Page 25 - poesia y vino

libropvfinal.qxp 08/11/2006 14:39 PÆgina 23

Bien valdrá, como creo, un vaso de bon vino.

POEM FOR SAINT DOMINGO (fragment)

In the name of the Father who made all things,
And in the name of JesusChrist, son of Our Lady,
And in the name of the Holy Spirit, regarded the same,
I want to write some prose about a holy confessor.

I want to write some prose in vulgar tongue,
The language the ordinary people use to talk with their neighbours,
Although I'm not educated enough to do it in Latin;
I think it will still be worth a glass of wine.

San Millán de la Cogolla- donde, en el siglo X, nacieran los primeros balbuceos de la lengua castellana- brindó a
Gonzalo de Berceo sus claustros románicos para crear el Mester de Clerecía, al que aportó poemas alejandrinos
de sonora rima y sencilla ingenuidad, en loor de la Virgen y para catequesis del pueblo.
Clérigo muy leído, sabía que tres milenios antes plantó una viña el patriarca Noé, que en la Biblia abundan los
elogios al vino y que Jesús de Nazaret lo llevó a sus parábolas y lo convirtió en su propia sangre.
Muy presente en la pitanza de los monjes, Berceo elogió este regalo del cielo en los deliciosos versos de su poema
a Santo Domingo de Silos.
Arturo Álvarez Álvarez
Escritor
Writer

San Millán de la Cogolla, where the first faltering words in the Spanish language were born in the 10th century,
provided Gonzalo de Berceo with its Romanesque cloisters to create el Mester de Clerecía, to which he
contributed with alexandrine poems of sonorous and simple rhyme, to praise the Virgin and catechize the people.
Well-read clergyman, Berceo knew that the patriarch Noah had planted a vineyard three millenniums before, that
the Bible sings the praises of wine many times and that Jesus of Nazareth used it for his parables and converted
it into his own blood.
Present in the monk's meals, Berceo praised this present from heaven in his delightful verses of his poem to 23
Santo Domingo de Silos.