QuixoteSpanish

Level C1 · Part Two, Chapter 20

Tanto vales cuanto tienes: Sancho at the wedding feast

At the richest wedding in La Mancha, Sancho explains how the world works in four proverbs and a pun. The phrase el tener y el no tener has been quoted in Spain ever since. This unit is about the sound of spoken argument: chiasmus, rhyme, and the old comparisons with tanto and cuanto.

The passage, exactly as Cervantes wrote it

Miguel de Cervantes, Part Two, Chapter 20. Public domain, and not adapted, shortened or modernised in any way.

¡A la barba de las habilidades de Basilio!, que tanto vales cuanto tienes, y tanto tienes cuanto vales. Dos linajes solos hay en el mundo, como decía una agüela mía, que son el tener y el no tener, aunque ella al del tener se atenía; y el día de hoy, mi señor don Quijote, antes se toma el pulso al haber que al saber: un asno cubierto de oro parece mejor que un caballo enalbardado. Así que vuelvo a decir que a Camacho me atengo, de cuyas ollas son abundantes espumas gansos y gallinas, liebres y conejos; y de las de Basilio serán, si viene a mano, y aunque no venga sino al pie, aguachirle.

So much for Basilio's talents! For you are worth as much as you have, and you have as much as you are worth. There are only two lineages in the world, as a grandmother of mine used to say, and they are having and not having, though she herself stuck to the having. And nowadays, my lord don Quixote, people take the pulse of what you own before the pulse of what you know. An ass covered in gold looks better than a horse with a packsaddle. So I say again that I stick with Camacho, whose pots skim off geese and hens, hares and rabbits in plenty, while from Basilio's, if it comes to hand, or even if it only comes to foot, there will be nothing but dishwater.

The same thing in Spanish as it is written today

Read the two side by side. What has changed between them is the syllabus of this level.

¡Eso para las habilidades de Basilio!, que tanto vales cuanto tienes, y tanto tienes cuanto vales. Solo hay dos linajes en el mundo, como decía una abuela mía, que son el tener y el no tener, aunque ella se quedaba con el del tener. Y hoy en día, mi señor don Quijote, se le toma antes el pulso al dinero que al saber: un burro cubierto de oro parece mejor que un caballo con albarda. Así que vuelvo a decir que me quedo con Camacho, de cuyas ollas salen gansos y gallinas, liebres y conejos a montones, mientras que de las de Basilio saldrá, con suerte, y aun sin ella, agua de fregar.

What changed, form by form

In the textTodayWhy it matters
a la barba deen las narices deLiterally to the beard of. The beard stood for the face, so this means in defiance of.
tanto vales cuanto tieneslo mismo hoyTanto ... cuanto, the older comparison of equality. Today tanto ... como, except in this proverb.
dos linajes solos haysolo hay dos linajesNumber and adjective in front, verb after. The order a proverb uses to sound like one.
agüelaabuelaA rural pronunciation, still heard in the countryside.
el tener y el no tenerlo mismo hoyInfinitives used as nouns, with the article. This is the phrase every Spanish reader remembers.
al del tener se ateníase quedaba con el del tenerAtenerse a, to stick to. And a pun: tener, atenía.
antes se toma el pulso al haber que al saberimporta más el dinero que el saberHaber as a noun meaning property, which survives in accounting as el debe y el haber. And haber rhymes with saber.
enalbardadocon albardaWearing a packsaddle, which is to say a working animal.
aguachirleagua sucia, caldo sin sustanciaThin watery broth. Still said of weak coffee.

The syntax

Sancho's speech is a chain of proverbs again, but this time he builds with chiasmus: tanto vales cuanto tienes, y tanto tienes cuanto vales, the same words swapped round. Then the rhyme of haber and saber, then the play on tener and atenerse, then a pun on mano and pie. The grammar is simple and the sentences are loose. All the work is done by sound.

What a Spanish reader hears

Sancho is choosing sides at a wedding: rich Camacho, who has paid for the feast, or poor clever Basilio, who loves the bride. Don Quixote has just called him a villano who cheers whoever wins, and Sancho answers with his grandmother's philosophy of the world, two lineages, having and not having. It is funny because he is holding a pot full of geese while he says it. It is also the most exact social criticism in the book, and Cervantes puts it in the mouth of the man nobody listens to. In the next chapter Basilio wins the bride by a trick.

Where the course prepares you for this