Level C1 · Part One, Chapter 1
The first sentence of Don Quixote, word by word
The most quoted opening in Spanish, and almost none of it is modern Spanish. The village goes unnamed, the man is described by his possessions rather than by himself, and the main verb does not arrive until the end of a list of dinners. This unit takes it apart clause by clause.
The passage, exactly as Cervantes wrote it
Miguel de Cervantes, Part One, Chapter 1. Public domain, and not adapted, shortened or modernised in any way.
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos los sábados, lantejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda.
In a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not care to remember, there lived not long ago a gentleman of the sort who keep a lance in the rack, an old leather shield, a lean nag and a greyhound for coursing. A stew with rather more beef than mutton in it, cold cuts most evenings, eggs and bacon on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays and the odd pigeon as an extra on Sundays ate up three quarters of his income.
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.
En un pueblo de la Mancha, cuyo nombre no quiero recordar, vivía hace poco un hidalgo de los que tienen la lanza en el soporte, un escudo viejo de cuero, un caballo flaco y un galgo de caza. Un cocido con más vaca que cordero, carne fría casi todas las noches, huevos con torreznos los sábados, lentejas los viernes y algún pichón de añadido los domingos se llevaban tres cuartas partes de su patrimonio.
What changed, form by form
| In the text | Today | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| no ha mucho tiempo | hace poco tiempo | Haber for elapsed time, where today only hacer works. |
| de cuyo nombre | cuyo nombre | The preposition belongs to acordarme and has climbed to the front of the clause. |
| lanza en astillero | lanza en el soporte | An astillero was the rack on the wall where the lance was kept. |
| adarga | escudo de cuero | A light leather shield, already old fashioned in 1605. |
| rocín | caballo malo | A working nag, not a horse a knight would ride. It gives Rocinante his name. |
| salpicón | carne fría picada | Leftover meat chopped with onion and vinegar. Supper for the poor. |
| duelos y quebrantos | huevos con torreznos | Eggs with bacon. The name is a joke and it is still argued about. |
| lantejas | lentejas | The older form of the word. |
| las tres partes | las tres cuartas partes | Three parts out of four, not three out of three. |
The syntax
The whole second sentence is a list with no verb in it. The subject is that list, and the verb consumían only turns up at the very end, so you cannot know what the dinners are doing until the sentence is nearly over. Spanish still allows this and English will not carry it, which is why every translation reorders the clause.
What a Spanish reader hears
The refusal to name the village is not modesty. Chronicles of the period opened by swearing to their own accuracy, and Cervantes opens by declining to remember. And the gentleman is introduced entirely through objects and meals: by the end of the paragraph you know what he eats and what he owns and still not his name, which the chapter withholds for another two pages.
Where the course prepares you for this
- SER + what you are. Gender and numberLesson 1The gentleman of La Mancha