Este caballero

Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5696a/8
Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Marruecos, pg. 165, Editorial Alpuerto, Pardes Publishing House, 2018 Susana Weich-Shahak.

The well-known hexasyllabic romance is widespread in the Peninsula and among the Sephardim of Morocco and the East, where it was widely used as a lullaby. As happens at times with romances, this version is a fusion of two romances: The Deceived Wife, and The Stolen Horse.
Until the twenty first line we hear of the betrayed wife who follows her husband to the home of his lover. From line twenty two we hear the story of a horse stolen from the king by a count and his punishment. 

Text:
Este caballero    que no andormecía
tomó espada en mano   y fue a rondar la vida.
Fuíme detras de él    por ver donde iba,
yo le vide entrare   en casa de su amiga.  
Por entre la puerta   miri lo que hacía,
mesas miri puestas    con ricas comidas.
él desquicia el vino   y ella lo bebía,
y pichones asado,    gallina refrita,
El desquicia el vino   y ella lo bebía,
y entre copa y copa   de mí mal decía:
- Tú eres mi alma,     tú eres mi vida    
y a la otra mujer    nada que valía.     
Volvísme a mi casa,    triste y desmayida,
cerrí la mi puerta    comío hacer solía:     
con siete candados   y una chapa encima,
y a la medianoche       el traidor venía.
-Abrísme , mi alma,     abrísme, mi vida   
que cansado vengo   de rondar la vida.   
- Si cansado vienes,     cansado te iraís,
si cansado vienes     de estar con la amiga.
En ca del buen reye     se le fue un caballo
y decían que el conde    se lo haba robado.
Ya llevan al conde,    y al pie de una torre,
cadena al pescuezo,     su cuerpo en prisiones.
Por ahí le vió reina,      desde el comedore:
- Hombre, con vergüenza,    tapa tus prisiones.
- No las tapo, reina,    no las tapo y nones,
que para los hombres     se dio las prisiones,
para las mujeres,      los fuertes dolores, 
para los mancebos,     los ricos doblones, 
para las al'azbas,     las ricas labores,   
para los chiquitos,     los muchos ochitos.

Translation:
This gentleman, who could not fall asleep,
took sword in hand and went to roam about life.
I went after him to see where he was going,
I saw him enter into his beloved’s house.
Through the door I looked at what he was doing,
tables I saw set with rich foods.
He pours the wine and she drinks it,
and roasted pigeons, fried chicken,
He uncorks the wine and she drinks it,
and between cup and cup he spoke ill of me:
- You are my soul, you are my life,
and the other woman is worth nothing.
I returned to my house, sad and faint,
I closed my door as I used to do:
with seven locks and a metal plate above,
and at midnight the traitor came.
- Open for me, my soul, open for me, my life,
for tired I come from roaming about life.
- If tired you come, tired you shall go,
if tired you come from being with your beloved.
In the house of the good king a horse was lost,
and they said that the count had stolen it.
Now they lead the count, and at the foot of a tower,
chain at his neck, his body in irons.
There the queen saw him, from the dining room:
- Man, with modesty, cover your shackles.
-  I will not cover them, queen, I will not cover them, no,
because for men the prisons were given,
for women, the heavy pains,
for the youth, the rich gold coins,
for the young girls, the fine embroidery,
for the little ones, the many pennies.