.

"No se han de dar las piedras preciosas a animales de cerda" (picture taken by J. de Groot).

"The battle of day versus night"

La soledad primera: 677 - 86

Términos (1) le da el sueño al regocijo,

más al cansancio no, que el movimiento

verdugo de las fuerzas es prolijo.

Los fuegos - cuyas lenguas, ciento a ciento,

desmintieron la noche algunas horas,

cuyas luces, del Sol competidoras,

fingieron día en la tiniebla obscura -

murieron, y en sí mismos sepultados

sus miembros, en cenizas desatados,

piedras son de su mismo sepultura.

The party comes to an end, succeeded by dreams in which tiredness domimates, caused by the strong and lasting affects of the conflict between Trión and Earth (and perhaps the music and dance.)

     Gradually tongues of flames derive the starlite night from a few hours of obscure darkness to create fictive sunlight. (In the Dedication the adjective mentido features; also términos disformes)

    However in the "Rodríguez Manuscript" Góngora writes el cansancio. not the al cansancio which features in later versions. This changed the meaning considerably. Versos 682 - 86 contain one lengthy statement. (Lines 682 - 86 do not contain any obscurity.)

Jammes published in 1984 an early version of the first 779 verses of the Soledad primera. This document was discovered by Prof. Antonio Rodríguez - Moñino.(2)

termino [...] da el sueño al regusijo (3)

mas el cansancio no, que el movimiento

verdugo de las fuerzas es prolijo.(4)

Los fuegos ciento a ciento,

(que quanto mas freneticos mas sanos

amenazaban aun los aires vanos)

condenandolos van a muerte obscura

las remisiones de su calentura

[...]

(1) Términos (nouns: limits, ends) refer to recocijo ánd to el cansancio which does not end: another gongoresque contradiction. (In an earlier version he states termino.)  Verdugo is a very agressive bird used in the hunt. Tiniebla obscura is gongoresque humor.

(2) A handwritten copy was published in Criticón no. 27, 1984.

Toulouse Le Mirail: University of Toulouse.

(3) The noun is difficult to decipher in the handwritten manuscript. A photo would have been better, but the códice which contained the text may have been complex to handle.

(4) Prolijo = Culteranism.  Like armies the tongues of flames compete with the Sun to create fake daylight. The fires end up creating their own graves.