Como ũa mollér póbre déu sa ovella a guardar a un ovelleiro, e quando ao trosquïar das ovellas vẽo a vélla demandar a súa e o ovelleiro disse que a comera o lobo, chamou Santa María de Rocamador, e a ovella braadou u lla tiínna o ovelleiro asconduda e disse: “ei-me acá, ei-m' acá.”
| Line | Refrain | Metrics | |
| 1 | A Madre do que a bestia de Balaam falar fez †CSM 147:1The music in [E] has just a single ligature .onwad for the -laam of Balaam, which seems to be a simple mistake on the part of the musical scribe, since this hemistich should clearly have seven syllables to match the rest of the cantiga. See the Music tab for the suggested solution. | 7'7 A | |
| 2 | ar fez pois ũa ovella ela falar ũa vez. | 7'7 A | |
| Stanza I | |||
| 3 | Esto fez Santa María | 7' b | |
| 4 | por ũa póbre mollér | 7 c | |
| 5 | que a de grado servía | 7' b | |
| 6 | come quen ben servir quér; | 7 c | |
| 7 | e porend' ela un día | 7' b | |
| 8 | valeu-ll' u lle foi mestér | 7 c | |
| 9 | e mostrou i séu miragre, que vos non foi mui rafez. | 7'7 A | |
| A Madre do que a bestia de Balaam falar fez... | |||
| Stanza II | |||
| 10 | Aquesta mollér mesquinna | 7' b | |
| 11 | de quanto pud' achegar | 7 c | |
| 12 | comprou ũa ovellinna | 7' b | |
| 13 | e foi-a dar a guardar | 7 c | |
| 14 | a un pegureir' aginna; | 7' b | |
| 15 | e pois ao trosquïar | 7 c | |
| 16 | foi ên demandar a lãa pola vender por séu prez. | 7'7 A | |
| A Madre do que a bestia de Balaam falar fez... | |||
| Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/147 | |||
| Stanza III | |||
| 17 | Mas o pegureir' astroso | 7' b | |
| 18 | a ovella ascondeu | 7 c | |
| 19 | e come cobiiçoso | 7' b | |
| 20 | diss': “O lobo a comeu.” | 7 c | |
| 21 | A vélla por mentiroso | 7' b | |
| 22 | o tev' end', e lle creceu | 7 c | |
| 23 | tal coita por sa ovella que tornou tal come pez. | 7'7 A | |
| A Madre do que a bestia de Balaam falar fez... | |||
| Stanza IV | |||
| 24 | E disse: “Ai, Grorïosa, | 7' b | |
| 25 | a mia ovella me dá, | 7 c | |
| 26 | ca tu end' és poderosa | 7' b | |
| 27 | de o fazer.” E dalá | 7 c | |
| 28 | du jazía a astrosa | 7' b | |
| 29 | ovella diss': “Ei-m' acá.” | 7 c | |
| 30 | E assí Santa María aquest' engano desfez. | 7'7 A | |
| A Madre do que a bestia de Balaam falar fez... | |||
| Stanza V | |||
| 31 | E a vélla mui festinno | 7' b | |
| 32 | sa ovella trosquïou, | 7 c | |
| 33 | e meteu-s' ao caminno | 7' b | |
| 34 | e quanto más pod' andou, | 7 c | |
| 35 | a cóstas séu velocinno; | 7' b | |
| 36 | a Rocamador chegou, | 7 c | |
| 37 | dizend': “Esto fez a Virgen que sempre teve belmez.” | 7'7 A | |
| A Madre do que a bestia de Balaam falar fez... | |||
| Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/147 | |||
Footnotes
Concerning the refrain of this cantiga, it would be entirely inappropriate for me to draw attention to the possibility of the performer making terrible jokes involving talking sheep and "baa lambs". So I won't.
| Line 1: | The music in [E] has just a single ligature .onwad for the -laam of Balaam, which seems to be a simple mistake on the part of the musical scribe, since this hemistich should clearly have seven syllables to match the rest of the cantiga. See the Music tab for the suggested solution. |
Footnotes
| E1: | The music is short of a syllable here: Balaam needs its three natural syllables for the metre, but only gets two separate ligatures. This substitution fixes the problem, matching not only the vuelta at E2 and E3, and the reprise of the refrain at E4, but also the version in the [T] manuscript. |
Manuscript references
External links marked 
are to facsimiles on Greg Lindahl's Cantigas de Santa Maria website.
| [E] | 147 | viewhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/E/285small.htmlExternal link |
| [T] | 147 |
Oxford CSM Database record
External link to poem data: CSM 147http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=poemdata_view&rec=147
Links to the Oxford database are provided with the kind permission of the project team. When planning a concert or recording, I would recommend that you use (and credit) my more pragmatic texts and supporting materials in the preparation of your performance, but that you request permission from the Oxford database team to reproduce (and credit) their own critically edited texts in your programme or liner notes, as these adhere to stricter criteria that keep them closer to the original sources, and undoubtedly have the greater academic authority.
Metrical summary
Refrain
| 7' | 7 7' | 7 |
Stanzas
| 7' 7 7' 7 7' 7 7' | 7 |
Rhyme
AA / bcbcbcA| R | I | II | III | IV | V | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | eʣ | |||||
| b | i.a | iɲa | ozo | oza | iɲo | |
| c | ɛɾ | aɾ | eu̯ | a | ou̯ | |
Estimated performance times
| Average syllables / min. | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Very slow | 50 | 9:35 |
| Slow | 100 | 4:47 |
| Medium | 150 | 3:12 |
| Fast | 200 | 2:23 |
| Very fast | 250 | 1:55 |
These are very approximate total times for a full sung (or spoken) performance of all stanzas with all repeats of the refrain. Note that the speed is in average syllables per minute, and no particular mensural interpretation is assumed. More ornamented music will reduce the syllabic speed considerably. Remember also to add time for instrumental preludes, interludes and postludes.
Total syllables: 480
