Песнь о Сиде: Старейшая кастильская эпическая поэма

Castilian epic poem

El Cantar de mio Cid (, or 'The Song of my Sidi ('lord')'), or El Poema de mio Cid, also known in English as The Poem of the Cid, is the oldest preserved Castilian epic poem. Based on a true story, it tells of the deeds of the Castilian hero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar—known as El Cid—and takes place during the eleventh century, an era of conflicts in the Iberian Peninsula between the Kingdom of Castile and various Taifa principalities of Al Andalus. It is considered a national epic of Spain. The work survives in a medieval manuscript which is now in the Spanish National Library.

The Spanish medievalist Ramón Menéndez Pidal included the Cantar de mio Cid in the popular tradition he termed the mester de juglaría. Mester de juglaría refers to the medieval tradition according to which popular poems were passed down from generation to generation, being changed in the process. These poems were meant to be performed in public by minstrels (or juglares), who each performed the traditional composition differently according to the performance context—sometimes adding their own twists to the epic poems they told, or abbreviating it according to the situation. El Cantar de mio Cid shows signs of being designed for oral transmission. For example, the poem ends with a request for wine for the person who has recited it (Es leido, dadnos del vino). On the other hand, some critics (known as individualists) believe El Cantar de mio Cid was composed by one Per Abbad (in English, Abbot Peter) who appears to be credited as the writer of the work in a colophon to the text. It has been suggested that the poem, which is written in Old Spanish, is an example of the learned poetry that was cultivated in the monasteries and other centers of erudition. However, Per Abbad puts the date 1207 after his name and current thinking is that his claim to have written the work has simply been copied along with the text of an earlier manuscript now lost. The existing copy forms part of a 14th century codex in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (National Library) in Madrid, Spain. It is, however, incomplete, missing the first page and two others in the middle. For the purposes of preservation, it is not normally on display. There are sources that claim that the song was written several years earlier, considering the historical Cid died in 1099. These, however, recognize that the poem itself would not have been written immediately after the death of its titular hero since the narrative would not have been picked up if the story of the Cid had not yet attained its legendary status. There are those who also take into consideration the emergence of the Carolingian legends, which began after 1100

El Cid is exiled from Castile by King Alfonso VI and fights against the Moors to regain his honor. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar is called Mío Cid (meaning My Lord) by the Moors. His current task is to collect the tributes from the Moorish territory owed to his king, Alfonso VI of León. Cid's enemy accuses him of taking some of these tributes and the king exiles him from León and Castile. Before he leaves, he places his wife, Doña Ximena, and his two daughters, Doña Elvira and Doña Sol, in the Monastery of Cardeña. The canto then gives accounts of raids in the Moorish territory in which Cid and his men get rich off of the spoils.

El Cid defends the city of Valencia, defeating King Chufa ibn Tashfin of the Almoravids. El Cid restores his honor and grants his daughters permission to marry the infantes of Carrión. It begins with Cid's capture of the city of Valencia. He brings his family to live with him. It is discovered that the Infantes (princes) de Carrión, the nephews to the king, are the enemies who caused Cid's exile. They plot to marry his daughters to take some of his wealth. The king acts on behalf of his nephews and pardons Cid and allows the marriages. Cid suspects that something bad will happen from the marriages but he allows it anyway.

The infantes of Carrión were put to shame after being scared of a lion roaming in the court and running away from a campaign to fight against the Moors. So, in revenge, they decide to abuse and abandon their wives at the roadside in Corpes, tied to trees. Once more, El Cid has to gain his honor back, so he asks the court of Toledo for justice. The infantes are defeated in a duel by El Cid's men, and his daughters remarry to the infantes of Navarre and Aragon. The Cantar shows that the Infantes are cowards in battles with the Moors. They are made fun of and decide to get revenge by attacking their wives. They set out for Carrión with their wives and an escort, Felix Muñoz, the cousin of the daughters. Once on the journey, they send the escort ahead of them, steal their wives' great dowries (including two beautiful swords) and beat them and leave them for dead. Muñoz suspects trouble and returns to his cousins and takes them to receive help. Cid seeks to right the wrongs done to his daughters, and a trial is held. A duel is held between some of Cid's men and the Infantes in which the Infantes lose. In the middle of the trial, a message is sent from the kings of Navarra and Aragon, proposing to marry their sons to Cid's daughters. These marriages take place after the defeat of the Infantes and near the end of the story.

The linguistic analysis allows the reconstruction of a 12th century previous text, which Ramón Menéndez Pidal dated circa 1140. Date and authorship are still open to debate. Certain aspects of the conserved text belong to a well informed author, with precise knowledge of the law in effect by the end of the 12th century and beginning of the 13th, who knew the area bordering with Burgos.

The following is a sample from Cantar de Mio Cid (lines 330–365), with abbreviations resolved, punctuation (the original has none), and some modernized letters. Below, the original Old Spanish text is presented in the first column, along with the same sample in modern Spanish in the second column and an English translation in the third column.

Robert Southey, Chronicle of the Cid, 1808, prose translation with other matter from chronicles and ballads, with an appendix including a partial verse translation by John Hookham Frere. John Ormsby, The Poem of Cid, 1879, with introduction and notes. Archer Milton Huntington, Poem of the Cid, (1897–1903), reprinted from the unique manuscript at Madrid, with translation and notes. Lesley Byrd Simpson, The Poem of the Cid, 1957. W. S. Merwin, The Poem of the Cid, 1959. Paul Blackburn, Poem of the Cid: a modern translation with notes, 1966. Rita Hamilton, The Poem of the Cid: Dual Language Edition, 1985. Burton Raffel, The Song of the Cid: A Dual Language Edition with Parallel Text, 2009. Michael Harney, The Epic of The Cid with related texts, 2011. Matthew Bailey, selections in pedagogical edition from Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology), 2020.