Transparent Excuses in Spanish Traditional Lyric: A Motif Overlooked?

Abstract

It is itself traditional to analyse lirica de tipo tradicional in terms of motifs, part of the purpose being to show continuity with kharjas and cantigas de amigo. Some of these motifs are anecdotal. A morenita is concerned about her dark complexion. Lovers meet at dawn. A girl cannot sleep, is closely guarded by her mother, or no quiere ser monja. Others are symbolic: running water, and the wind, of sexuality; the sea, of the penas de amor; a plant, of the girl or her lover. Many of course are both. The lovers meet at the fountain/riverbank, or there is an expedition to the countryside to gather the trWbol. The list is copious, but not necessarily closed. Excuses that are transparently disingenuous as hardly to constitute an attempt to deceive are the basis of the well known song in which the girl, presumably not without prompting (Yo me iba, mi madre), tells of a pilgrimage on which she was accidentally united with her lover so el encina.' She had set out alone por ir mds devota, left the usual route for reasons unexplained (tome otro camino, / deje el que tenia), found herself lost in a wood, and, mezquina, woke at midnight en los brazos / del que mds queria. A more subtle transparency is found, at least by the mother, in: