Lazarillo de Tormes (Dual-Language)

Anonymous, Stanley Appelbaum

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486120003
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Langue espagnole

The first picaresque novel, and one of the gems of Spanish literature. A brief, simply told tale of a rogue's adventures and misadventures — full of laconic cynicism and spiced with puns and wordplay. Introduction, Notes, and new English translation by Stanley Appelbaum.

Y todo va desta manera: que confesando yo no ser más santo que mis vecinos, desta nonada, que en este grosero estilo escribo, no me pesará que hayan parte y se huelguen con ello todos los que en ella algún gusto hallaren, y vean que vive un hombre con tantas fortunas, peligros y adversidades.

Suplico a Vuestra Merced reciba el pobre servicio de mano de quien lo hiciera más rico si su poder y deseo se conformaran. Y pues Vuestra Merced escribe se le escriba y relate el caso muy por extenso, parecióme no tomalle por el medio, sino del principio, porque se tenga entera noticia de mi persona, y también porque consideren los que heredaron nobles estados cuán poco se les debe, pues Fortuna fue con ellos parcial, y cuánto más hicieron los que, siéndoles contraria, con fuerza y maña remando salieron a buen puerto.

TRATADO PRIMERO

Cuenta Lázaro su vida y cúyo hijo fue

Pues sepa Vuestra Merced ante todas cosas que a mí llaman Lázaro de Tormes, hijo de Tomé Gonzales y de Antona Pérez, naturales de Tejares, aldea de Salamanca. Mi nacimiento fue dentro del río Tormes, por la cual causa tomé el sobrenombre, y fue desta manera: mi padre, que Dios perdone, tenía cargo de proveer una molienda de una aceña que está ribera de aquel río, en la cual fue molinero más de quince años; y estando mi madre una noche en la aceña, preñada de mí, tomóle el parto y parióme allí; de manera que con verdad me puedo decir nacido en el río.

Pues siendo yo niño de ocho años, achacaron a mi padre ciertas sangrías mal hechas en los costales de los que allí a moler venían, por lo cual fue preso, y confesó, y no negó, y padeció persecución por justicia. Espero en Dios que está en la Gloria, pues el Evangelio los llama bienaventurados. En este tiempo se hizo cierta armada contra moros, entre los cuales fue mi padre, que a la sazón estaba desterrado por el desastre ya dicho, con

And everything works the same way. Though I confess that I’m no holier than my neighbors, I won’t be sorry if all those who might take some pleasure in this trifle, which I’m writing in this crude style, will come to know it and enjoy it, and if they see that a man can survive so many misfortunes, perils, and adversities.

I beseech Your Honor to accept this poor handiwork of one who would make you richer if his power were as great as his wishes. And since Your Honor has written me requesting me to write to you and narrate the matter in great detail, I felt that I shouldn’t start in the middle, but begin at the beginning, so that you may become fully acquainted with me, and, in addition, so that those who have inherited noble rank may judge how little that is due to their own merits, since Fortune favored them, and how much more was accomplished by those who, finding Fortune hostile to them, reached a safe haven by rowing with strength and skill.

CHAPTER ONE

Lázaro Tells the Story of His Life and Whose Son He Was

Well, Your Honor should know first of all that I’m called Lázaro of Tormes, son of Tomé Gonzales and Antona Pérez, natives of Tejares, a village just outside Salamanca. My birth took place within the river Tormes, on account of which I adopted this surname, and it happened this way: My father, may God forgive him, was assigned to supervising the grinding of grain at a water mill located on the banks of that river; he was miller there for more than fifteen years. One night when my mother, pregnant with me, was in the mill, she was seized with her labor pains and gave birth to me there. And so I can truly say I was born in the river.

Well, when I was a boy of eight, my father was accused of some careless “blood-lettings” in the sacks of those who brought their grain to be ground there. On that account he was arrested, confessed and didn’t deny it, and suffered punishment at the hands of justice. I hope to God that he’s in glory, because the Gospel says that those who are persecuted for the sake of justice are blessed. At that time a certain naval expedition was mounted against the Moors,⁵ and my father was

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5. In 1494, the Pope, generously dividing up the world among the explorer nations, gave much of North Africa to the Spaniards, who needed only to conquer it! They made many raids in the course of the 16th century.

cargo de acemilero de un caballero que allá fue; y con su señor, como leal criado, feneció su vida.

Mi viuda madre, como sin marido y sin abrigo se viese, determinó arrimarse a los buenos por ser uno dellos, y vínose a vivir a la ciudad, y alquiló una casilla, y metióse a guisar de comer a ciertos estudiantes, y lavaba la ropa a ciertos mozos de caballos del Comendador de la Magdalena; de manera que fue frecuentando las caballerizas.

Ella y un hombre moreno, de aquellos que las bestias curaban, vinieron en conocimiento. Este algunas veces se venía a nuestra casa, y se iba a la mañana; otras veces de día llegaba a la puerta, en achaque de comprar huevos, y entrábase en casa. Yo, al principio de su entrada, pesábame con él y habíale miedo, viendo el color y mal gesto que tenía; mas de que vi que con su venida mejoraba el comer, fuile queriendo bien, porque siempre traía pan, pedazos de carne, y en el invierno leños, a que nos calentábamos.

De manera que, continuando la posada y conversación, mi madre vino a darme un negrito muy bonito, el cual yo brincaba y ayudaba a calentar. Y acuérdome que estando el negro de mi padrastro trebajando con el mozuelo, como el niño vía a mi madre y a mí blancos, y a él no, huía dél con miedo para mi madre, y señalando con el dedo decía: “¡Madre, coco!” Respondió él riendo: “¡Hideputa!” Yo, aunque bien mochacho, noté aquella palabra demi hermanico, y dije entre mí: “¡Cuántos debe de haber en el mundo que huyen de otros porque no se veen a sí mesmos!”

Quiso nuestra fortuna que la conversación del Zaide, que así se llamaba, llegó a oídos del mayordomo, y hecha pesquisa, hallóse que la mitad por medio de la cebada que para las bestias le daban hurtaba; y salvados, leña, almohazas, mandiles, y las mantas y sábanas de los caballos hacía perdidas; y cuando otra cosa no tenía, las bestias desherraba, y con todo esto acudía a mi madre para criar a mi hermanico. No nos maravillemos de un clérigo ni fraile porque el uno hurta

among them,⁶ being in exile at the time because of the above-mentioned misfortune. He was serving as a mule driver for a knight who was there; like a loyal servant, he died along with his master.

My widowed mother, finding herself without a husband or a roof over her head, decided to “throw in her lot with the good people, and so join their number.” She moved into town, rented a little house, and began to cook meals for some of the university students; she also did laundry for some stable hands in the employ of the Knight Commander of the Church of the Magdalen,⁷ so that she frequented the stables.⁸ She and a black man, one of those who took care of the horses, got to know each other very well. Sometimes⁹ he would come to our house and leave in the morning; other times he would come to our door in the daytime with the pretext of buying eggs, and would then come inside. When he first started visiting us, I disliked him and was afraid of him because of his color and his ugly face; but as soon as I realized that his visits meant better food for us, I grew to like him, because he always brought along bread, pieces of meat, and, in the wintertime, firewood for keeping us warm.

And so, as his stay with us and his intimacy with my mother continued, she finally presented me with a very cute little black brother, whom I used to dandle and help tuck in. And I remember that, once, when my unhappy¹⁰ stepfather was playing with the little boy, the child, seeing that my mother and I were white but his father wasn’t, was frightened by him, took refuge with my mother, and pointed at him, saying: “Mommy, the bogeyman!” Laughing, he replied: “You rascal!” Though I was still a boy, I took notice of what my little brother said, and I thought to myself: “How many people there must be in the world who shun others because they can’t see themselves!”

As our bad luck would have it, my mother’s intimacy with Zaid, for that was his name, came to the attention of the Knight Commander’s steward. When he investigated, it was discovered that my stepfather was stealing half of the barley he was given for the horses; he was pretending that bran, wood, currycombs, rubdown towels, and horse blankets and cloths were being lost. When he found nothing else to take, he used to unshoe the horses. He used all this to help my mother raise my little brother. Let’s not be surprised when a priest steals from

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6. At least one commentator, perhaps over-subtly, believes that the ambiguous Spanish wording implies a joke on the author’s part that Lázaro’s father was himself a Moor (a morisco, or convert).

7. This church in Salamanca was the property of the knightly order of Alcántara.

8. This may imply that she was a cheap prostitute.

9. Or “some nights,” if, as some editors believe, the Spanish algunas veces is an error for algunas noches.

10. With a pun on “black.”

de los pobres, y el otro de casa para sus devotas y para ayuda de otro tanto, cuando a un pobre esclavo el amor le animaba a esto.

Y probósele cuanto digo y aun más, porque a mí, con amenazas, me preguntaban, y como niño respondía y descubría cuanto sabía con miedo, hasta ciertas herraduras que por mandado de mi madre a un herrero vendí. Al triste de mi padrastro azotaron y pringaron, y a mi madre pusieron pena por justicia, sobre el acostumbrado centenario, que en casa del sobredicho Comendador no entrase ni al lastimado Zaide en la suya acogiese.

Por no echar la soga tras el caldero, la triste se esforzó y cumplió la sentencia; y por evitar peligro y quitarse de malas lenguas, se fue a servir a los que al presente vivían en el mesón de la Solana; y allí, padeciendo mil importunidades, se acabó de criar mi hermanico hasta que supo andar, y a mí hasta ser buen mozuelo, que iba a los huéspedes por vino y candelas y por lo demás que me mandaban.

En este tiempo vino a posar al mesón un ciego, el cual, pareciéndole que yo sería para adestralle, me pidió a mi madre, y ella me encomendó a él diciéndole cómo era hijo de un buen hombre, el cual, por ensalzar la fe, había muerto en la de los Gelves, y que ella confiaba en Dios no saldría peor hombre que mi padre, y que le rogaba me tratase bien y mirase por mí, pues era huérfano. Él respondió que así lo haría y que me recibía no por mozo, sino por hijo. Y así le comencé a servir y adestrar a mi nuevo y viejo amo.

Como estuvimos en Salamanca algunos días, pareciéndole a mi amo que no era la ganancia a su contento, determinó irse de allí, y cuando nos hubimos de partir yo fui a ver a mi madre, y ambos llorando, me dio su bendición y dijo: —Hijo, ya sé que no te veré más; procura de ser bueno, y Dios te guíe; criado te he y con buen amo te he puesto, válete por ti.

Y así, me fui para mi amo, que esperándome estaba. Salimos de Salamanca, y llegando a la puente, está a la entrada

the poorbox to support his sweethearts, or when a friar plunders his monastery to help out his own “lady devotees,”¹¹ if a poor slave was emboldened to do this out of love.

All the charges against him that I’ve mentioned, and more, were proved, because they interrogated me with threats and, child that I was, my fear led me to answer and reveal all I knew, even confessing that, at my mother’s request, I had sold some horseshoes to a blacksmith. My unfortunate stepfather was flogged and had hot fat dripped onto his wounds. My mother’s sentence, over and above the usual hundred lashes,¹² was never again to enter the house of the above-mentioned Knight Commander nor to receive the wounded Zaid in her own house.

So as not to make a bad matter worse,¹³ the unhappy woman took heart and complied with the sentence. In order to avoid danger and free herself from slander, she became a servant of the people who were then running the Solana tavern.¹⁴ There, suffering a thousand annoyances, she managed to raise my little brother until he could walk, and me until I was quite a big boy. I used to fetch wine and candles for the customers, and whatever else they sent me for.

At that time a blind man came to stay at the inn. Thinking I would make a suitable guide for him, he asked my mother for me. She entrusted me to him, telling him that I was the son of a good man who, in an effort to exalt our religion, had died on the expedition to Los Gelves;¹⁵ she trusted in God that I wouldn’t turn out to be a worse man than my father, and she asked him to treat me well and look after me, because I was an orphan. He answered that he would, and that he was taking me on not as a servant but as a son. And so I began to serve and guide my master, who was both new and old.

After we had been in Salamanca several days, my master felt that he wasn’t earning as much as he would like, and he decided to leave. When we were to set out, I went to see my mother. We both wept, and she gave me her blessing, saying: “Son, I know now that I’ll never see you again. Try to be a good boy, and may God direct your ways. I’ve brought you up and I’ve placed you with a good master. Take care of yourself.”

And so I went to meet my master, who was waiting for me. We left Salamanca and came to the bridge. At the city end of it, there’s a stone

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11. This sentence, very ambiguous in the original, has been interpreted in a surprisingly large number of ways.

12. As a “heretic” cohabiting with a non-Christian. At least two Spanish edi...