015. The Savior Calandra Lark (La Calandria Salvadora)
A man who had a family that was the envy of everyone due to their affection for one another and the good directions of their affairs, had the misfortune of losing his wife and was left a widower with an older young boy and a twelve-year old girl. He soon saw that he could not attend to his affairs and, at the same time, to care for the house and his children, so that he decided to hire a housekeeper, who was herself a widow and had a daughter, who was also twelve-year old.
But it happened that the father died soon after and the two siblings were left in the care of the housekeeper, together with her daughter. As the siblings did not like this arrangement, the brother said to his sister one day:
I have thought about leaving here to go search for work, and when I have made my fortune, I will send for you and you will come and live with me, for we are not going to get along well with this housekeeper here, who likes neither you nor me.
Although it seemed fine to the girl, she couldn’t help but cry [upon] thinking what was going to become of her while her brother was away. And while she was crying, the window in her room suddenly opened and a calandra lark flew in, and behind the lark, a fairy appeared at the window, who said [this] to the girl:
Do not fear your brother being away. Find a beautiful cage for this calandra lark and keep her in there with you, for she will warn you of all the dangers and will help you in all situations when you need her. So let your brother go and let him always remember that you have the three graces of God.
And the girl, cheered up [by the conversation], searched for the most beautiful cage that she could find and put the lark in it. And the next day the brother set out on his journey, and in spite of everything, the girl said goodbye to him with a heavy heart.
So the boy walked and walked until he reached a city. In that city lived a king and he went to the palace determined to ask for an audience [with the king]; and when he met the king he saw that he was almost as young as he was. With great excitement, he asked if the king could obtain a position for him in the palace, and the king, being amused with the boy [‘s request], told him that he would do his best to get one for him. And he related this to his mother, but she told him that they did not have any [open] job for the boy and she proposed to offer him a job outside of the palace such as, for example, caring for the turkeys. And [so] the boy stayed on as a turkey caretaker.
Since the king liked him, he often went to where the boy was tending to the turkeys and chatted with him. And he liked the boy so much that he spoke to his mother, the queen, again:
The truth is that this boy is very nice and [always being very] cheerful and I’d like to give him a better position.
And the mother, who saw her son’s interest [in the boy] and [also] of how much they spoke with one another, so she told him:
Very well, we will make him your strolling assistant and he will keep you company whenever you go out, so you can talk about what is most entertaining to you both.
And it was said and done, [and] from then on the king and the boy went on a stroll together every afternoon.
And on one of those afternoons, as they strolled through the palace gardens, the king asked:
Listen, do you have a girlfriend?
I don’t, sir -said the boy-. And you sir? Do you have a girlfriend?
I don’t have one -replied the king-. And I don’t intend to have one until I find a girl who has God’s three graces.
The boy then remembered the fairy’s words and he said to the king:
Well, my sister has them.
Is that so? -said the king-. Well I’ll write her a letter right away asking her to come here [at once].
He did this, but, on reaching the house where the girl lived, the king’s courier handed the letter to the housekeeper, and when she opened and read it, she notified her own daughter and said to her:
Tomorrow the three of us will leave for the palace because the king commands it. But when we arrive I will say that you are the girl whom the king had sent for and you will marry him. In the meantime, do everything as I tell you.
The next day the three of them set out for the city. After a long walk, the housekeeper stopped at a bridge over a very fast-moving river and called for the two girls to [come to] view the flowing water; the sister, who did not leave the calandra lark’s side, put the cage down on the ground to lean out for a look, and when she was looking, [with] her body half leaning out, the housekeeper signaled to her daughter and between them two they pushed the girl into the river, picked up the cage and her luggage and continued on their way.
At last, the housekeeper, her daughter and the calandra lark in her cage arrived at the palace. The king together with the boy came out to receive them, and the housekeeper’s daughter, having been told by her mother, embraced him as if she was his own sister and when he, perplexed, was about to ask for his real sister, he heard the calandra lark said to him in a whisper:
You, shut up! You, shut up!
and [thus] the boy kept silent, but he was sad and pensive.
The king left the housekeeper and the boy and went with the daughter to show her his rooms. And the boy wanted to ask the housekeeper [about his sister], but the calandra lark again warned him:
You, shut up! You, shut up!
During this time, the king was showing his rooms to the housekeeper’s daughter and in one of them was a dressing table, and the king said to her:
And now, why don’t you cry a little?
The daughter, perplexed, replied [in turn]:
Why should I cry if I don’t feel like doing so?
Then the king told her:
Well, wash your hands, for they are dirty from your travel.
The daughter washed her hands and nothing happened.
The king, surprised, then said to her:
Now, comb your hair.
The daughter combed her hair with a comb from the dressing table and again nothing happened.
The king, on seeing this, flew into a rage and returned with the daughter to the room where the housekeeper and the boy were waiting, and he called his servants and said:
The two women will be imprisoned in the palace until I decide on what to do with them. And as for this fake and liar -he said, addressing the boy- you will hang him up by his feet on the very tree under which he lied to me.
And the boy was about to protest to the king when he heard the calandra lark say to him in a low voice:
You, shut up! You, shut up!
and he kept quiet again.
Let us go back now to find out the fate of the real sister. So she fell into the river, being pushed by the housekeeper and her daughter, and let herself be carried along by the current until she caught hold of some bushes which grew out from a bend [in the river] and, clinging to them, she managed to reach the bank where they were rooted [in].
A shepherd who was strolling nearby saw her all wet and bruised by the bank and he asked her if she had fallen into the river and the girl told him the truth, that they had thrown her [into the river] from the bridge. Then the shepherd took pity on her and he carried her to his hut to dry [herself] off.
But the wife of the shepherd, as soon as she saw such a beautiful girl arriving [in their house], felt jealous and became so furious with her spouse that the girl, to calm her down, said:
For God’s sake, don’t be like that, for I am going to look for another house where they could help me out.
But she was so lonely and tired that she couldn’t hold back her tears; and the moment that she began to weep, it began to rain without [the sky] being cloudy, with greater force the more she cried, and the little daughter of the shepherds said to her mother:
Mother, don’t let her go, [for] it is raining heavily [outside].
The girl, on hearing this, stopped crying and at this same instant the rain [also] stopped. And when everyone had calmed down, the girl said to the shepherdess:
With your permission, I’m going to wash myself a little and comb my hair, and then I will leave.
And it happened that, while she was washing her hands, roses bloomed in the water; and when she combed her hair, pearls fell from it.
The shepherdess, on seeing this, thought that a saint from heaven had appeared before them and she begged her to stay with them.
So the girl stayed in the hut with the shepherds and every morning, when she combed her hair, the shepherdess would collect a small pile of pearls and soon filled a bag with them, and she said to her husband:
Why don’t we go to the city, where I could sell these pearls, which would allow us to live more comfortably?
They did this and earned so much money that they decided to move to the city and rented a beautiful house that was right in front of the royal palace.
[At this new house] The girl liked to go out on the main balcony to embroider. One day she watched a servant taking the cage with her calandra lark out to one of the palace balconies and she was overjoyed and said to it:
Good day, precious lark, I have missed you so much.
Good day, miss!
said the lark.
Perhaps you know the whereabouts of my poor brother?
the girl asked.
He’s [being] hung from a tree in the palace
responded the lark.
Woe to me and my unfortunate brother!
the girl became upset and began to cry her heart out, and right away it began to rain and a servant appeared and hurriedly removed the lark from the balcony.
This went on day after day until the servant, suspecting something unusual, stayed to spy from behind the trellis after he took the lark out on the balcony; and when he saw what happened and that it began to rain, he put away the cage and went to tell the king of what he had seen. Then the king became thoughtful for a while and finally he sent for the servant and tasked him to go to the girl’s house and tell her that the king was inviting her over for lunch.
So the girl arrived at the palace and they [all] sat around the [dining] table, the king, his mother the queen, and the girl. In the middle of lunch, the king ordered the lark to be brought in and he asked the girl:
What conversation did you have with this lark when they took it out on the balcony?
And the girl told him what they spoke about and then, being saddened, she began to cry and immediately it began to rain.
The king [then] ordered the boy to be taken down from the tree and brought in to see him. And as soon as he entered the dining room, the siblings recognized one another and embraced each other with great joy.
Then the king ordered a servant:
Bring a wash bowl and a towel here.
When these arrived, he offered the wash bowl to the girl, who washed her hands [in it] and roses bloomed in the water.
The king could scarcely hide his joy, but he rose from the table anyway and begged the girl to accompany him to a room where there was a dressing table; and when they were there, the king said to her:
Now take a comb and comb your hair.
The girl did this and pearls began to fall from her hair.
Then the king could no longer conceal his joy and returned to the room where the queen mother and the boy were waiting for him and, turning to his mother, he said:
Mother, she is my wife, who has the three graces of God.
They were married a few days later, and the brother stayed on to live in the palace as a royal prince. Moreover, the shepherds entered the service of the royal family and stayed in a beautiful little house situated in the palace gardens. And with regard to the housekeeper and her daughter, he banished them to outside the boundaries of his kingdom and no one ever heard from them again.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Acaso – maybe, perhaps
Acordar – to agree; to remind; acordarse – to remember
Afligirse – (to be distressed) to get upset
Agarrar – to grab, to take hold of
Aguardar – to wait for, to expect
A gusto – comfortable, at ease
A la vez – at the same time, simultaneously
Al cabo de – after
Alcanzar – to reach, to catch
Almuerzo – lunch
Alojarse – to stay, to be housed
Alquilar – to rent
Ama – wet nurse
Ama de llaves – housekeeper
A menudo – often
Apenas – barely, hardly
A pesar de todo – in spite of everything
Arbusto – bush, shrub
Arreciar – to intensify, to get worse
Arreglar – (to restore) to fix, to repair; (to organize) to arrange; (to clean), to tidy; (to agree) to arrange
Asomar – to appear, to come out
Asomarse – (to check) to look
Asuntos – matters, affairs
Atender – to look after, to take care of
Ausencia – absence;
Auxiliar – to help
Avisar – to warn; to tell, to notify
Ayudante – assistant, helper
Bultos – bags, pieces of luggage
Cabaña – cabin, hut, shack
Caer bien – to like
Caer en gracia – fall into grace; fall from grace
Calandria – calandra lark (bird)
Callarse – to be quiet, to shut up
Calmarse – to calm down, to calm, to quiet down
Cansada – tired
Caudaloso – (mighty) wide, fast-flowing, large
Celos – jealousy
Celosía – lattice, latticeworks; trellis
Chalar – to chat, to talk
Cogerse – to grab, to hold on to
Cólera – anger, rage
Comedor – dining room, dining hall
Congoja – anguish, distress, grief
Conseguir – to get, to obtain
Corriente – current (air, water); common, ordinary
Cuando haya – when there is
Dejar partir – letting go
Dejarse – to let oneself
Dentro – inside, in
De paseo – strolling; for a walk, for a ride
De repente – suddenly
Desdichado – (wretched) unlucky, unfortunate
Desgracia – misfortune, tragedy
Despedir – to say goodbye
Desterrar – to deport, to banish, to exile
De tal modo que – to such an extent
Detenerse – to stop
De todas formas – in any case, anyway
Disimular – to hide, to conceal
Divertir – to delight, to amuse, to entertain
Echar de menos – (to long for) to miss
Embustero – lying, deceitful
Encaminarse – to head toward, to set out for
En cuanto a – (in reference to) with regard to, as for
Enfadarse – to get angry (used in Spain, enojarse is used in Latin America)
Enraizar – to take root
Entristecer – to make sad, to sadden
Espiar – to spy on, to keep watch on
Ganas – desires
Guardar – (to observe) to comply
(El/un) hada – fairy
Haría – s/he would do
Holgadamente – comfortably
Infante – prince, princess
Justo – just
Lástima – pity, sorry
Lavamanos – sink, washbowl
Llanto – crying, weeping
Lograr – to be able to
Magulladuras – bruises
Mujer – woman, wife
Mentir – to lie, to tell a falsehood
Mojado/a – wet, soaked, drenched
Montar – to ride; montar en cólera – became angry
Montoncito – a small pile
Nombrar – to appoint
No pudo por menos – could not for less; had to
No se ponga así – don’t be like that
Nublado – cloudy
Orilla – shore, bank
Paradero – whereabouts
Pavos – turkey; silly
Ponerse en camino – to set off, to set out
Presa(s) – (incarcerated) imprisoned
Pronto – (before long) soon; fast, quickly
Puente – bridge
Que a su vez – which in turn
Quedarse – to stay
Recodo – bend (river)
Recoger – to pick up, to gather
Reconfortar – to comfort, to cheer up; to revitalize
Reponer – (to respond) to reply –repuso– also, to replace
Reprimir – to control, to suppress
Retirar – (to carry away) to remove, to take away
Retroceder – to back up; to reverse; to move backwards
Rogar – (to implore) to beg; (to offer a prayer) to pray
Rumbo – (orientation) course, direction; (Latin America) generosity
Sacarse – (to get out) to take out
Salón – living room, parlor
Secarse – to dry off
Separarse – to split up, to separate
Simpático – nice, agreeable, likeable
Sospechar – to suspect
Sucio – dirty, messy, foul
Suelo – ground, soil, land
Suerte – luck, fate
Toalla – towel
Tocador – dresser, dressing table; powder room
Trasladarse – (to relocate) to move
Triste – sad, melancholy
Verdadero/a – true, real
Viudo – widower, widowed
Y en cuanto a – and as for