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Contra valor no hay desdicha (c.1620-1635)
- Fortune favours the brave : Translated Excerpt of Contra valor no hay desdicha, ACT THREE, lines 2352- 2401
Fortune favours the brave, translated by Naomi Walker
Translated Excerpt of Contra valor no hay desdicha, ACT THREE, lines 2352- 2401
- Context:
- This scene appears toward the end of Act III. Ciro has suffered a fall from his horse, and reports are rife of the huge size of the king’s army. Morale is very low among Ciro’s followers and even his closest friends and family have advised him not to go into battle against Astiages. This is something Ciro feels bound to do not only to take his rightful place on the throne but also to avenge the murder of Arpago’s child. Immediately before this scene occurs, Ciro gives a soliloquy which is the closest he has come to expressing misgivings about his mission to overthrow the king. Amid a sea of self-doubt, Ciro has a supernatural visitation; the ghost of his dead (biological) father, who urges him against going into battle. As the exchange develops, we see Ciro’s resolve steadily increase and finally he returns to his refrain of ‘fortune favours the brave [no misfortune shall prevail against valour]’.
- Sample text
-
- (Offstage):
Ciro, do not wait for the king to arrive with his army;Flee, because it is better that you flee
Than that you lose your life.
- CIRO:
This is insulting to my valour in the extreme.
Who are you?
- THE VOICE:
I am your father.
- CIRO:
With your low-born character you tarnish
My mother’s majesty,
And hinder my undertaking.
I curse my grandfather the tyrant
Who through fear - listen to me -
It was through fear that he gave such a beautiful filly
To such a lowly horseman.
For if he had given me an Achilles as a father,
By the high heavens,
Even the deities themselves would not have been safe
From my daring feats!
If I had had the sun for a father
As I had for my mother the moon
The sky would have seen me fly to him like a phoenix
Without singeing a single feather.
I curse my grandfather the tyrant;
A thousand and one curses on him,
Who joined a satyr and a nymph
In the same yoke.
If only I had been born fully sun
Lacking nothing in any part
Then, without even soaking my rays
I could even have sipped the foam from the surface of the sea,
From which Aphrodite herself was born.
Go, shadow, to your resting place,
Live on in the gloomy grave
Of a vile man, because you do not deserve
The golden casket of a king.
- THE VOICE:
Great misfortune awaits you.
- CIRO:
As long as I live,
Fortune favours the brave.
Leave me, unwelcome spirit.
- A comet passes through the theatre.
What a blinding comet passes by!
It seems that everything flies in the face of
My fearless valour.
And yet the thing that spurs me on
Is that is seems that Arpago’s dead child
Is calling out to me amid its bloody anguish
What thing, dear heavens, can be more just
Than avenging an innocent?
So then, valour, I shall either triumph or die.
God perceives our thoughts,
God judges the hearts of men,
And the one who takes mortal life,
Shall have his life taken by God.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation Fortune favours the brave by Naomi Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Entry submitted by NaomiWalker on 14 May 2012 and last updated by Kathleen Jeffs on 22 May 2012
