The Book of True Love

Abstract

This is a thick paperback with a good lively translation in rhyming quatrains. Having the Spanish on the left page and the English on the right makes it easy to consult the original. There are helpful line-drawings for a number of fables: FK (73), BF (93), The Lion and the Horse (97), The Wolf and the Fox Before Judge Monkey (103), The Ass Without Heart or Ears (230), and TMCM (344-45). I just recently read one other translation and took a close look at a second. See my remarks on them: The Book of Good Love of the Archpriest of Hita, Juan Ruiz (1933) by Elisha Kane and The Book of Good Love: Juan Ruiz (1970) by Rigo Mignani and Mario A. Di Cesare. BF here has no sexual dimension; in other translations the jay in peacock's feathers is unmasked in the sex act (93). The sapphire found by the cock answers him back and accuses him of ignorance and bad taste (347). The ass envying the lapdog here accosts his mistress, not his master (351). The fables are clearly marked with bold titles outside the verse text. There are, early in the book, frequent but not disruptive pencil marks.