053. Stone Of Pain And Knife Of Love (Piedra de Dolor Y Cuchillo de Amor)
There was a very beautiful princess whom the devil was courting, but the princess spurned his advance. From then on, the devil searched for a way to take revenge on her refusal. One day when he was prowling about the palace gardens, he saw the princess arriving with her ladies, where they immediately began to play hide-and-seek. One would stay and the others [ran away to] hide, among whom was the princess; and when each of them was hidden in some place, the devil slipped through to where the princess was and put a sleeping ring on her finger, whereupon the princess fell asleep on the spot. Then he took her in his arms, removed her from the palace through a secret hole in the wall surrounding the gardens, put her in a crystal urn and carried her far, far away to the sea, where he threw the urn with the princess sleeping in it.
The urn remained floating in the waters, carried away by the waves, until a prince, who was fishing with two seamen, sighted it and gave orders to come closer to see what it was. When they got the urn on the boat, they saw that inside it lay a young woman so beautiful that, at times she seemed to be dead and at other times she seemed to be sleeping, so they opened the urn [to confirm for themselves]. While they were observing her, the prince noticed the ring that the young woman wore on her hand, and on removing it to see if it contained any inscription, the young woman woke up so frightened that, right away, the prince put the ring back on her and she again sank back into that strange dream [of hers].
Then the prince decided that he would take her back to the palace without anyone knowing about it and would keep her in his rooms, for he was in love with the young woman’s beauty. So that, helped by the seamen, they carried her to the prince’s rooms and there she remained under lock.
Each day, the prince woke her up, brought her good foods, stayed by her side to talk with her, and later he put her back to sleep. A faithful servant took care of cleaning the rooms without anyone else being able to enter them. The prince had fallen in love with the young woman, and the young woman with him, and she accepted this arrangement because the prince must find the appropriate moment to tell his parents that he would like to marry her.
But the prince’s conduct drew the intrigues of his two sisters. So they got up early one day, sneaked into their brother’s bedroom and took the key-ring on which he kept the key to the locked room. And there they went nosing around to see what was in it. To their great surprise they found a sleeping princess in the urn. One of the sisters noticed her ring and removed it to have a better look at it, but at that moment the princess woke up and the two sisters, being scared out of their wits, ran out of the room and closed the door behind them.
The king sent for the prince, and when he entered the room where his father was waiting for him and saw on a small table the sleeping ring and the key, he understood that his secret had been discovered. He had no choice but to tell everything that had happened and to say that he wished to marry the young woman. The parents flat out opposed, but when they saw his love [for her] and on getting to know her and it seemed to them that she was [just like] a princess, they agreed to the wedding and it was celebrated with great pomp and splendor.
The king died a year later and his son succeeded him to the throne and the princess became queen. The first thing that the new king had to do was to travel across his lands and the queen remained behind in the palace because she was pregnant and soon gave birth to a beautiful child (boy). And she was in the bedroom caring for her son when the devil appeared and demanded the child.
The princess refused to give her child to him, so that the devil took him away from her, ate him and smeared her lips with the blood of the baby.
Later, the king’s mother entered the room to see her grandson and, as he was not there, she asked the queen for him, but she did not say anything and started to cry. And the king’s mother accused her of having eaten her own son.
The king’s mother waited for the king to return and as soon as he came back she said to him:
You married against the wishes of your parents and look at what had happened to you
and she told him that the queen had eaten her own son.
The king, who loved her [dearly], replied:
From her bowels it came forth, and to her bowels it returned.
Then he went to see his wife, who embraced him and wept bitterly without being able to contain herself, but when he asked her what had happened, she begged of him:
Don’t ask me anything, don’t ask me anything!
because the devil, on sealing her lips with the blood of the child, prevented her from telling through her [own] mouth what had happened [to the child].
The king’s mother and sisters could not bear the situation and all day long they were after the king asking for justice, but the king still had one last journey to make and he told them to wait and that on his return justice would be done, however cruel it might come to be, if the queen was found to be guilty.
And before leaving he asked his sisters and wife what they wanted him to bring back to them from this last journey. His sisters asked him for jewelry and clothes, like [they had] always [done], and his wife asked him to bring back a stone of pain and a knife of love.
Throughout the journey he encountered places with beautiful jewelry and clothes, but in none of them did he find a stone of pain and a knife of love. And he was worried because he could not fulfill his wife’s wish when, in one of the last places that he visited, [and while he was] already on his way back to the palace, he heard a peddler hawking [his wares]:
Stones of pain and knives of love!
How much do you want -he asked the peddler- for that stone and that knife which you are selling?
The peddler said, with greedy eyes:
For you, I will exchange them for that little bag of jewels that you have on you
and as he was carrying the bag hidden underneath his shirt, he understood that this was the devil or one of his relatives, and with this same knife that he picked up to view, he made the sign of the cross three times in front of the peddler and the latter fled in haste.
On reaching the palace, he gave the jewels to his sisters, and also the clothes, and to his wife he gave her the stone and the knife, but he could not resist the temptation in asking her what she wanted them for; and the queen again wept bitterly and said to the king:
Don’t ask me anything, don’t ask me anything!
So she had the stone and the knife in her hands and asked him to leave her alone. The king consented [to her request] and pretended to leave, but he returned by another path and hid himself behind the curtains of the window overlooking the garden to see what his wife was going to do, because the gift had raised his suspicions from the first moment it was requested.
And he saw that the queen had seated herself at a little table, had placed the stone on it and said:
Stone of pain! Is it true that the king’s son saved me from the sea, took me to his palace and married me?
It’s true, it’s true!
replied the stone, and it broke into forty pieces.
The queen then asked:
Stone of pain! Is it true that I had a child with the king and that the devil came, took him from me, ate him and smeared my lips with blood so that everyone would believe that I had eaten him?
It’s true, it’s true!
the stone again said, and each of the forty pieces again broke into another forty.
The queen then asked:
Stone of pain! Is it true that my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law believed that I ate my son and wanted the king to have me hanged?
It’s true, it’s true!
replied the stone; and each little piece broke into forty pieces.
Then the queen took out the knife, put in on the table in front of her and exclaimed:
Knife of love! As the stone has broken my pain, [so you, too, will] break my heart.
And she was about to thrust it into her chest when the king appeared, removed it from her hands and threw it away, and then he said to her that he loved her and believed everything that he had heard.
And they were never separated [from one another] again.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Adecuado – appropriate, suitable
Ahorcar – to hang
A lo largo de – throughout, along
Amargamente – bitterly
A ratos – from time to time
Arrojar – to fling, to throw
Avariento – avaricious, miserly
Bajo llave – under lock; locked up, locked away
Buhonero – peddler, hawker
Caja – box, crate
Colarse – to sneak in, to slip in
Cortina – curtain, drape
Cuñada – sister-in-law
Curiosear – to nose around, to poke around, to pry into
Desdeñar – (to despise) to scorn, to disdain, to look down on; (to reject) to spurn
Desdén – disdain, contempt, scorn
Deslizarse – (to move over a surface) to slide, to slip, to glide, to slither
Entrañas – guts, entrails, insides; bowels; heart
Escondite – (secret place) hiding place, hideout; (game) hide-and-seek
Joya – piece of jewelry
Labio – lip
Llavero – key ring, keyholder
Madrugar – (to wake early) to get up early
Mayúscula – capital letter, uppercase letter
Merodear – to prowl
Mesita – bedside table
Muro – wall
Oleaje – (surf) swell, waves, surge
Pariente – relative, relation
Pecho – chest, breast
Pregonar – to proclaim, to announce
Prendarse de – to become smitten; to fall in love, to be captivated, to be enchanted
Pretender – (to court) to woo; (to want) to intend, to expect
Reclamar – to claim, to demand
Reparar en – (to become aware) to notice
Saquito – bag, sachet
Sellar – to seal; to stamp
Simular – to feign, to pretend
Suegra – mother-in-law
Sumir – (to descend) to plunge, to sink; (to submerge) to plunk
Suplicar – (to beseech) to beg
Tentación – temptation
Urna – glass case, display case; (vase) urn
Ventanal – large window
Yacer – (to be buried) to lie; to by lying, to lie