Peyre Vidal, has been referred to as a proof of how little the Provencal poets were indebted to the authors of Greece and Rome for the imagery of their poems. THE LOVE OF GOD.--(FROM THE PROVENCAL OF BERNARD RASCAS.) The original of these lines is thus given by John of Nostradamus, in his lives of the Troubadours, in a barbarous Frenchified orthography:--