Level A2 · Chapter 26
Marcela defends herself
At Grisóstomo’s burial, the shepherdess appears on a rock and speaks for herself.
What you will learn
- Say whether something has already changed or is still the same.
- Say that something has just happened with acabar de + infinitive.
- Tell ya no apart from todavía no.
Before you read
Watch 4 small expressions in this text: ya, todavía, aún and acabar de. They do not name an action. They tell you where that action stands in time, and Spanish uses them far more often than English uses already or still.The story in easy Spanish
A la mañana siguiente, don Quijote y los cabreros bajaron al valle.
The next morning, Don Quixote and the goatherds went down into the valley.
La tumba ya estaba abierta junto a la fuente. Había mucha gente de luto.
The grave was already open beside the spring. There were many people in mourning.
Un amigo del muerto acababa de leer en voz alta una canción muy amarga.
A friend of the dead man had just read a very bitter song aloud.
En esa canción, Grisóstomo llamaba cruel a Marcela. La culpaba de su muerte.
In that song Grisóstomo called Marcela cruel. He blamed her for his death.
Algunos pastores todavía lloraban. Otros miraban el camino en silencio.
Some shepherds were still crying. Others watched the road in silence.
De pronto, Marcela apareció arriba, sobre una roca muy alta.
Suddenly Marcela appeared above them, on a very high rock.
Todavía llevaba su ropa de pastora. El sol le daba en la cara.
She was still wearing her shepherdess’s clothes. The sun was on her face.
«Yo no maté a este hombre», dijo con calma. «Nunca le di ninguna esperanza.»
"I did not kill this man," she said calmly. "I never gave him any hope."
«El cielo me hizo hermosa. Yo no elegí mi cara ni pedí este problema.»
"Heaven made me beautiful. I did not choose my face and I did not ask for this trouble."
«Quien me quiere sin mi permiso no merece nada de mí.»
"Whoever loves me without my consent deserves nothing from me."
Nadie respondió. Los pastores ya no lloraban: ahora miraban al suelo.
Nobody answered. The shepherds were no longer crying: now they looked at the ground.
Marcela se marchó al monte. Algunos aún querían seguirla, pero don Quijote lo prohibió.
Marcela went off into the hills. Some still wanted to follow her, but Don Quixote forbade it.
Después enterraron a Grisóstomo junto a la fuente. Todavía no era mediodía.
Afterwards they buried Grisóstomo beside the spring. It was not yet midday.
Vocabulary
The burial
- el entierro
- the burial
- el luto
- mourning clothes
- la tumba
- the grave
- enterrar
- to bury
- la roca
- the rock
The accusation
- culpar
- to blame
- cruel
- cruel
- amargo / amarga
- bitter
- la esperanza
- hope
- merecer
- to deserve
Where it stands in time
- ya
- already, by now
- ya no
- not any more
- todavía
- still
- aún
- still (same as todavía)
- acabar de
- to have just
Ya, todavía, aún and acabar de
La tumba ya estaba abierta junto a la fuente.
Todavía llevaba su ropa de pastora.
Acababa de leer en voz alta una canción muy amarga.
These four expressions do not say what happens. They say where what happens stands in time, and Spanish leans on them much harder than English does.
| expression | meaning | from the story |
|---|---|---|
| ya | already, by now, at last | La tumba ya estaba abierta. |
| ya no | not any more | Los pastores ya no lloraban. |
| todavía / aún | still | Todavía llevaba su ropa de pastora. |
| todavía no / aún no | not yet | Todavía no era mediodía. |
| acabar de + infinitive | to have just done something | Acababa de leer la canción. |
The pair that people get backwards
ya no means it used to be true and has stopped. todavía no means it has not started yet, but everyone expects it to.
Compare the two. Marcela ya no vive en el pueblo means she left. Marcela todavía no vive en el monte means she is about to move there. One looks back, the other looks forward.
Todavía or aún
They mean the same thing and you may use either. Aún feels slightly more written, todavía slightly more spoken.
The accent is not decoration. aún with an accent means todavía. aun without one means incluso, that is, even. Aun los pastores callaron means even the shepherds fell silent.
Acabar de plus infinitive
This is the tidiest thing in the lesson. Take acabar, add de, add the dictionary form of the verb, and you have the English have just.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Acabo de llegar. | I have just arrived. |
| Marcela acaba de hablar. | Marcela has just spoken. |
| Acababa de leer la canción. | He had just read the song. |
Only 2 tenses are used with it in practice. The present means have just. The imperfect means had just, which is what the story needs at a burial that is already under way.
The first woman who speaks for herself
Up to this point in the novel, women are things that happen to men. Dulcinea never appears. The innkeeper’s daughters laugh and vanish. Then a shepherdess climbs onto a rock and talks for 3 pages, and the book changes.
Marcela does something no character had done before her. She refuses the whole arrangement. Her argument is short and hard to answer: beauty is not a debt, being loved creates no obligation, and a man who chose to hope against a clear refusal killed himself with his own stubbornness.
Remember what she was up against. A rich orphan in 1605 was property in all but name. Her uncle could have married her off and nobody would have thought it cruel. Marcela instead takes her own goats out to the hills and lives alone, which was not a romantic gesture but a genuine scandal.
What Cervantes does next is the remarkable part. He does not punish her. She walks off into the trees, the men are forbidden to follow, and the novel simply moves on. She never comes back. Readers have been arguing about those 3 pages for 400 years, and they are read today in Spanish classrooms as the first feminist speech in the language.
Cervantes in the original
Yo nací libre, y para poder vivir libre escogí la soledad de los campos.
I was born free, and in order to live free I chose the solitude of the fields.
The most quoted sentence Marcela speaks, from chapter 14 of Part One. Two preterites carry it, nací and escogí, and both are decisions rather than descriptions. Later in the same speech she says «El cielo aún hasta ahora no ha querido que yo ame por destino», which is this lesson’s aún doing exactly the work you have just learned: up to now, and still.