Level B2 · Chapter 77
The Flight of Clavileño
Master and squire ride blindfolded on a wooden horse that never leaves the garden, and each comes back with his own account of the journey.
What you will learn
- Say what will already have happened by now, without knowing for certain.
- Say what you would have done in somebody else’s place.
- Tell a guess about the past apart from a fact about the past.
Before you read
Watch for two-piece verbs that talk about a past nobody actually witnessed: ya habrán pasado la región del aire, yo no habría subido. Nothing happens in this chapter, so almost everything anybody says about it is a guess, and Spanish has a tense for exactly that.The story in easy Spanish
Al anochecer entraron en el jardín cuatro salvajes vestidos de hiedra verde.
At nightfall four wild men dressed in green ivy came into the garden.
Traían a hombros un gran caballo de madera y lo pusieron de pie en el suelo.
They were carrying a great wooden horse on their shoulders and they set it upright on the ground.
Uno de ellos dijo que subiera en aquella máquina el que tuviese ánimo para ello.
One of them said that whoever had the courage for it should mount that machine.
La condesa Trifaldi anunció que aquel era Clavileño el Alígero, el caballo del gigante.
Countess Trifaldi announced that this was Clavileño the Swift, the giant’s horse.
Volaba por los aires guiado por una clavija, y llegaría a Candaya en poco más de tres horas.
It flew through the air guided by a peg, and would reach Candaya in a little over three hours.
Solo podían montar dos, el caballero y su escudero, y tenían que ir vendados.
Only two could ride, the knight and his squire, and they had to go blindfolded.
Si abrían los ojos a semejante altura se marearían y caerían al suelo.
If they opened their eyes at such a height they would grow dizzy and fall.
Sancho dijo que él no habría subido ni por una ínsula, y que el gigante habría podido mandar una mula.
Sancho said he would not have climbed on even for an island, and that the giant could have sent a mule.
Añadió que de allí a Candaya había tres mil leguas y que en el camino se les haría de noche.
He added that it was three thousand leagues from there to Candaya and that night would fall on the way.
El duque le prometió que la ínsula tenía raíces hondas y que la encontraría donde la dejaba.
The duke promised him that the island had deep roots and that he would find it where he left it.
Los duques insistieron, medio en burla y medio en serio, y Sancho acabó cediendo.
The duke and duchess pressed him, half in jest and half in earnest, and Sancho gave in at last.
Antes de subir dijo que, si no volvían, ya le habrían contado a Teresa lo que había pasado.
Before mounting he said that if they did not come back, somebody would already have told Teresa what had happened.
Dijo también que él habría preferido morir en su cama y con su gente alrededor.
He also said that he would have preferred to die in his own bed with his own people around him.
Se colocó don Quijote delante, y Sancho subió detrás, en las ancas, que eran duras como el mármol.
Don Quixote sat in front, and Sancho climbed up behind, on the rump, which was as hard as marble.
Pidió un cojín y le dijeron que Clavileño no sufría ningún adorno encima.
He asked for a cushion and was told that Clavileño would suffer no trappings on him.
Los vendaron a los dos, y don Quijote tocó la clavija de la frente.
They blindfolded them both, and Don Quixote touched the peg in the forehead.
Entonces toda la gente del jardín se puso a gritar que ya iban por los aires.
At that everyone in the garden began shouting that they were already up in the air.
Gritaban que subían más que los halcones y que a aquellas alturas ya se habrían perdido de vista.
They shouted that they were rising higher than falcons and that at such a height they would have vanished from sight.
Los criados les acercaban unos fuelles grandes a la cara para que sintieran el viento del vuelo.
The servants worked big bellows at their faces so that they would feel the wind of the flight.
Después les llegaron estopas encendidas en cañas largas para que notasen el calor.
Then they brought burning tow on long canes so that they would feel the heat.
Don Quijote calculó en voz alta que ya habrían atravesado la región del aire.
Don Quixote calculated aloud that by now they would have crossed the region of air.
Dijo que estarían entrando en la del fuego y que no sabía cómo templar la clavija.
He said they must be entering that of fire and that he did not know how to ease the peg.
Sancho, con la venda puesta, dijo que aquello no era región de fuego sino de chamusquina.
Sancho, still blindfolded, said that this was no region of fire but of singeing.
Pidió que le bajaran un poco la venda, y su amo le contestó que ni se le ocurriera.
He asked for his blindfold to be lowered a little, and his master told him not even to think of it.
Le recordó que un escudero que abre los ojos habría deshecho el encantamiento entero.
He reminded him that a squire who opened his eyes would have undone the whole enchantment.
De pronto prendieron unas estopas en la cola del caballo, que iba llena de cohetes.
Suddenly they set light to some tow in the horse’s tail, which was full of rockets.
Clavileño estalló con un ruido enorme y los dos jinetes cayeron al suelo, chamuscados.
Clavileño exploded with an enormous bang and the two riders fell to the ground, scorched.
Cuando se quitaron las vendas no había ni salvajes ni condesa ni dueñas.
When they took off their blindfolds there were no wild men, no countess and no duennas.
Solo quedaba el jardín vacío y unas damas desmayadas en la hierba.
There was only the empty garden and a few ladies lying in a swoon on the grass.
Clavado en una lanza había un pergamino que decía que Malambruno se daba por satisfecho.
Pinned to a lance was a parchment saying that Malambruno declared himself satisfied.
Bastaba con haber intentado la aventura, y las doce dueñas ya estaban lisas y sin barbas.
Merely attempting the adventure had been enough, and the twelve duennas were already smooth and beardless.
Sancho contó entonces que él sí había levantado un poco la venda por junto a las narices.
Sancho then told them that he had in fact lifted the blindfold a little, up by his nose.
Dijo que había visto la Tierra del tamaño de un grano de mostaza y los hombres como avellanas.
He said he had seen the Earth the size of a mustard seed and men no bigger than hazelnuts.
La duquesa le hizo notar que entonces un solo hombre habría cubierto la Tierra entera.
The duchess pointed out that in that case one man alone would have covered the whole Earth.
Sancho contestó que la había mirado por un ladito y que aun así la había visto toda.
Sancho answered that he had looked at it from one little side and even so had seen all of it.
Contó además que se había apeado y que había jugado con siete cabrillas de colores.
He also told them that he had got down and played with seven little goats of different colours.
Don Quijote no dijo nada delante de todos, pero luego le habló al oído.
Don Quixote said nothing in front of everyone, but afterwards he spoke into his ear.
Le pidió que le creyese lo de la cueva de Montesinos, ya que él le creía lo del cielo.
He asked him to believe his account of the cave of Montesinos, since he believed Sancho’s account of the sky.
Vocabulary
The wooden horse
- el salvaje
- the wild man
- la hiedra
- the ivy
- la clavija
- the peg
- las ancas
- the rump
- el jinete
- the rider
- templar
- to ease, to adjust
- a hombros
- on their shoulders
- de madera
- wooden
The duke’s stage machinery
- la venda
- the blindfold
- vendar
- to blindfold
- el fuelle
- the bellows
- la estopa
- the tow
- el cohete
- the rocket
- estallar
- to explode
- chamuscado
- singed
- la chamusquina
- a burning smell
What Sancho says he saw
- el grano de mostaza
- the mustard seed
- la avellana
- the hazelnut
- la cabrilla
- the little goat
- apearse
- to get down
- marearse
- to get dizzy
- el pergamino
- the parchment
- liso
- smooth
- por un ladito
- from one little side
Will have happened and would have happened
A estas alturas ya se habrán perdido de vista.
Ya habrán atravesado la región del aire.
Yo no habría subido ni por una ínsula.
Both are built the same way, with haber plus a participle that never changes. The whole difference is which haber you use.
| tense | haber | example |
|---|---|---|
| future perfect | habré, habrás, habrá, habremos, habréis, habrán | Ya habrán llegado a Candaya. |
| conditional perfect | habría, habrías, habría, habríamos, habríais, habrían | Yo no habría subido a ese caballo. |
What each one is actually for
The future perfect in Spanish is far more often a guess about the past than a statement about the future, and this is the part English speakers do not expect. Ya habrán comido almost never means they will have eaten by some future point. In real speech it means they must have eaten by now. It is the polite, everyday way of saying you do not know.
| Spanish | what it really means |
|---|---|
| ¿Dónde está Sancho? Se habrá dormido. | He must have fallen asleep. |
| No contesta. Habrá salido. | He has probably gone out. |
| Habrán sido las cinco cuando llegaron. | It must have been about five. |
The conditional perfect is the one for a past that never happened. It is the main clause of a type-3 conditional, which the next lessons build on, and it stands perfectly well on its own: yo habría preferido morir en mi cama, el gigante habría podido mandar una mula.
The pair, side by side
| habrá | habría |
|---|---|
| Habrá llegado ya. (I think he has) | Habría llegado antes en mula. (he did not) |
| real past, uncertain | unreal past, imagined |
The flying horse and the deal at the end
Clavileño is not an invention of Cervantes. Flying wooden horses turn up in the Thousand and One Nights, in the French romance of Pierres and Magalona, which Don Quixote names while he is sitting on the thing, and in several chivalry books. Everyone in the garden recognises the reference, which is why the fake is so easy to sell. The stage effects are entirely period: bellows for wind, burning tow on canes for the heat of the sphere of fire, and a tail packed with rockets, which is how the machine ends up in pieces.
Don Quixote’s running commentary on the regions of air and fire is not madness. It is standard Aristotelian cosmology, taught in every university in Europe at the time, with the sphere of fire sitting between the upper air and the moon. He is doing physics. What is mad is applying it to a horse that has not moved.
Then comes the line the whole episode exists for. Sancho has told a story about seven coloured goats that is transparently false. Don Quixote does not challenge him in public. He waits, comes close and whispers a bargain: believe my cave and I will believe your sky. It is the first time in the novel that the two of them agree to hold a lie together, and it changes their relationship. They are no longer a madman and a sceptic. They are accomplices, and from here to the end of the book each one is protecting the other’s version of the world.
Cervantes in the original
Sancho, pues vos queréis que se os crea lo que habéis visto en el cielo, yo quiero que vos me creáis a mí lo que vi en la cueva de Montesinos; y no os digo más.
Sancho, since you want to be believed about what you saw in the sky, I want you to believe me about what I saw in the cave of Montesinos, and I say no more.
He says it into Sancho’s ear, so that nobody else in the garden hears it, and that detail matters as much as the words. Grammatically it is a small lesson in itself: two compound forms, habéis visto and the passive se os crea, and the verb of wanting pulling a subjunctive after it twice, que se os crea and que me creáis. What it does to the novel is bigger. Until now Don Quixote has been the one who believes and Sancho the one who does not. Here Don Quixote has caught his squire in a lie he cannot possibly credit, and instead of exposing him he offers a swap. From this whisper onwards the two of them are not deceiver and deceived but partners holding the same fiction up between them, and every reader has to decide whether that is friendship or the moment the madness spreads.