Heath's Modern Language Series: Spanish Short Stories Part 33

=Page 151.=--1.{151-1} =llegar y besar el santo=, _to meet promptly with success_. The expression probably has its origin in the fact that at the time of a pilgrimage to a holy shrine one must usually wait a considerable while before being able to kiss the image of the saint, and fortunate is he who arrives and kisses without delay.

=Page 152.=--1.{152-1} =trece=, a slight discrepancy; according to the statement at the beginning of the story there were fourteen.

=Page 154.=--1.{154-1} =ya no vivo=, _I shall have no peace_.

=Page 158.=--1.{158-1} =Elvira de Castaneda= was doubtless the lady's maiden name, which in Spain a woman retains after marriage, and to which she joins, connected by _de_, her husband's name.

=Page 160.=--1.{160-1} =el emperador=, Napoleon Bonaparte.

=Page 161.=--1.{161-1} =5.= = =quinto=, _the Fifth Regiment_.

2.{161-2} =Los guerreros ... pusieron= = _dicen que los guerreros del claustro pusieron_.

=Page 163.=--1.{163-1} For the life and works of Pereda, see page xi, of the _Introduction_. The text of _La leva_ is taken from the _Obras completas de D. Jose M. de Pereda, Tomo V, Escenas Montanesas, Madrid, 1901_. _La leva_ consists of several more or less detached incidents.

Some of these incidents, in whole or in part, have been selected for this volume, the selections amounting in all to two-thirds of the entire story. For the complete story, the reader is referred to _Escenas Montanesas_. _La leva_ is a realistic description of the life of the fisher-folk of Santander in Northern Spain, and of the distress caused amongst these poor people by compulsory service in the Spanish navy.

It is written partly in dialect; but the dialect, for the most part, is not local, as most of the expressions occur in the speech of the lower cla.s.ses wherever Spanish is spoken.

2.{163-2} =que no hay ... resista=, _that is irresistible_.

=Page 165.=--1.{165-1} =poeta ... Mancha=; Pereda believes that only an inhabitant of the interior provinces of Castile or la Mancha would be likely to idealize in poetic language the rough life of a seaman or a fisherman.

=Page 166.=--1.{166-1} =Que se te pudre?= _what ails you?_

2.{166-2} =Salu= = _salud_. Both final _d_ and intervocalic _d_ are often dropped by the common people throughout the entire Spanish-speaking world. Cf. =uste= (_usted_), =quitao= (_quitado_), =arrastrao= (_arrastrado_), =na= (_nada_), =too= (_todo_), =lao= (_lado_), =salio= (_salido_), =sentio= (_sentido_), etc.

3.{166-3} Note the common use of the augmentative suffix, _-on_, _-ona_, in this story: =ingratona= (from _ingrata_); =chismosona= (from _chismosa_), =borrachona= (from _borracha_), =viciosona= (from _viciosa_), =flojon= (from _flojo_), etc. These augmentatives are here also depreciatives.

=Page 167.=--1.{167-1} =el mi hijo= = _mi hijo_ or _el hijo mio_. Thus one may hear _un mi amigo_ for _un amigo mio_, etc. The use of a possessive adjective before its noun, and preceded by another modifier, was once common, but it is now archaic or poetic.

2.{167-2} =angelucos=; note this use of the diminutive ending _-uco_ in the Montana. Note also =san Pedruco= (from _Pedro_). These diminutives here express affection.

3.{167-3} =que poner=, _to put on_.

=Page 168.=--1.{168-1} =Martiles= (= _Martires_); jewels and candles are frequently offered to the pictures and images of saints and martyrs to secure their favor and a.s.sistance in enterprises, races, bull-fights, illness, etc.

2.{168-2} =Emeterio= and =Celedonio= were Roman soldiers. They became Christians and suffered martyrdom at Calahorra, Spain.

=Page 170.=--1.{170-1} =dos reales y medio= = approximately 21 _cuartos_, or 63 _centimos_. See these words in Vocab.

2.{170-2} =la=; cf. page 19, note 3.

3.{170-3} =habran=; cf. page 3, note 1.

4.{170-4} =dos reales en plata= = a silver 50-centimos piece.

=Page 171.=--1.{171-1} =el demonio ... mujer=, _the devil himself cannot get rid of this woman_.

=Page 172.=--1.{172-1} Note the fall of initial _d_ in =e= (_de_), =icen= (_dicen_), etc. This is common.

2.{172-2} =la echara los Avangelios= (= _Evangelios_). This is by a.n.a.logy with _echar maldiciones_ ('curses'), _echar suertes_ ('lots'), etc.

3.{172-3} =cogio ... lamber=, _she got frightfully drunk_. The lower cla.s.ses sometimes use =cafetera= for _borrachera_, 'drunkenness'. _No poderse lamer_ = _estar tan privado de si como el perro que no puede lamerse la herida_, 'to be as much overcome as a dog that can not lick its wound'.

4.{172-4} =paece=; note the fall of intervocalic _r_ in =pa= (_para_), =paece= (_parece_), etc. This is common.

=Page 173.=--1.{173-1} =se habia trinca(d)o=; this may mean colloquially, _she had made fast to_, or _she had drunk_.

=Page 174.=--1.{174-1} =por hacerme ... gentes= = _porque estas pobres gentes me hacen participe_.

=Page 175.=--1.{175-1} =apuyaaa=; perhaps = =apura(os)=.

2.{175-2} =sin que ... nadie=, _without anyone taking trouble in my behalf_.

=Page 176.=--1.{176-1} =traje=; his dress was evidence that he had been drafted into the king's navy.

2.{176-2} =sobre que ... p.r.o.nto=, _what must be, the sooner the better_.

3.{176-3} =guelva=; the change of initial _vue-_ or _bue-_ to _gue-_ is common in the speech of the lower cla.s.ses in Spain and in Spanish America. See _New-Mexican Spanish_, by E. C. Hills, in _Publications of the Modern Language a.s.sociation of America, 1906_, pages 706 +

=Page 180.=--1.{180-1} =San Martin=; beyond San Martin point is situated the main harbor, where lay at anchor the steamer that awaited the conscripts.

=Page 181.=--1.{181-1} =Cid=; see _Cid_ in the Vocab. Those in the =altas regiones= are the governing cla.s.ses. Pereda fears that his account of the suffering caused by conscription will have no effect upon the rulers of Spain.

2.{181-2} =pintor de costumbres=; Pereda was, in the main, a realistic painter of customs and manners.

3.{181-3} =que pueden=, _who have the power_.

=Page 182.=--1.{182-1} For the life and works of Fernandez Guardia, see page xviii of the _Introduction_. The text of _Un alma_ is taken from _Cuentos Ticos, por D. Ricardo Fernandez Guardia, San Jose de Costa Rica, 1901_. The reader should note the purely cla.s.sical Castilian used in this story, which suggests the English of Nathaniel Hawthorne or of Washington Irving.

=Page 185.=--1.{185-1} =fuego de ... armo=, _you should have seen the tempest that was aroused!_ Cf. page 19, note 3.

2.{185-2} =su= is well used here, since _una jerigonza suya salvajina_ would be awkward. Cf. page 167, note 1.

=Page 186.=--1.{186-1} =gu sos=; =sos= = _sois_; =gu= = _o_ (the _g_ is here a soft spirant, as in _agua_).

=Page 188.=--1.{188-1} =se anonadaba ... deleitoso=, _she was lost in a rapturous absorption into the divine_.

2.{188-2} =que poder=, _that she could_.

=Page 190.=--1.{190-1} For the life of Diaz Garces, see page xviii of the _Introduction_.

The text of _Juan Neira_ is taken from _Pajinas Chilenas, por D. Joaquin Diaz Garces (anjel Pino), Santiago de Chile, 1907_.

_Juan Neira_ is a description of conditions that existed till recently in the rural districts of Chile. To-day the large estates are being divided into small farms, the towns are growing, and education is becoming general. Chile and Argentina are among the few Spanish-American countries in which the majority of the inhabitants are of European stock. This fact, together with their moderate climate, explains the relatively greater progress of these two states, as compared with the other Spanish-American countries. See also Chile in Vocab.

The student should note the difference of language and style in the two Spanish-American stories. _Un alma_ is written in cla.s.sical Spanish, with only a few "Americanisms" that are used consciously and with due apologies; while the story of _Juan Neira_ is told in the current language of the upper cla.s.ses of Chile, with many dialectic words and other "Americanisms." The Spanish of _Un alma_ resembles the English of Nathaniel Hawthorne, while that _Juan Neira_ is more like the language of much contemporaneous fiction in the United States.

_Juan Neira_ is given with the orthography that prevails in the South-American countries that face the Pacific. Note especially: