Violetas imperiales [English translation]

You know that now there can be no spring

if you are not here, violet seller1,

the spring has come and I know why that was,

Amongst the flowers that you offer, you are like a flower.

I think that in that French season2

you were more than a gipsy, princess,

Violet of spain,

you, in a foreign land

live for the memory of that love.

I found a nightingale which came to sigh:

To what end do I desire love if nobody is going to love me?

A spray of violets which looks great in the buttonhole,

I feel like the emperor of impeial violet.

It was a springtime sky

when the violet seller said to me:

You buy from me me violets, which are the best3,

they're going to bring you luck, your luck is my flower.

Return to your corner of the Alhambra

where the moon paints your gipsy dances,

Violet of Spain,

You, in a foreign land

live giving meaning to my love,

love...

1. violetera: a female streetseller of violets2. I think corte here means the time during which grass and grains are cut (la siega in some places, el corte in others) but it's also punning on a court, where princes and princesses may be found; but I'm worried that use of el corte for la siega may happen only on the wrong side of the Atlantic to fit in with "French"3. or "the first" - primera can mean either

• Artist:Luis Mariano