Level B1 · Chapter 51
Zoraida’s Letters
A cane comes down from the window of the house next door, with gold and a letter in Arabic. It is written by a woman who wants to escape from Algiers and can tell nobody.
What you will learn
- Report what somebody else said without repeating their exact words.
- Shift the tense of the verb when you move into reported speech.
- Report somebody else’s question with si and with question words.
Before you read
Almost the whole of this text is a letter being repeated out loud by the man who received it. That means nearly every sentence is somebody reporting somebody else: decía que, contaba que, preguntaba si, le pedía que. Watch what happens to the verb after each of those. It moves one step back in time, every single time.The story in easy Spanish
La caña volvió al día siguiente, y al otro, y siempre a la misma hora.
The cane came back the next day, and the day after, and always at the same hour.
Dentro del pañuelo había monedas de oro y un papel escrito en árabe.
Inside the cloth there were gold coins and a paper written in Arabic.
Ruy Pérez no sabía leer aquella lengua y no se atrevía a enseñarle el papel a nadie.
Ruy Pérez could not read that language, and he did not dare show the paper to anyone.
Buscó por fin a un renegado, un español que había cambiado de religión en Argel.
At last he sought out a renegade, a Spaniard who had changed his religion in Algiers.
Le pidió que se lo tradujera y le prometió una parte del oro.
He asked him to translate it for him and promised him a share of the gold.
El renegado le advirtió que aquella carta podía costarle la vida a cualquiera.
The renegade warned him that that letter could cost anybody his life.
La carta decía que quien escribía era una mujer y que se llamaba Zoraida.
The letter said that the person writing was a woman, and that her name was Zoraida.
Explicaba que era hija de Agi Morato, uno de los hombres más ricos de la ciudad.
It explained that she was the daughter of Agi Morato, one of the richest men in the city.
Contaba que, cuando era niña, una esclava cristiana le había hablado de Lela Marién.
It related that, when she was a child, a Christian slave woman had spoken to her of Lela Marién.
Añadía que desde entonces quería ser cristiana y salir de aquella casa.
It added that ever since she had wanted to be a Christian and to leave that house.
Preguntaba si él era un hombre de bien y si sabría guardar un secreto.
It asked whether he was an honourable man and whether he could keep a secret.
Le pedía que no se lo contara a nadie, porque su padre la mataría.
It begged him to tell nobody, because her father would kill her.
Decía que la echaría a un pozo y que la cubriría de piedras.
It said that he would throw her into a well and cover her with stones.
Y añadía algo más, que era lo importante de toda la carta.
And it added something more, which was the important part of the whole letter.
Si él encontraba la manera de escapar, ella pagaría el viaje entero.
If he found a way to escape, she would pay for the whole journey.
Quería que la llevara con él y que se casara con ella en tierra de cristianos.
She wanted him to take her with him and to marry her in the land of the Christians.
Aquel papel valía más que todo el rescate que su familia no había podido pagar.
That paper was worth more than all the ransom his family had never been able to pay.
Ruy Pérez leyó la traducción 3 veces antes de creerla.
Ruy Pérez read the translation three times before he believed it.
Contestó por la misma caña, con la letra más pequeña que pudo.
He answered by the same cane, in the smallest handwriting he could manage.
Le escribió que sí, que era hombre de palabra y que no la engañaría nunca.
He wrote to her that yes, he was a man of his word and would never deceive her.
Le prometió que haría exactamente lo que ella le pedía.
He promised her that he would do exactly what she was asking.
Desde el patio se veía aquella ventana alta, cerrada durante todo el día.
From the yard you could see that high window, shut all day long.
En la venta, mientras él hablaba, la mujer joven escuchaba en silencio.
At the inn, while he was speaking, the young woman listened in silence.
No entendía casi nada de lo que se decía en aquella sala.
She understood almost nothing of what was being said in that room.
Pero cuando oyó su propio nombre, sonrió y repitió que ella era María.
But when she heard her own name she smiled and said again that she was María.
Todos se volvieron a mirarla y nadie supo qué contestar.
Everyone turned to look at her, and nobody knew what to answer.
Vocabulary
Reporting what someone said
- decir que
- to say that
- contar que
- to relate that
- explicar que
- to explain that
- añadir que
- to add that
- preguntar si
- to ask whether
- pedir que
- to ask someone to
- prometer que
- to promise that
- advertir que
- to warn that
The letter and the language
- la carta
- the letter
- la letra
- the handwriting
- traducir
- to translate
- la traducción
- the translation
- la lengua
- the language
- el secreto
- the secret
- el discurso
- the speech
- el papel
- the paper
Gold and danger
- la moneda
- the coin
- el oro
- gold
- el rescate
- the ransom
- el pozo
- the well
- escapar
- to escape
- engañar
- to deceive
- la esclava
- the slave woman
- la ruina
- ruin
Reported speech in the past
La carta decía que era una mujer y que se llamaba Zoraida.
Preguntaba si él era un hombre de bien.
Le prometió que haría lo que ella le pedía.
You met a first version of this back in lesson 40. This is the complete machine, and once you have it you can repeat anything anyone ever said to you.
1. One step back
When the reporting verb is in the past, and here it always is, every verb inside the report moves one step further into the past. There are no exceptions worth learning at this level.
| her words | reported | English |
|---|---|---|
| Soy una mujer. | Decía que era una mujer. | present becomes imperfect |
| Una esclava me habló de ella. | Contaba que una esclava le había hablado de ella. | preterite becomes pluperfect |
| He querido ser cristiana. | Decía que había querido ser cristiana. | perfect becomes pluperfect |
| Pagaré el viaje. | Añadía que pagaría el viaje. | future becomes conditional |
| Llévame contigo. | Pedía que la llevara consigo. | imperative becomes past subjunctive |
| Yo era niña entonces. | Decía que era niña entonces. | imperfect does not move |
That last row matters. The imperfect and the pluperfect are already as far back as Spanish goes, so they stay where they are. Everything else shifts.
2. Reporting a question
Two shapes, and which one you use depends on the question itself.
| kind of question | joined with | example |
|---|---|---|
| yes or no | si | Preguntaba si era hombre de bien. |
| with a question word | the same word, still accented | Preguntó dónde estaba la caña. |
Two details that catch people out. The accent stays on dónde, quién, cuándo, qué even though there is no question mark left in the sentence, because the word is still asking. And the question marks themselves disappear entirely: Preguntó si era hombre de bien ends with a full stop.
3. Everything else that moves
The verb is not the only thing that shifts. The whole point of view moves from the speaker to the person reporting, and Spanish adjusts the small words to match.
| in her words | in the report |
|---|---|
| yo, mi | ella, su |
| tú, tu | él, su |
| aquí | allí |
| hoy | aquel día |
| mañana | al día siguiente |
| este, esta | aquel, aquella |
And one thing that never moves: the que. Spanish repeats it before every new reported clause, where English happily leaves it out. Le escribió que sí, que era hombre de palabra y que no la engañaría. Three que in one sentence is normal and correct.
Lela Marién, and the words left untranslated
Lela Marién is lella Maryam, my lady Mary, the Virgin, in the Arabic spoken in Algiers. Cervantes writes it in that form and leaves it there. He does the same with other words all through this episode, and the effect on a Spanish reader is deliberate: you can hear what is being said, you can more or less work out what it means, and you never quite own it. That is the condition of everyone in the story. Ruy Pérez cannot read the letter that will change his life. Zoraida cannot say a word of the language of the country she wants to reach. The renegade sits between them and is trusted by neither.
The renegades were real and there were thousands of them: Christians who had converted to Islam in Algiers, some from conviction, most from calculation, since a convert could own property, sail a ship, and stop being merchandise. Spain regarded them with a horror that had a great deal of fear in it, because everyone knew a family with one. Cervantes, who spent five years watching the process from the inside, refuses to write this one as a villain. He translates the letter honestly, he takes his cut, and he does what he promised.
Then there is the moment at the end, which is one of the quietest things in the book. The young woman has sat through a long story in a language she does not speak, in a room full of strangers. She hears one word she recognises, her own name, and she corrects it. Not Zoraida. María. In four words she tells the whole room who she has decided to be, and the room has no idea what to say to her.
Cervantes in the original
adonde dice Lela Marién quiere decir Nuestra Señora la Virgen María
where it says Lela Marién it means Our Lady the Virgin Mary.
This is the renegade at work, and it is reported speech in its purest form: a man telling you what a piece of paper says. Look at how the sentence is built. Adonde dice points at a place in the letter, quiere decir gives you what that place means, and the verb decir appears twice in ten words, once for the text and once for the translation, which is precisely the doubling that reporting always involves. Note too that the whole sentence is in the present, not the past, because the letter goes on saying it every time anyone reads it. That is the one exception this lesson does not drill: when what was said is still true, or still written down, Spanish can leave the verb where it is. And keep an eye on the name itself. He does not replace Lela Marién with Virgen María and move on. He puts the two side by side and lets you see the seam, which is what a translator does when he is being honest and what Cervantes does throughout this episode.