The ''copla'' is a
poetic form of four verses found in many
Spanish popular songs as well as in
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...
literature. There is a
related musical genre of the same name. The form is also found widely in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...
. The name derives from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''copula'', ("link" or "union").
''Coplas'' normally consist of four verses ''de arte menor'' (that is, of no more than eight
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
s to a line) of four lines each, either of Spain's most characteristic popular meter, the
romance (8- 8a 8- 8a), or of
seguidilla (7- 5a 7- 5a) or
redondilla (8a 8b 8b 8a).
Although most commonly considered a popular form, it has not been scorned by cultivated writers. Among those who have written ''coplas'' are
Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana,
Rafael Alberti
Rafael Alberti Merello (16 December 1902 – 28 October 1999) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the so-called ''Silver Age'' of Spanish Literature, and he won numero ...
,
Luis de Góngora,
Antonio Machado
Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (26 July 1875 – 22 February 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation ...
,
Jorge Manrique and
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
.
Manuel Machado wrote of ''coplas'', using the form himself:
{{Verse translation, lang=es,
Hasta que el pueblo las canta,
las coplas, coplas no son,
y cuando las canta el pueblo
ya nadie sabe el autor.
Tal es la gloria, Guillén,
de los que escriben cantares:
oír decir a la gente
que no los ha escrito nadie.
Procura tú que tus coplas
vayan al pueblo a parar,
aunque dejen de ser tuyas
para ser de los demás.
Que, al fundir el corazón
en el alma popular,
lo que se pierde de nombre
se gana de eternidad.
,
Until the folk sings them
''coplas'' are not ''coplas'',
and when the folk sing them
By then, no one knows who wrote them.
Such is the glory, Guillén,
Of those who write songs:
To hear the folk say
That no one wrote these.
Try to make it that your songs
go among the folk to stick around,
although they cease to be yours
to belong to the others.
Which, to melt the heart
in the soul of the folk,
that which it loses of a name
it gains of eternity.
The language of the ''copla'' is colloquial and direct, although there may also be ''
double entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
s'', especially for comic or lascivious effect.
Spanish poetry
Poetic forms