We had some fun translating some sentences this morning and my NI 1 students asked me to post our results. This was group work but, just the same, our versions were not definitve. Any suggestions are welcome!
1.Patricia
es una persona muy trabajadora.
Patricia
is a hard-working person.
2.Tu
hermano es bastante perezoso, no da golpe.
Your
brother is quite lazy, he doesn’t lift a finger.
3.Sus
primos son un poco brutos.
Their
cousins are slightly/somewhat rude (gruff, rough).
4.Ella
siempre piensa en sus amigos, es una persona muy bondadosa.
She
always thinks of / about her friends. She is such a /a very considerate person.
5.Estos
niños tienen de todo y se podría decir que son algo malcriados o mimados.
Those
children have everything you could think of and we could say they are somewhat
spoilt.
6.La
gente de ese pueblo es muy educada y de buenos modales.
The
people in that town are very (so) polite and have good manners / they are well
behaved.
7.Mi
vecino grita mucho y suele estar de mal humor.
My
neighbour shouts a lot and he is usually bad-tempered (bad mood).
8.Los
súbditos eran leales al buen rey en aquel reino.
The subjects were loyal to their
good king in that kingdom.
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 paradedicarle 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. Dehecho, 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
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.)
