066. The Green Barretina (La Barretina Verde)
[Nguyen: Per wikipedia, a barretina is a traditional hat that was frequently worn by men in parts of the Christian cultures of the Mediterranean Sea such as Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, Provence, Corsica, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, part of Naples, part of the Balkans and parts of Portugal. It was also worn by Muslim men in Majorca until the Christian conquest of the island in the Middle Ages. It took the form of a bag, made of wool, usually red, or sometimes purple.]
Once upon a time there was a very nice man. He was so nice that you’ll have to see what he did: Once he met a witch in the form of a fox. The witch could not return to her human form because, having gone to take a bath in the river, she left her clothes next to a shrub and some young boys from the village had stolen them. Then the man, feeling sorry for her plight, found her some clothes so she could dress herself [again] as a woman and leave her fox form. The grateful witch then gave him a green barretina and said:
Whenever you wear this barretina, you will see the thoughts of everyone in front of you.
The nice man was very pleased with the gift. He thought that now he could know everything that the people around him thought of him, and so he would always [be able to] find the best way to get along with them, with which his life would be so much more pleasant from then onward.
And he immediately remembered that a neighbor of his was always arguing with him about a walnut tree that stood at the boundary separating their adjoining lands and, because of it, he had a lawsuit against him. So he put on his barretina and went to look for the lawyer who was defending him in the suit to find out what his opinion was on the matter. And barely had he met him, he was able to see what the lawyer was thinking: “What luck I have in getting to defend the walnut tree of this simpleton. I’m going to charge him the money I need for my daughter’s dowry, who is getting married in a few days, and then I’ll send him away with the first excuse that I can find.”
The nice man, being horrified by what he just heard, thought that the best thing he could do was to go see his neighbor and come to an amicable agreement with him to resolve the problems at hand.
So without wasting any time, he went to his neighbor’s house to deal with him, but, as he was wearing the barretina, as soon as he ran into him he was able to see what the neighbor was thinking: “I already know what I’m going to do with this idiot. I will make use of that day when he is busy tending to his vineyard and his wife is heading to the market when I will set fire to his house.”
It’s unnecessary to explain the tremendous effect this new revelation had on the poor man, who hurried away from there without any further explanation.
In desperation, he went home with the intention of telling his wife about everything that had happened to him and to ask her for advice on what to do in this situation. In his haste and the heat of the moment, he forgot to remove the barretina and, as soon as he arrived and stood in front of his wife, he saw that she was thinking the following: “This fool has come back already. How can I get rid of him immediately and be free? I believe it’s best to put poison in his soup, to see if he will go to the other world once and for all, which is where a fool like him should be; and with that I’ll be able to get married once and for all to that nice young man who has been courting me. Between the young man and me, I wonder if we will know how to make good use of the money that this fool had socked away for nothing.”
This time the nice man felt like he was losing his head from distress. And so traumatized was he that he had to support himself against the walls to stand up, and immediately went to look for his daughter to tell her about the thoughts that her mother was harboring. And lo and behold, as soon as he got to his daughter’s side, he could also see what she was thinking: “As soon as my father returns to work, I’ll search out for the bag where he keeps his money and take it and go to my Juan’s house, who is waiting for me there, and we’ll elope to Barcelona and get married in secret. Because, as my father will not give me permission to marry, it doesn’t make sense for me to ask him.”
The nice man, being overwhelmed, could only thought of his son [now], the only one he had left, and went to look for him in his room. He found his son busy packing a suitcase with clothes and, as he continued to wear the barretina, he saw what his son was thinking: “What bad luck that my father saw me. Let’s see how I can explain to him that I’m thinking about leaving home to travel the world, in order to have a good time and to earn myself a fortune.”
The man thought that he had had enough and that the witch’s gift was the worst present he had ever received in his life. So he took the barretina, which had brought him nothing but troubles and misfortunes, and threw it in a fire so that he would never consider using it again. And that is why it is said in Catalonia: when someone is desperate and makes a grave decision, that he throws the barretina into the fire.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Abogado – lawyer, attorney
Abrumado – overwhelmed
Acabar de – just; (to complete) to finish
Acordarse – to remember
Acuerdo – agreement; acordar – to agree
Adelante – forward, ahead
Aguantarse – (to resist) to hang on, to hold on, to withstand
Albergar – (to hide) to harbor; (to shelter) to house, to accommodate
Alejarse – to move away
Amistoso – (amicable) friendly
Apoyarse – to lean, to rely on, to depend on
Barretina – Catalan cap
Bendito – (religious) holy, blessed
Cobrar – (to demand payment for) to charge for; to get paid, to collect
Contiguo – adjacent, adjoining, contiguous
De encima – off me, off him/her, off someone
Delante – in front, ahead
Dentro de nada – in no time, pretty soon
Discutir – (to fight verbally) to argue, to quarrel
Dote – dowry
Encontrar – to find, to discover
Entenderse – (to communicate well) to understand each other; (to be friends with, use with ‘cons’) to get along with
Explicación – (clarification) explanation
Horrorizar – (to instill fear) to terrify
Impresión – (distress) shock
Largarse – to leave, to depart
Linde – (limit) boundary
Maleta – suitcase, luggage
Mandar a paseo – send away
Más bueno que el pan – as good as gold!
Mata – bush, shrub
Menuda suerte – lucky me, just my luck, lucky
Nogal – walnut tree, walnut
Pared – wall
Pasmarote – half-wit, idiot
Pleito – (legal) lawsuit; dispute; argument
Poco menos que – nothing short of, almost, a little less than
Prenderse – to burn, to catch fire; (to ignite) to light
Propósito – (resolve) resolution; (aim) purpose, intention, intent
Raposa – fox, vixen
Rondar – (to attract) to court; (to guard) to patrol
Sofoco – (overheating) stifling sensation, suffocation
Terreno – land, soil, terrain, ground
Trastornado – disturbed, traumatized
Tratar con – to deal with
Veneno – venom, poison