Catalan

Contributions and notes by Helena Buffery (University College Cork):

1. Translated by C.A. Jordana into prose, 1932:

...si és cert que a la virtut mai no fretura bellesa delitosa, el vostre gendre és molt més bell que negre.

...if it is true that virtue never wants/lacks delectable/delightful beauty, your son-in-law is much more beautiful than black.

Note that 'bell' is now quite unusual to find in the masculine form in Catalan, and in performance would anyway create ambivalence due to the homophone 'vell' – meaning old; vellesa meaning – old age.

2. Translated by Josep Maria de Sagarra into decasyllabic verse in Catalan, 1940:

... si és cert que la virtut manté

l'esclat de la bellesa, el vostre gendre

no és més negre que bell.

... if it is true that virtue maintains

the bloom/splendour of beauty, your son-in-law

is not more black than beautiful/fair.