Alhambra/The Constant Princess (4)

In the past couple of weeks, I've been blogging about Alhambra and the novel The Constant Princess. First, I chose excerpts about the young Catalina's first impressions as she walks into the Alhambra vía the Justice Gate. Then, it follows her as she becomes accustomed to the many palace rooms and courtyards. Eventually, as she moves to England and Wales, she becomes homesick and tells her young husband about one of her favorite places, The Courtyard of Myrtles. For the final part of the series, I chose an excerpt in which Catalina dreams of her dead husband walking in the gardens. I paired this with pictures of the Generalife, a compound of more rooms and courtyards historically connected to Alhambra by a bridge spanning a ravine. (Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzin together make up a UNESCO heritage site.) 

Generalife

The night before my betrothal to Prince Harry, I have a dream so lovely that I do not want to wake. I am in the garden of the Alhambra, walking with my hand in Arthur’s, laughing up at him and showing him the beauty around us: the great sandstone wall which encircles the fort, the city of Granada below us, and the mountains capped with silvery snow on the horizon.“I have won,” I say to him. “I have done everything you wanted, everything that we planned. I will be princess as you made me. I will be queen as you wanted me to be. My mother’s wishes are fulfilled, my own destiny will be complete, your desire and God’s will. Are you happy now, my love?”He smiles down at me, his eyes warm, his face tender, a smile he has only for me. “I shall watch over you,” he whispers. “All the time. Here in al-Yanna.”I hesitate at the odd sound of the word on his lips, and then I realize that he has used the Moorish word “al-Yanna,” which means both heaven, a cemetery, and a garden. For the Moors heaven is a garden, an eternal garden.“I shall come to you one day,” I whisper, even as his grasp on my hand becomes lighter and then fades, though I try to hold him. “I shall be with you again, my love. I shall meet you here in the garden.”“I know,” he says, and now his face is melting away like mist in the morning, like a mirage in the hot air of the sierra. “I know we will be together again, Catalina, my Katherine, my love.”

¡Hasta luego!