090. The Sycamore Flower (La Flor del Sicomoro)
There is a mountain in Vasconia that is known by the name of Iluntzar, a mountain that is above the town of Navárniz. In this mountain there exists a chasm whose depth is unknown, because no one has ever been able to measure it. It is a chasm whose mouth is not easy to find because it is hidden by a thick vegetation of thistles and gorse. It is said that, long ago, a sycamore tree – which is a tree with leaves similar to those of a white mulberry tree, and whose fruit resembles fig – grew there. Undoubtedly it must have sprouted [born, grown] there thanks to some seed being carried [over] by the wind.
One day a woman wearing sandals and a red skirt passed by the place, holding a boy by the hand. They stopped for a moment to rest, and the child noticed a flower that had bloomed in one of the branches of the sycamore tree. The boy was very small and hardly spoke, but on seeing the flower he said to his mother:
– Mother, pretty.
He tried to approach the flower but the mother, seeing the danger, said to the boy:
– No, my love, do not touch it, it has dirt on it.
And the boy insisted:
– Pretty, pretty.
Then, as his mother would not let him come near [it], he began to cry; but he immediately threw himself on the flower and, on stomping [it], he fell and was caught between the thickets and the gorse; so [then] he could not move up nor down.
The mother, on seeing what took place, jumped towards her son, but, if she caught him, she could not prevent her weight from pushing them both into the abyss. Mother and son, destroying hundreds of brambles, scaring bats and crows from the chasm’s interior, were falling until they were lost inside the abyss. And from that day on, no one heard anything else from them.
At the foot of the mountain where the chasm is, thick ferruginous water flows [out] from a rock, which all can see. And the townsfolk of that place, on seeing the redness of the water, tell those who ask them that the poor mother’s skirt reddened it, who [now] lies with her child at the bottom of the abyss.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Abarcas – sandals; abarcar – (to deal with) to cover; (to stretch over) to extend over, to take in
Abrojo – thistle; caltrop (creeping annual plant); (nautical) reefs
Aldeano – villager
Aliagas – gorse (spiny evergreen shrubs)
Calzado – (shoes) footwear; (wearing shoes) shod
Ceñir – (to fit tightly) to cling to, to hug, to be tight on; (to don) to wear
Corneja – (animal) crow
Destrozar – (to damage) to destroy, to smash, to wreck, to ruin
Enganchado – (attached to) caught; (addicted to) hooked on; (in love) hung up
Enrojecer – (to make go red in color) to redden, to turn red; (to make very hot) to make red-hot
Espantar – (to make afraid) to frighten, to scare; (to drive away) to frighten away
Ferruginosa – ferruginous (1. Of, containing, or similar to iron. 2. Having the color of iron rust; reddish-brown.)
Fijarse – (to concentrate) to pay attention; (to become aware of) to notice
Higo – (fruit) fig
Hoja – (botany) leaf, blade; (paper) sheet, page, form
Manar – (to pour out) to flow, to run; (to come out) to flow, to run; (to be plentiful) to abound
Matorral – (undergrowth) thicket, bushes; (area of land) scrubland
Medir – (to take the measures of) to measure, to gauge (pressure or temperature); (to calculate) to weight up (actions), to weigh (words)
Morera – white mulberry tree
Murciélago – (animal) bat
Peña – rock, cliff
Pisar en falso – stomp
Porquería – (grime) dirt, filth, muck; (useless material) garbage;
Rojez – (quality of being red) redness; (red spot) red blotch
Saya – (undergarment) petticoat; (clothing) skirt
Semejar – (to look similar) to look like, to resemble
Semilla – (botany) seed; (origin) seed
Sicomoro – sycamore
Sima – (geology) chasm; (sinkhole) pothole
Tratar de – (to attempt) to try; (to have to do with) to be about, to deal with
Yacer – (to be buried) to lie; (to be lying) to lie; (to reside) to lie
Zarzamora – (fruit) blackberry; (botany) bramble