065. The Coal Miner and Death (El Carbonero Y La Muerte)
Once upon a time there was a coal miner who lived in a modest hut in the middle of the mountain; he was so poor that he had nothing to eat but beans, corn cakes and cheese. One night in which he was having his frugal meal, he heard a knock on the door and went to see who it was.
Who goes there? -he asked suspiciously.
And a voice answered him:
I’m looking for a place to spend the night.
And who are you? -he again asked, without opening the door.
I am God -replied the voice.
You want to spend the night here? -the coal miner then asked-. To some people you give them plenty of goods, and to others, like me here, you give us hunger and long days of work. Now leave and go look for lodging from people who can feed you well and have nice beds for you to sleep on.
The coal miner then went back to his dinner. Some time passed by and the same God returned and knocked again on the hut’s door.
Who goes there? -asked the coal miner.
I am asking for lodging for the night.
And who are you?
I am Death.
Ah! -said the coal miner while opening the door-. Come on in, for I will gladly give you lodging for the night, because you are treating everyone on equal footing; you are the same with the rich as you are with the poor, and with the great as with the small.
He showed her in and gave her what he had for dinner, fixed her a bed on the floor and also made her breakfast the following morning. Very grateful [for the treatment], Death said to him before bidding goodbye:
Very well, what do you want me to give you?
Well, the truth is that -said the coal miner-, I’m satisfied with continuing on like this if you could [just] give me a little more comfort and relief.
Consider it done -replied Death-. Go to the city where lives the king. The queen has been ill for some time and the doctors still do not know how to cure her. Ask to see her and when you enter her room, if you see me [stand] at the head of the bed [then] you can tell them that she will die without anyone being able to help her; but if I stand at the foot of the bed then tell them to apply a poultice on her and she’ll be cured right away.
So the coal miner put on his festive attire and happily and cheerfully went to the city which Death told him about; once he got there, he went to the king’s palace and asked to see the queen. As no one believed that he was a physician, they would not let him in; but he, through shouts [and cries], would not leave them alone and repeated over and over again that he wanted to see the queen. He shouted so much that even the king heard him and, intrigued [by this], ordered them to bring him to his presence. The coal miner then said that he may know whether the queen could be cured or not, and the king, who was already desperate for not being able to find a remedy for his wife, decided to take him to the queen’s room. And there they went, accompanied by the other palace physicians. Once he entered, the coal miner was examining the queen like he knew [how] the physicians would… and at this moment he saw Death at the foot of the queen’s bed . Then he approached the king and told him.
I will heal this sick woman at once.
He ordered them to prepare a poultice with wine, flax seed, [miller’s] bran and other ingredients. All the physicians who were there laughed at him, but the king ordered them to fetch what the coal miner asked for; and soon after she was applied with the poultice, the sick queen was cured as if the disease was [physically] removed by hand.
The other physicians felt so humiliated that they gathered in a room to devise a way to get rid of the coal miner. And they decided that one among them, the oldest of them all, would lie in bed and pretend to be sick. Then they went and explained to the king what they had done:
You see, Your Highness, that this little fellow is a fraud, we have done so and so, see what we have come up with …
and they told him the snare they had laid for the coal miner. The king, [quite] interested [with the plan], ordered the coal miner to come and examine the sick-feigning physician. The coal miner entered the room where they were waiting for him and saw that Death was standing at the head of the bed where the physician was lying, and he said:
This sick patient will die very soon.
All the physicians laughed upon hearing this, but soon the laughter froze in their mouths when they saw that their friend was in agony. The king, who saw his wife cured and the old physician who was in good health just moments ago now laid dead, expelled all the other palace physicians and then said to the coal miner:
What do you want as a reward? And to be my personal physician from now on?
Your Highness -replied the coal miner-, I only want to be able to live comfortably.
And that was what happened. From then on, the coal miner ate at the king’s table, strolled in his gardens and comfortably enjoyed life as he had always imagined how it would happen to the most fortunate.
Then one day, on one of his strolls in the palace gardens, Death appeared at a bend of the path and said to him thus:
Good evening, coal miner, do you recognize me?
The frightened coal miner replied:
Woe to me, for you are Death!
And Death said:
I have come in search of you.
The coal miner, who was a resourceful man, then said to him:
In search of me! While I was a poor coal miner you let me live for so many years, and now, as soon as I have [just] managed to get a few days of happiness, you then come to search for me already?
To which Death replied:
Wasn’t it you who told me that I am impartial to all, the same with the rich as with the poor, the same with the great as with the little? Well, as your time has come, you now must leave with me.
And the coal miner said:
I beg you, Death, that, as re-compensation for the lodging I gave you that night in my hut, give me [enough] time to say an Our Father and Hail Mary prayer.
[Nguyen: original text: “me des tiempo para rezar un padrenuestro y un avemaría”.]
I can grant you that -said Death.
The coal miner made the Our Father prayer, yes, but he never made the Hail Mary prayer; and the days began to go by and Death knew not what to do, as she had given her words [of not taking the coal miner until he had completed his prayers]. Until one day when she decided to hang herself from the branch of an oak tree in the palace garden. When the coal miner saw Death being dead, hanging from that oak tree, he made the Hail Mary prayer with great joy. Then Death raised her head and said:
Now you are mine -and she took him away with her.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Afortunado – (with good luck) lucky, fortunate; (auspicious) happy, fortunate
Aguardar – to wait for, to await
Ancho – (at ease) (Spain) comfortable
Arreglar – (to restore) to fix, to repair; (to organize) to arrange; (to clean) to tidy, to tidy up
Atemorizado – frightened
Atender – (to care for) to look after, to deal with, to take care of
Cabaña – cabin, hut, shack
Carbonero – coal seller, coal merchant
Comodidad – (physical ease) comfort; (advantage) convenience
Conformar – (to satisfy) to keep happy
Conseguir – (to acquire) to get, to obtain
Desahogadamente – comfortably
Desahogo – (solace) relief
Disfrutar – (to take pleasure in; use with ‘de’) to enjoy; (to benefit from, use with ‘de’) to have, to enjoy
Emplasto – (medicine) poultice, dressing
Estancia – (large room) room; (farm) cattle ranch; country estate
Fallecer – to pass away, to die
Farsante – (imposter) fraud, fake
Fingido – feigned, mock, fake
Haba – (legume) bean, broad beans (fava beans)
Hacer pasar – (to let someone enter) to show in
Helar – to freeze
Hombrecillo – (little fellow) little man
Ingeniar – to invent, to devise, to think up
Lino – (botany) flax; (fabric) linen
Receloso – suspicious, distrustful
Recodo – bend (of a river, road, etc.)
Rezar – to pray
Risa – laughter
Roble – oak tree; strong person
Ruego – (request) plea; (religious) prayer; rogar – to beg
Salvado – bran
Simiente – seed
Tender – to place, to lay out
Trampa – trap, snare
Ved – ver – to see