038. El Peral De La Tía Miseria (The Pear Tree of Aunt Misery)
Aunt Misery was a poor, old woman who lived in a hut on the outskirts of town and had nothing more than a straw mattress to sleep on, a chair to sit on, and a basket to collect pears that came from a pear tree that she had by the door of her house. This pear tree was a tree which gave abundant, delicious pears annually and aunt Misery sold the pears and, between that and begging for alms, she supported herself throughout the year.
But it happened that, as the pears were so delicious, the boys from town would come and steal them and she could only collect the ones which they left behind. And as soon as she had a moment of neglect they would steal them and run away, and as she was very old she could not chase after them. And at other times they would steal them because she had to go beg for alms and could not keep watch of the tree.
One day a pauper appeared at the door of her house. It had been snowing throughout the day and was already dusk when the pauper showed up. Aunt Misery invited him in and shared with him some bread and soup that she had made with what she had obtained from begging that day. And as the pauper was freezing, and it was obvious that he had been through some tough time, she let him sleep on her straw mattress out of sympathy, and she herself laid down to sleep on the floor on a pile of straw.
The next morning, Aunt Misery saw that the pauper had already risen to leave, and she said to him:
Wait [a bit], let me first go to town to get some pieces of bread that they had promised me yesterday and I’ll bring them back so that you can leave having eaten breakfast.
The pauper declined [her offer] and Aunt Misery insisted and insisted [on this]; and she insisted so much so that at last the pauper was forced to tell her that he was in reality a saint from heaven and that God had sent him to earth to observe how charity was practiced and that, tasked with this assignment, he had found her.
And he said to her:
In view of your kind heart I am going to grant you a wish, whatever that you may ask of me.
And Aunt Misery did not want to ask anything of him, but suddenly she remembered her struggles with the pear tree, and she told him:
Well, you see, I am going to ask you for one thing: that whenever someone climbs up the pear tree to eat my pears, he would not be able to come down until I allow him to.
And the saint from heaven granted this to her.
The following year, when it was time for the first pears to begin to ripen, the boys came as usual to steal the pears; they climbed up the tree to pick them and there they were stuck, being unable to come down. Then Aunt Misery came out and gave them all a good whack on the butt with her cachaba [I’m not sure what this is], and the dog a few well-placed bites on their legs. When she got tired and let them go, they all [hurriedly] ran back to their houses. Soon the news of what would happen to those who climbed Aunt Misery’s pear tree spread, and from then on they never took a pear from her again. And, of course, since she could now sell them when they were ripe, she was able to make some money to alleviate her poverty.
The years passed by and Aunt Misery was [now] over ninety years old.
One day someone who could pass for either a man or a woman, who was covered in a black cloak and with a scythe on their shoulder, came to the door of Aunt Misery’s house and said to her:
Let’s go, Misery, for your time has come.
Aunt Misery immediately recognized Death, and she began to protest:
You look here! Now that I was spending a few years in peace, now that I am living so comfortably with my four things, and you want me to accompany you. Well, I don’t want to die.
Aunt Misery argued and did so in every manner [that she could think of], but at last she saw that she could not avoid it, and then she said to Death:
Well, all right, I will go with you; but, while I’m getting ready, do me the favor of picking those four pears that are [still] on the tree there, for I want [to have] them for my journey.
Death agreed and he climbed up the tree to pick the pears; and when he tried to get down he saw that he couldn’t do so and that he was stuck to the tree. And he mustered all the strengths that he could spare, but all for naught and under no manner [could he climb down] and there he remained. And Aunt Misery, who observed him from the small window, shouted at him:
You stay there and I [will] stay here, for without my permission you will not be able to come down.
A few more years passed by, and in the meantime, the absence of Death began to be felt in the world as no one had died. The old grew older, but none would die. People did not die even in wars. Those who, in despair, committed suicide were only badly wounded. There were many sick patients who asked the doctors to kill them and the doctors, in turn, could not handle them all and were searching for some way to make people die. The desperation was [so] great and it was [only] increasing each day, and many people hated life and tried to get rid of it. But it just could not be done under any manner because Death was hanging from Aunt Misery’s pear tree.
So that all the doctors were more desperate than anyone else and among one another they spread the news that they had decided to find Death wherever he was, and they scattered themselves in [all corners of] the world to search for him, each one [searching] where he had his patients, no matter how insignificant that place may be; and one of them managed to pass by near Aunt Misery’s hut. And on seeing him, Death called out:
Hey, you, doctor!
The doctor recognized him immediately:
Well, well, at last, [I’ve found] my friend Death! -he said so [while being] mad with joy, because the truth is that many people had died under the care of that doctor-. You must know that we are looking for you all over the world.
Well, take me away from here, for I’m trapped in this pear tree.
The doctor, without thinking about it twice, climbed up the tree to help Death and was held prisoner himself. And so he stayed next to Death [for a] day and [a] night until his relatives, who were from nearby and were searching for him in the belief that he was lost in the forest, found him clinging to the tree. And they called for others from town, and [also] the mayor, and together they came with axes to fell the pear tree; and at that moment Aunt Misery appeared and shouted at them:
Do not cut down my pear tree, for it is what I love most in the world!
And they said to her:
Well, we have to do this to free Death, because the sick and the old and the wounded and everyone in the world are already unable to endure any more hardships.
And Aunt Misery said:
Well, even if you cut down my tree, no one who is attached to it [now] will be able to break free from it. But I will release Death under one condition.
What is the condition? -Death asked.
That you don’t come for me or my son Ambrosio until I call for you three times -replied Aunt Miseria.
[Nguyen: according to my search, Ambrosio is Latin for “Immortal”. It is related to the Greek word “Ambrosia”, which means food for the gods, and is said to confer immortality to those who eat it.]
I agree to that
said Death. And Aunt Misery let him go.
Death, as soon as he was free, began to cut down lives with his scythe. The people began to die everywhere, thousands and thousands passed away, the old, the sick, the wounded, and there were more wars than ever and Death was unable to cope for many years afterward because there were so many people looking for him and he had to attend to them all from morning to night without rest. And he took so many lives the like of which no one had [ever] seen before.
Meanwhile, Aunt Misery continued to live peacefully in her hut with her pear tree, her straw mattress, her chair, her basket, and her dog, regardless of the many years that passed by, begging for alms and selling her pears [when they were] in season. And there she continued on, because as Aunt Misery had not yet called for Death, she still exists [today] in the world; and she and her son Hunger will always exist, for they have not the slightest intention to call for Death.
[Nguyen: I thought her son is Immortality….]
—– VOCABULARY —–
Abasto – (reserve) supply, provision
Acceder – to accept, to agree
Acertar – (to be able to) to manage to; (to discover) to find; (to identify correctly) to get right
Acordarse – to remember; acordar – to agree
Agarrarse – (to become adhered to) to stick; to hold on, to grip
Alcalde – mayor
Aliviar – to relieve
Anochecer – dusk, nightfall; to get dark
Arreglarse – to get ready; arreglar – to fix, to repair
Aterido – freezing
Atrapar – (to immobilize) to trap; (to grasp) to catch; (to take captive) to capture
Aún – still, yet
Aunque – even though, even if
Ausencia – absence
Avanzar – to advance, to move forward
A veces – sometimes
Bondadoso – kind, kind-hearted, good-natured
Cachar – to catch, to catch in the act
Cantazos – wound, hit???
Caridad – charity
Carrera – dash, run
Ceder – to relinquish, to hand over, to cede
Cestillo – small basket
Choza – hut, shack
Compadecer – to feel sorry for, to pity, to sympathize with
Compartir – to divide, to share, to split
Conceder – to give, to grant
Culo – butt, bum
Dar abasto – to cope
Derribar – to destroy, to demolish
Desayunarse – to have breakfast; to find out, to hear of
Descanso – relax, rest, break
Desesperado – desperate
Deshacerse de – to get rid of, to dispose of
Ejecer – to practice; (to make happen by force) to exercise
En temporada – in season
Espantar – to frighten, to scare
Esparcir – to scatter, to spread
Esquivarse – to avoid one another; esquivar – to dodge, to avoid
Guadaña – scythe
Hacha – axe
Hachar – to cut down, to hew
Hombro – shoulder
Jergón – straw mattress
Madurar – to mature, to ripen
Montón – a ton, a lot, loads; (mountain) pile, heap
Mordisco – bite
Muchísimo – a lot of, lots of
Ni corto ni perezoso – without thinking twice
Nunca – never, ever
Odiar – to detest, to hate
Paja – dried grass, straw, hay
Palo – stick; (hit) blow
Pelarse – (to run away) to run off; (to shed skin) to peel; to get one’s hair cut short
Pera – (fruit) pear
Peral – pear tree
Perezoso – lazy
Pierna – leg
Porfiar – (to persist) to insist; (to dispute) to argue
Preso – prisoner
Raza – (of an animal) breed; (ethnic group) race
Sacar un dinero – get some money
Segar – to reap, to cut, to mow
Soltar – to let go of, to let out, to stop holding
Sopa – soup
Todavía – still, yet
Ventanico – windows
Ya – (in the past) already, (in the present) now