Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Amor más poderoso que la muerte


Érase una vez un rey y una reina que vivían en un palacio situado tan cerca del mar que a veces las olas salpicaban la puerta y el olor a sal penetraba la piedra dorada. La reina tuvo una niña más hermosa que una perla pero nada más dar a luz la reina falleció.
Como el rey no podía cuidar solo a su hija, se casó de nuevo, pero con una mujer malvada que tenía el corazón lleno de espinas. El rey estaba embrujado por esta segunda mujer y como le gustaba conquistar nuevas tierras y ganar batallas, se encontraba siempre fuera así que dejaba tanto a su princesa, como su reino, en manos de la reina, quien reina odiaba a su hijastra; la envidiaba por su extraordinaria belleza y temía que tuviese un hijo que pudiera destronarla. Por eso no soportaba que la princesa recibiera visita alguna. Siempre que se presentaba algún galán, la reina lo criticaba hasta que el pobre chico se cansaba y se iba. Por eso la princesa se sentía triste y oprimida.
A pesar de sus esfuerzos, la reina no pudo evitar que una tarde de otoño se presentase en la playa del reino un joven que encandiló a la princesa. Un día al pasar frente al palacio aquel joven vio a la princesa en su balcón y se quedó completamente enamorado de ella. Pero como era un joven humilde sin grandes tierras ni riqueza, no sabía si tendría posibilidad alguna de conseguir el corazón de la princesa. Lo único que poseía para cortejarla era su voz pues era cantor: siempre que cantaba, todos creían que se trataba de la voz aterciopelada de un ángel.
Así fue que se puso a cantar allí mismo debajo del balcón para que su trova llegara a la princesa, que quedó prendada nada más oírla. Por ello la princesa volvió a asomarse y, tras ver al joven perfilado en el mar azul, se quedó enamorada mientras él seguía cantando. A partir de entonces volvía cada tarde para  dedicarle más canciones. Al tercer día la princesa se quitó su anillo real, lo envolvió en un pañuelo y lo arrojó al joven como señal de que sus destinos iban a ser uno solo e iban a estar, de alguna forma, juntos por toda la vida. El joven se alegró tanto de la decisión de su princesa que no cesaba de cantar. Cada tarde, al anochecer le cantaría canciones, algunas conocidas por ella y otras que nunca había escuchado, desde las romanzas más entrañables hasta canciones de cuna, el repertorio del joven parecía no tener límites. Estaban tan enamorados que su alegría también parecía inagotable.
 Yo hanino, tú hanina,
Amémonos los dos
Los hishicos que mos naxen
Derman! Como la luna y el sol
Amán! Como la luna y el sol
  Una noche la reina escuchó las canciones y también quedó maravillada de su insólita belleza que desprendían. Al siguiente día le comentó a la princesa que había sentido la hermosa voz de una sirena. “No es la voz de una sirena, madre,” respondió la princesa sin pensar, “es mi pretendiente que me ofrece canciones de amor.” La reina, al oír tal declaración, se puso furiosa y prohibió que los amantes volvieran a verse. Ordenó a sus soldados que detuviesen a la princesa si intentaba salir y que capturasen a cualquier persona que estuviese con ella. Amenazó a la princesa con matar al joven pretendiente, a lo que la bella niña respondió con que si este amante tenía que morir, que ella también moriría. Fue así que la reina se dio cuenta de lo mucho que se querían. “Tengo que estar atenta para que no se escapen”, dijo para sus adentros.
La princesa corrió a su habitación y escribió otra carta de amor a su joven cantor en la que declaraba su intención de unirse con él cuanto antes. La envolvió en un pañuelo de seda, junto con una moneda de plata para que, con el peso, el mensaje llegase a su amor. La arrojó fuerte y el joven la encontró en la arena. Cuando leyó aquellas sentidas palabras de su enamorada alzó la voz con una canción rebosante de alegría.
Esa misma noche la princesa bajó por una cuerda pero con tal mala fortuna que los soldados la detuvieron junto a su pretendiente y los arrastraron a la plaza, donde la reina miró con una rabia descomunal a la princesa. Ordenó que les cortasen la garganta a los enamorados. Antes de ser ejecutados, ambos, vendados y atados, declararon su amor eterno. Pero cuando el frío filo de la navaja llegaba a sus gargantas sus almas se transformaron en aves; ella, convertida en paloma y él, en ruiseñor, volaron juntos volando sobre el palacio hasta posarse en una rama junto a la ventana de la reina. Al verlos cantando con una armonía primorosa la reina se enfureció. “¡Cogedlos y matadlos!” gritó con más ira que nunca. Así los cazaron y los llevaron a la orilla del mar donde la reina esperaba,  pues quiso presenciar el definitivo fin de estos dos seres. Pero cuando cortaban la garganta de los pájaros se transformaron en peces. Ella en una perca y él en una platija y saltaron juntos al agua. Ahora la reina estaba realmente fuera de sí y gritaba “¡Pescadlos y llevadlos a la cocina!”  Así que los soldados salieron en barcas con redes para capturar estos dos peces. Pescaron y pescaron hasta que, al tercer día, dieron con ellos nadando juntos en alta mar. Los llevaron a la cocina para preparar el almuerzo de la reina. Su idea era la de comérselos para asegurarse de que no fueran a molestarla más. En el mismo momento en que comenzaba a engullir aquel bocado, la reina se tragó una espina y murió atragantada. Esta muerte súbita rompió el hechizo que había embrujado al palacio y las sombras se desvanecieron. Los ministros más sabios asumieron el poder y decidieron enterrar los cuerpos de la princesa y su joven enamorado convertidos en peces. Así cuando viniera el rey sabría donde yacía su hija, al lado de su amor. De la tumba de la princesa salió un rosal blanco y de la del joven un clavel. De la tumba de la reina sólo salía humo, un extraño fenómeno que duró un largo tiempo pero no tanto como el crecimiento del rosal blanco y del clavel. De  hecho, estas dos hermosas flores se entrelazaron hasta posarse tan juntas que no pudieron ser separadas jamás.  Traducción y versión nueva de David Shea, junio de 2003

The Nightingale and the Dove (For Rosie, Robin and Mariana)

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom by the sea, there lived a king and his queen. Their palace was so close to the sea that the waves lapped the stones at its solid base and the salt sea spray and morning mist whispered in the ramparts. The king and queen had one daughter, the fairest child in all the land. But not long after giving birth, the queen died of a fever.
The king remarried but his second wife was evil. His new wife despised the princess because she was very beautiful. This king came from a long line of warriors and his passion was to lead his armies in conquest so he was never home. He was so bewitched by the allures of his evil second wife that he entrusted her with all the affairs of the palace in his absence, especially decisions concerning the princess. The queen was determined that the princess should not marry because if she had a male child, this son could one day usurp the queen’s right to rule should the king die. So every time the princess had a suitor, the queen would find fault with him. She also ensured that the princess was within the palace at all times.
Despite the queen’s best efforts, though. it happened that one day a young man was walking by the sea shore. He looked up and he saw the princess in the balcony of the highest tower and as soon as he saw her, he loved her. He knew he had to marry her. But he knew he very little chance of winning her hand, for he was a lowly lad, he was not rich, nor mighty, he had no family wealth or lands or regal lineage, just a poor teen studying to be a cantor. But in this respect, he had the most beautiful singing voice in all the land, sweet as honey straight from the comb. Everyone who heard that voice thought that they were in the presence of an angel.
So the young man decided to stroll on the shore at midnight and sing. The princess heard that song, sweeter than that of any nightingale, it is told. She was so taken by this song that she could not imagine who could sing with such a wonderful voice so she stepped out on her balcony, there in the royal tower, and she saw him by the light of the full moon, with its light sparkling all about on the waves nearby. That was it, they were committed to each other as he sang,


Yo hanino, tú hanina,
Amémonos los dos
Los hishicos que mos naxen
Derman! Como la luna y el sol
Amán! Como la luna y el sol

(= You are my beloved and I yours,
Let us forge one love from two
Our children will be born
Oy, like the moon and the sun.)


For three nights he came and strolled along that same stretch of beach and sang and for three nights she listened. On the fourth night she took off her royal ring and she tied it in her royal scarf and she threw it down to the beach. So the young man knew their trove was plighted. He would return to the beach every night and sand ballad and an array of songs which were both familiar and strange to his beloved princess. Indeed, she felt that some of these songs were sung straight to her heart and to no other.
But one night, alas, the evil queen was also awake and she heard the beautiful voice. She wondered what this was all about. She had never heard such a voice. She decided it was the voice of a mermaid or merman who had emerged from the sea. The next day at breakfast the queen spoke of this marvelous song of the merman but the princess exclaimed that no, this was no siren but “my true love who has come to court me and has won my love forever.” 
When she heard these words, the queen fell into a rage. She immediately ordered that the young cantor be executed. But the princess swore that if he were killed, she too would die. With these words, the queen realized how deeply in love the princess was and she turned to her stepchild with rage in her eyes and hatred in her wicked heart. “If you ever try to run away with this man, you too will be killed!”
So the princess decided to escape and devised a plan to elope with her lover as soon as possible. That very night, in fact, she wrote a message to him, wrapped it in a scarf with a coin enclosed to make it heavy enough to reach him. When the boy read the letter his heart was full of joy. He burst out in song.
They made their preparations and the princess climbed down from her balcony by a rope. Knowing of their great love, the queen anticipated all this and ordered the guards to catch them. They did this and the two lovers were brought before the evil queen who sentenced that they be put to death that very day. So they were dragged into the palace courtyard and blindfolded. They cried out that there love would last for all time. And, it is said, that as the executioner’s sword was descending, the two beings turned into birds and flew away. The princess became a dove and the young man a nightingale flying about together until they came to rest on a branch beside the queen’s window. There they sang a song of joy, unearthly beautiful and in perfect harmony, which put the queen into a further rage. She would not be thwarted by miracles, she shouted in a wicked voice.
So the birds were to be captured and killed, according to the queen’s edict. To ensure that her orders were followed,  the queen accompanied the guards to the place of execution on the very beach where the cantor had sung so many times for his beloved. The executioner took out his knife to cut off the heads of these two birds, with the queen standing watch. As the throats of the birds were being slit, however, they turned into fish. The nightingale turned into a perch and the dove became a flounder and they swam off together.
Now the queen was really angry. She ordered the royal guards to catch these two fish. So they fished for three days and caught many fish of every size and color until finally the perch and the flounder that had once been the young man and the prince were netted and flapped together in the bottom of the boat. The queen’s final plan was to cook these two fish and eat them so they would not haunt her anymore. The fish were duly fried up and served to the queen but she choked on a fish bone with the very first bite and died.
After this terrible saga, it was as if a spell had been broken. The king’s ministers took over the kingdom and ordered that the two fish be buried in the same grave. Thus the king, upon his return from battle, would know where his princess was buried, they reasoned.
Miraculously, the very next day, a carnation and a rose bush grew up from the earth at this grave. The two flowers grew higher and higher and closer and closer. From the grave of the evil queen nothing grew but there was a wafting of smoke that lasted for some time. This did not last nearly as long as the growth of those two flowers which eventually were entwined together and could never be pulled apart, at all.

(This is one of the stories I dug up from the ancient Jewish folk tradition when I worked with Batya Podos for the 1992 Bradford Festival’s Sepharad. We never worked this into the show although I keep it alive in the telling now as does Batya. The song Yo hanino, cited here, is still a favorite of mine and Arminda’s. It comes from Turkey, I have read, but the tale itself is based on the Greek oral tradition. Pass it on yourself! With thanks to Batya Podos, Nigel Grizzard and Howard Schwartz.)

Monday, March 11, 2013

Describing People's Character (Vocab NI 1)



adventurous = aventurero, atrevido
talented = talentoso, dotado, prodigioso
sensible = sensato/a
sensitive = sensible
brave = valiente
determined = decidido/a
independent = autosuficiente
organized = eficiente
stubborn (like a mule)= tozudo/a
ambitious = codicioso/a
confident = confiado/a, segura/o
practical = práctica/o
generous = generoso/a
mean = mezquino
responsible = responsable
reliable =
fiable

Talking about Friendship NI 1



Old Friends
  1. Who used to be your best friend when you were 12 (adolescence)? 
  2.   Where did you first meet him or her?
  3.  Did you (use to) like the same music? 
  4.  Did you (use to) go to the same gigs together?
  5. Did you (use to) play the same sports together?
  6. Did you (use to) like the same TV programmes?
  7.  When did you last see him or her?
  8. Do you keep in touch with your old friend(s)?
  9. If not, how  did you lose contact?
  10. If so, how has your friendship changed?