Level A2 · Chapter 40
Cardenio’s story
A goatherd tells what he knows about the madman of the mountains. Then the madman starts his own story, and Don Quixote interrupts it right in the middle.
What you will learn
- Report what someone else said without quoting their words.
- Shift the tense of the verb when you move into reported speech.
- Use the pluperfect for what had happened earlier.
Before you read
This lesson does not tell you a story. It tells you about somebody telling a story. Watch for dijo que, contó que and explicó que, and above all watch the verb that comes after them. It is almost never the tense the original speaker used. One new form appears here for the first time, había llegado, and it is the key to the whole thing.The story in easy Spanish
El cabrero se sentó en una peña y empezó a hablar.
The goatherd sat down on a crag and began to speak.
Contó que un mancebo había llegado a la majada seis meses antes.
He said that a young man had arrived at the shepherds’ camp six months earlier.
Dijo que venía sobre una mula y que llevaba una maleta.
He said the man was riding a mule and carrying a travelling bag.
Explicó que había preguntado por la parte más áspera de la sierra.
He explained that the man had asked for the roughest part of the range.
Los pastores le respondieron que era aquella misma.
The shepherds answered him that it was that very one.
El cabrero contó que el joven se había ido sin decir nada.
The goatherd said that the young man had ridden off without a word.
Días después salió al camino y golpeó a un pastor.
Days later he came out onto the road and struck a shepherd.
Le quitó el pan y el queso y volvió a la sierra.
He took his bread and cheese from him and went back into the hills.
El cabrero dijo que lo habían buscado durante dos días.
The goatherd said they had looked for him for two days.
Contó que lo habían encontrado dentro de un alcornoque hueco.
He said they had found him inside a hollow cork oak.
Dijo que el mancebo había pedido perdón con mucha cortesía.
He said the young man had begged their pardon very courteously.
Explicó que hacía penitencia por sus muchos pecados.
He explained that he was doing penance for his many sins.
Añadió que nunca había dicho su nombre a nadie.
He added that he had never told anyone his name.
En ese momento apareció el hombre roto entre las matas.
At that moment the ragged man appeared among the bushes.
Don Quijote lo abrazó y le pidió su historia.
Don Quixote embraced him and asked him for his story.
El joven contestó que primero tenía hambre.
The young man replied that he was hungry first.
Comió el pan del costal de Sancho sin hablar.
He ate the bread from Sancho’s sack without speaking.
Luego dijo que la contaría si nadie lo interrumpía.
Then he said he would tell it if nobody interrupted him.
Todos se lo prometieron y se sentaron sobre la hierba.
They all promised and sat down on the grass.
«Me llamo Cardenio y soy de una ciudad de Andalucía.»
"My name is Cardenio and I am from a city in Andalusia."
Contó que sus padres eran ricos y su linaje noble.
He said that his parents were rich and his family noble.
Explicó que había querido a Luscinda desde niño.
He explained that he had loved Luscinda since childhood.
Dijo que los dos padres habían visto aquel amor con gusto.
He said that both fathers had looked kindly on that love.
Contó que había pedido su mano al padre de ella.
He said that he had asked her father for her hand.
Dijo que el padre le había respondido con buenas palabras.
He said the father had answered him with fair words.
Luego contó que un duque lo había llamado a su casa.
Then he said that a duke had summoned him to his house.
Explicó que allí había conocido a don Fernando.
He explained that he had met Don Fernando there.
Dijo que aquel don Fernando era el hijo segundo del duque.
He said that this Don Fernando was the duke’s second son.
Contó que le había enseñado a Luscinda por una ventana.
He said that he had shown Luscinda to him through a window.
Dijo que su amigo se había quedado mudo delante de ella.
He said that his friend had been struck dumb in front of her.
Al final contó que ella le había pedido un libro de caballerías.
At last he said that she had asked him for a book of chivalry.
Don Quijote oyó aquello y ya no pudo callarse.
Don Quixote heard that and could keep quiet no longer.
Habló del Amadís de Gaula y de su biblioteca.
He talked about Amadís of Gaul and about his own library.
Cardenio bajó la cabeza y se quedó callado un buen rato.
Cardenio dropped his head and stayed silent for a long while.
Después se levantó furioso y les dio a todos una paliza.
Then he got up in a fury and gave them all a beating.
La historia se quedó a la mitad, como una puerta cerrada.
The story was left half told, like a closed door.
Vocabulary
Verbs for reporting what was said
- decir
- to say
- contar
- to tell, to recount
- explicar
- to explain
- responder
- to answer
- contestar
- to reply
- preguntar
- to ask
- añadir
- to add
- prometer
- to promise
- jurar
- to swear
The people of the hills
- el cabrero
- the goatherd
- el pastor
- the shepherd
- la majada
- the shepherds’ camp
- el ganado
- the livestock
- la cabra
- the goat
- el zagal
- the lad, the young shepherd
Cardenio’s story
- el mancebo
- the young man
- el linaje
- the family line
- la desventura
- the misfortune
- el pecado
- the sin
- la penitencia
- the penance
- la locura
- the madness
- el amigo
- the friend
Reporting what someone else said
Contó que se llamaba Cardenio.
Dijo que había perdido a Luscinda.
Explicó que hacía penitencia por sus pecados.
Cardenio’s story never reaches us straight. A goatherd tells us what the young man said, and then the young man tells us what his father said, and what Don Fernando said. Everything in this part of the book arrives second hand, so this is the grammar the chapter runs on.
Two ways to pass on words
Direct: «Me llamo Cardenio», dijo. You repeat the words exactly, inside the Spanish quotation marks « ».
Indirect: Dijo que se llamaba Cardenio. You fold the words into your own sentence with que.
The first thing to fix: in English you can drop the word that, and most people do. He said his name was Cardenio. In Spanish que is never optional. Leave it out and the sentence breaks.
The tense goes back one step
When the reporting verb is in the past, which it almost always is in a story, the reported verb moves one step further back in time. English does the same thing, so the logic will feel familiar even if the forms do not.
| what he said | what you report | example |
|---|---|---|
| present | imperfect | «Tengo hambre» → Dijo que tenía hambre. |
| preterite | pluperfect | «Llegué ayer» → Dijo que había llegado el día antes. |
| perfect | pluperfect | «He perdido a Luscinda» → Dijo que había perdido a Luscinda. |
| future | conditional | «Contaré mi historia» → Dijo que contaría su historia. |
| imperfect | imperfect, no change | «Vivía en Andalucía» → Dijo que vivía en Andalucía. |
The new tense: el pluscuamperfecto
You cannot report a past without it, so here it is. Take the imperfect of haber and add the participle you already know from lessons 37 and 39.
| person | form |
|---|---|
| yo | había llegado |
| tú | habías llegado |
| él, ella, usted | había llegado |
| nosotros | habíamos llegado |
| vosotros | habíais llegado |
| ellos, ustedes | habían llegado |
It is the exact equivalent of English had arrived, and it does the same job outside reported speech too: it marks the earlier of two past events. Cuando llegamos, el mancebo ya se había ido. When we got there, the young man had already gone.
Two warnings. The participle after haber never agrees: había perdido la maleta, not perdida. And nothing may sit between haber and the participle. English allows he had never seen her. Spanish puts the adverb outside: nunca la había visto.
Everything else that shifts
The tense is not the only thing that moves. The whole point of view changes, so pronouns, possessives and time words move with it.
| direct | indirect |
|---|---|
| «Mi padre es rico.» | Dijo que su padre era rico. |
| «Te lo prometo.» | Dijo que me lo prometía. |
| «Llegué ayer.» | Dijo que había llegado el día antes. |
| «Vivo aquí.» | Dijo que vivía allí. |
Reporting a question
Yes or no questions take si, not que. Questions with a question word keep the word, and it keeps its accent.
| direct | indirect |
|---|---|
| «¿Tienes hambre?» | Preguntó si tenía hambre. |
| «¿Quién eres?» | Preguntó quién era. |
| «¿Dónde vives?» | Preguntó dónde vivía. |
Stories inside stories
From Sierra Morena onwards the book changes shape. Other people start walking into it with lives of their own, and Cervantes lets them talk. Cardenio tells his story, Dorotea tells hers, a captive soldier back from Algiers tells a long one, and a curious reader at an inn reads a whole novella aloud. Together these interpolated tales take up a good third of Part One.
They are the fashionable literature of 1605: love, honour, broken promises, a woman disguised as a man, a marriage prevented at the altar. Readers of the time expected exactly this, and the first audience enjoyed them. Later readers were less kind. Cervantes heard the complaints, and in Part Two, published in 1615, he all but abandoned the device and kept the focus on the two men on the road.
What is worth noticing is how the stories reach us, because it is the same technique the whole book is built on. Nobody simply speaks. The goatherd reports what the young man told the shepherds. Cardenio reports what his father said, what Luscinda’s father answered, what Don Fernando promised. Cervantes even frames the entire novel as a translation of a manuscript written in Arabic by a historian he claims not to fully trust. Everything is at one remove, and often at two or three.
That is why this chapter ends the way it does. Cardenio makes them promise not to interrupt, Don Quixote interrupts anyway over a point about a book of chivalry, and the story snaps shut mid sentence. It is a joke, and it is also the argument of the novel in miniature: the tale you are being told depends entirely on the man telling it, and on whether he is allowed to finish.
Cervantes in the original
Respondió el cabrero que ya lo había dicho, y que si él no lo había oído, que no era suya la culpa.
The goatherd answered that he had already said so, and that if the other man had not heard it, the fault was not his.
Sancho has just been thrashed by Cardenio and he blames the goatherd for not warning them that the man was subject to fits. The goatherd’s reply is the whole grammar of this lesson in one line. There is no quotation. Cervantes reports the answer, and the reported verbs go back a step exactly as they should: the goatherd would have said ya lo he dicho, and it becomes había dicho. Then si él no lo había oído, and no era suya la culpa. Notice the extra que before the last clause, repeated after the si phrase. Modern Spanish would leave it out, but in Cervantes it is normal and it helps the ear keep track of the long sentence. Notice too where the blame lands. This tiny exchange, two men squabbling over who should have said what to whom, is the same joke the chapter has just made on a large scale with Cardenio’s unfinished story. Somebody spoke, somebody else did not listen, and the thing that mattered got lost between them.