Where Are You Going, Soldier?

“¿Dónde vas, buen caballero?” (which also has the variation “¿Dónde vas, Alfonso XII?”) is one of my favorite ballads, and like every ballad, there are many versions of the lyrics and melody. This meant that when I began to translate the song from Spanish, the first question was, which song? In the end, I did what every ballad singer does: combine different versions to highlight the grief that for me is the heart of the ballad.

One challenge I encountered while translating was that the different versions, which had different melodies, didn't all have the same meter. In particular, one performance by Joaquín Díaz used a melody I haven’t heard elsewhere, which enabled me to make some translation choices I prefer on a lyrical level, but which don’t work with the more common meter and melody. My ultimate solution? Write two versions. It’s a folk song; I can do that!

For more information on the sources I used, see here (in Spanish).

Performances

Variant meter

Common meter

Lyrics

My preferred version follows Joaquín Díaz’s variant meter; modifications to fit the more common meter are included in parentheses.