Vengás en bonhora, mi yerno, vengas en bonhora, mi rey,
¿dónde dejates a mi hija, en civdades ajenas?
La dejí preñada en ocho, vin’ a tomalda a ella,
si ella no puede venir, demeldá a Filismena.
A Filismena vo la do como una ‘rmana vuestra. –
Ya se viste y ya se arma, ya se va para onde la hermana.
Siete civdades camina, siete linguas se ambezó
a la lengua de al cabo del caballo abajo la echó.
Con querer y non querer, una noche durmió con él.
Malhaya tripa de madre, qu’ aquí sola la deió.
Por ahí pasó un viejecico, de ella s’ amansiyó:
Malahaya tripa de madre qu’ a su hija la fió,
malhaya vos, caballero, qu’ aquí sola la deió.
May you come at a good hour, my son-in-law, may you come at a good hour, my king,
where did you leave my daughter, in foreign cities?
I left her pregnant for eight (months), I came to take her,
if she cannot come, give Filismena instead.
To Filismena I give her as a sister of yours. –
Now she dresses and arms herself, now she goes to where her sister is.
She walks through seven cities, she learned seven languages,
to the language at the end from the horse down she threw herself.
With wanting and not wanting, one night she slept with him.
Cursed be a mother’s womb, that here alone left her.
A little old man passed by, he tamed her:
Cursed be a mother’s womb that entrusted her daughter,
cursed be you, knight, that here alone left her.
Blancaflor and Filomena [The seducer of her sister-in-law] (6) (F 1) According to Ovideo, Progne asks her husband Itys to bring her her sister Filomela. Itys brings her but demands love for her and when Filomela rejects him, he cuts out her tongue and locks her up. Our version begins in media res, with the dialogue between the mother-in-law and her son-in-law who comes to take his sister-in-law Felismena (Filomena) for the birth of his wife Blancaflor. It is one of the romances noted by Díaz-Plaja (1934: No. 10). It is a romance distributed throughout Spain, as evidenced by its documentation in Cáceres by Schindler in 1928 (No. 249).
This website was created by Orit Perlman with the collaboration and blessings of Dr. Susana Weich-Shahak in 2025