Cuentos Populares en Chile (Chilean Folktales) – Ramón A. Laval
Part 1 – Magnificent Stories, Stories of Animals, Anecdotes (Cuentos maravillosos, Cuentos de animales, Anécdotas)
002. The Enchanted Little Fish (El Pescadito Encantado)
(Referred to by 9-year old Samuel Antonio Letelier from Molina in 1911. He heard it told in Linares in 1910)
There was a King who ate only fish, and to supply him with this source of meat he had in his service a little old man who went to fish in the sea every day. He paid him well for his work; but he also made the threat that he would cut off his head the day he did not bring him a fresh supply of fish.
This little old man lived in a small house near the coast, in the company of his wife, his two daughters whom he loved dearly, especially the youngest, who was very well behaved and caring toward him; and a little dog who would come out to greet him every evening when he returned from fishing.
One day the old man did not catch anything in his fishing net, despite having cast it many times in the water; and lamenting his bad luck, he sat down on a boulder to mourn for his misfortune, for he saw that his end was near.
He was weeping when a red Little Fish leaned out from between the waves and asked him: -“Why are you crying, good old man?” The old man, between sobs, told the fish what had happened to him: that no matter how many times he had cast his net in the sea, he did not manage to catch anything; and that if he could not bring any fish to the King, his head would be chopped off.
The Little Fish then said to him: -“I will give you all the fish that you want for as long as you live, on one condition that you will give me the one who comes out to greet you upon your return to the house [later today].” The old man told the fish that he had no objection to this condition, because the poor man figured that, as usual, the little dog would come out to greet him.
The Little Fish commanded the old man to cast his net; the old man obeyed, and a short moment later he pulled a net full of conger eels, croakers, trouts, and sea basses, as big, as fat, and as beautiful as he had ever seen before.
He went home happily, and when he was some two blocks from home, his younger daughter came out to greet him. He had already forgotten his promise [earlier].
The fisherman’s family was sitting around the table having soup when [they heard] a loud whistling sound from the sea; and only then did the old man remember that he had to bring his youngest daughter to the Little Fish. He became greatly saddened at once, to which all of his family noticed [right away]. Then they asked him to tell them why he had suddenly become so sad, where he should have been very happy for having caught so many fish [earlier in the day]. He told them what had happened to him, and when he had finished telling his story, the younger daughter said: -“Do what you have promised, father, because if not, it is certain that you will not catch any fish tomorrow and the King will have your head cut off.”
So the two of them wept their way to the sea; and when they arrived, the Little Fish, who was waiting for them, ordered the fisherman to climb up a rock and left his daughter in the sand, for the water was going to rise and swallow [up] the girl.
And so this happened. The sea rose and the girl disappeared.
As soon as the water subsided, the poor old man got down [from the boulder] and returned home in sadness and with teary eyes.
When the girl disappeared under the water, the Little Fish carried her to a beautiful palace at the bottom of the sea and told her that everything she saw was hers; but if she wanted to live happily, she must not light any match nor candle at night, because the moment that she lit her bedroom, she would lose everything.
The palace was larger and nicer than that of the King whom her father served, and it lacked for nothing. In the daytime it was very well lit, but at night, at the very moment when the girl went to bed, it was submerged in darkness.
The castle was guarded by an enormous dog called Leofricome, to whom -said the Little Fish to the girl- she should ask for everything that she might need, with the guarantee that she would be served right away.
Every night, as soon as the girl went to bed and the palace was covered in darkness, she felt that someone was lying down by her side. She was kindled with a desire to know who was that person who slept with her.
One evening the girl was walking through the orchard at the back of the palace, accompanied by Leofricome, when she saw on a branch of a very tall pear tree a little hummingbird going crazy with her singing.
The girl asked Leofricome: -“What is that little hummingbird doing, why is she singing up there high above on that pear tree?” Leofricome replied that it was her sister, that she was getting married the following day and the hummingbird had come to invite her [to the wedding].
The girl asked him: -“Will I be able to get permission to attend the wedding?” Leofricome replied that yes, but she would need to speak to the Little Fish at night when he went to bed with her.
The girl remained thoughtful, because she believed that it was a man who slept by her side. However, at night, in total darkness, she spoke to he who was next to her, and this person gave permission to her request to go to her parents’ home, although she could only go for two days and must be accompanied by Leofricome.
When she arrived at her parents’ house, she brought along many gifts for them and for her sister, and they were the talk of the festivities.
Leofricome stayed at the door to make sure the girl did not run away, and she went inside with her parents to tell them everything that had happened to her.
The mother advised her to take two packs of candles and two boxes of matches when she went back to the castle, and to light a candle at night whenever she heard snoring from the Little Fish or whoever that was lying in her bed.
The two days that the girl had asked permission for passed by [quickly] and she returned with Leofricome to the [castle at the] bottom of the sea; and that very night, wanting to know [the identity of] the person sharing the bed with her, she lit a candle as soon as she felt him snoring and saw that he was a most handsome prince. Being excited, and to gain a better look at him, she tilted the candle light; but in an instance of bad luck, a drop of wax fell on his right hand, which the Prince had placed just outside of the bed.
With the searing pain from the hot wax in the skin of his hand, the Prince woke up, angrily reprimanded her, told her that he would never see her again and immediately transformed himself into a little red fish and swam away.
From that night on, the light of the moon and the stars was seen from the palace, the same as it was seen on earth.
After some time the girl gave birth to a son who was born with a golden padlock on his stomach.
After she had recovered from childbirth, she went to Leofricome and told him that she wanted to return to her parents’ home. Leofricome replied that she would not be able to leave the sea without permission from the Little Fish, unless she wanted to see her father dead. Then she asked him where she could go, for she did not want to live in the palace anymore, which reminded her of her ill fortune at every step.
Leofricome took a ball of thread [yarns], and picking up the end [of the string], he threw the ball with all his might; he then immediately told the girl to follow the path that the thread led her and that she would be warmly welcome in the house which she would arrive at the other end.
After walking for many days, for the end of the ball of yarns had fallen very far away, she arrived with her child at some animal pens which belonged to the palace of the Prince’s parents.
When they entered, all the animals began to bellow at once, and the King, on hearing all the noise, said to the Queen: “Something extraordinary must be going on in the pens where the animals are making such a racket.” -He then went to the pens where he found a girl who was feeding a child, and he took them both back to the palace.
When the King and the Queen saw that the baby had a golden padlock on the stomach, they knew that he was the child of Little Fish, because Little Fish also had the same birthmark, and they received them as their own children, mother and son both, and they all ate at the same table.
After some time, the Little Fish returned one night to his palace to see if the girl was still there, for he still loved her dearly and could not forget her. When he saw that she was not there, he wrote a letter to his parents asking them if they had by any chance seen a girl fitting such and such descriptions which he provided to them; and he sent Leofricome to deliver the letter.
The parents replied that the girl which he was inquiring about must be the one who had arrived some time ago at their palace, along with a baby with a golden padlock on his stomach, and that they had kept them at their side and treated them as if they were their own children.
The girl knew that the Little Fish was going to search for her and, fearing that he was going to kill her and her son, she ran away to some mountains without leaving any words behind and hid in a forest.
The Little Fish arrived and found that both the mother and child had disappeared. He immediately went out to search for them and, after spending a long time and exerting great effort in the search, he found them in the forest.
At this very moment the enchantment (e.g. curse) ended, and the Little Fish, transformed into the handsome Prince that the girl had seen under the candlelight [that night], knelt down at her feet and begged her for forgiveness; [he implored her] to do this for their son; that everything that had happened had been due to the effect of the enchantment, which at that moment was broken.
The girl, happy to see her Prince again, willingly forgave him, and they returned to their palace, got married and lived very happily together forever after, and became rulers of the sea; and Leofricome, having had transformed into a handsome young lad, became the steward of their palace.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Abastecer – (to furnish; used with “de”) to supply, to provide; abastecerse – (to acquire; used with “de”) to stock up on, to obtain [[proveer a alguien o a algo de bastimentos, víveres u otras cosas necesarias]]
Entrañablemente – fondly, deeply, dearly [[de manera entrañable]]
Entrañable – [[íntimo, muy afectuoso]]
Arrojado – (bold) daring, brave
Arrojar – (to fling) to throw, to hurl (with force); (to generate) to produce; (to emit) to spew out (lava, ash), to belch out (smoke); (to cast out) to throw out; (to puke) to vomit, to throw up [[impeler con violencia algo, de modo que recorra una distancia, movido por el impuso que ha recibido; echar (hacer que algo vaya a parar a alguna parte); (despedir de sí); (hacer que algo caiga en sitio determinado)]]
Peñasco – (boulder) crag, large rock [[Peña grande y elevada; tela de mucha duración]]
Colorado – (color) red; (blushing) red; (off-color) (Latin America) dirty, off-color [[rojo; dicho de una cosa: que se funda en alguna apariencia de razón o de justicia]]
Interpelar – (to ask questions of) to question; (politics) to interpellate (formal); (to speak to) to challenge [[requerir, compeler o simplemente preguntar a alguien para que dé explicaciones sobre algo o para que cumpla una obligación]]
Sollozo – (weeping) sob; sobbing [[acción y efecto de sollozar – respirar de manera profunda y entrecortada a causa del llanto]]
Inconveniente – (unsuitable) inconvenient; inappropriate; (obstacle) problem, disadvantage, drawback; (bother) objection, inconvenience [[impedimento u obstáculo que hay para hacer algo; daño y perjuicio que resulta de hacer algo]]
Congrio – (animal) conger eel; (military) (Chile) conscript
Corvina – (animal) sea bass, croaker
Trucha – (animal) trout
Róbalo – (animal) sea bass
Roca – (geology) rock [[piedra, o vena de ella, muy dura y sólida; peñasco que se levanta en la tierra o en el mar; cosa muy dura, firme y constante]]
Arena – (geology) sand; (stadium) arena; bullring (bullfighting) [[conjunto de partículas desagregadas de las rocas, sobre todo si son silíceas, y acumuladas, ya en las orillas del mar o de los ríos, ya en capas de los terrenos de acarreo; metal o mineral reducido por la naturaleza o el arte a partes muy pequeñas; en un circo, anfiteatro o recinto similar, lugar del combate, lucha o espectáculo]]
Tragar – (to ingest) to swallow; (to absorb) to soak up; (colloquial) (to bear) to stand; (colloquial) (to use up) to guzzle, to be heavy on, to use; (to gulp) to swallow [[hacer movimientos voluntarios o involuntarios de tal mode que algo pase de la boca hacia el estómago; dicho de la tierra o de las aguas: abismar lo que está en su superficie; comer vorazmente]]
Descender – (to decrease) to fall, to drop, to go down, to come down; (to move downward) to descend, to go down, to come down; (to alight) to get off (plane, train, bus), to disembark (from ship, plane, train), to get out (of car); (to be demoted) to be downgraded, to go down, to be relegated; (to be related to; used with “de”) to be descended from, to descend from [[bajar (recorrer de arriba hasta abajo); dich ode una cosa líquida: caer, fluir, correr; proceder, por natural propagación, de un mismo principio o persona común, que es la cabeza de la familia]]
Fósforo – (chemistry) phosphorus; (household product) match, matchstick (wooden)
Sumido – (general) immersed, lost (in thought) [[sumir: hundir o meter debajo de la tierra o deal agua; sumergir (abismar, hundir); dicho de un sacerdote: consumir (recibir o tomar la comunión en la misa)]]
Tinieblas – (obscurity) dark, darkness, shadows (plural); (figurative) (lack of knowledge) ignorant, dark, (religious) Tenebrae [[falta de luz; suma ignorancia y confusión, por falta de conocimientos]]
Custodiar – (to protect) to guard, to watch over, (to keep an eye on) to look after [[guardar algo con cuidado y vigilancia; vigilar a alguien, generalmente a un detenido, para evitar que escape]]
Huerto – (plot planted with fruit trees) orchard; (cultivated land) vegetable garden [[terreno de corta extensión, generalmente cercado, en que se cultivan verduras, legumbres, y árboles frutales]]
Tenca – (animal) tench [[The tench or doctor fish is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers]]
Convidar – (to request the presence of) to invite; (to pay for; often used with “a”) to buy; (to offer) (Latin America); (to entice; used with “a”) [[dicho de una persona: rogar a otra que la acompañe a comer o a una función o a cualquier otra cosa que se haga por vía de obsequio; mover (dar motivo o estímulo); ofrecer algo a alguien]]
Huir – (to leave) to escape (from a person or place); to flee (from danger or pursuit); to run away; (to stay away from) to avoid [[alejarse deprisa, por miedo o por otro motivo, de personas, animales o cosas, para evitar un daño, disgusto o molestia; dicho de una cosa: alejarse velozmente; dicho de unidades de tiempo: transcurrir o pasar velozmente]]
Roncar – (to breathe heavily while asleep) to snore; (colloquial) (to be domineering) (Chile) to be bossy [[hacer ruido bronco con el resuello cuando se duerme; dicho del gamo: llamar a la hembra, cuando está en celo, dando el grito que le es natural; dicho del mar, del viento, etc.: hacer un ruido sordo o bronco]]
Lecho – (place to lie down) bed; (bottom) bed (of a river), floor (of an ocean); (geology) layer [[cama (mueble); (sitio donde se echan los animales); madre de un río, o terreno por donde corren sus aguas; fondo del mar o de un lago; porción de algunas cosas que están o se ponen extendidas horizontalmente sobre otras; suelo de los carros o carretas]]
Esperma – (bodily fluid) sperm, semen; (taper) (Colombia) candle; (beeswax) wax [[semen (conjunto de espermatozoides); sustancia grasa que se extrae de la cabeza del cachalote, empleada para hacer velas y en algunos medicamentos; cera (sustancia de las abejas para hacer velas)]]
Reprender – (to reprehend) to reprimand, to scold, to tell off [[corregir, amonestar a alguien vituperando o desaprobando lo que ha dicho o hecho]]
Airado – (general) angry, irate [[dicho de una persona: que tiene ira o un gran enfado]]
Candado – (lock) padlock; (beard) circle beard, goatee; (sports) chokehold [[cerradura suelta contenida en una caja de metal, que por medio de armellas asegura puertas, ventanas, tapas de cofres, maletas, etc.]]
Ovillo – ball [[bola o lío que se forma devanando hilo de lino, algodón, seda, lana, etc.; cosa enredada y de forma redonda; montón o multitud confusa de cosas, sin trabazón ni arte]]
Corral – (animal enclosure) pen, corral, yard, farmyard; (enclosure for young children) playpen; (courtyard theater) open-air theater [[en las casas o en el campo, sitio cerrado y descubierto que sirve habitualmente para guardar animales; atajadizo o cercado que se hace en los ríos o en la costa del mar, para encerrar la pesca y cogerla]]
Bulla – (noise) racket, uproar, ruckus; (fight) brawl, quarrel [[gritería o ruido que hacen una o más personas; concurrencia de mucha gente]]
Guagua – (infant) (Andes) baby; (triviality) trinket, little something
Arrodillar – (to bend the knees) to make kneel, to bring someone to his knees; arrodillarse – (to genuflect) to kneel down, to kneel [[hacer que alguien hinque la rodilla o ambas rodillas; ponerse de rodillas]]
Planta – (botany) plant; (factory) plant; (personnel) staff; (architecture) floor, story; (design) plan; (anatomy) sole [[parte inferior del pie; ser vivo autótrofo y fotosintético, cuyas células poseen pared compuesta principalmente de celulosa y carecen de capacidad locomotora]]
Dichoso – (full of happiness) happy; (favored by good luck) fortunate, lucky; (blasted) damn, blessed [[feliz; que incluye o trae consigo dicha; desventurado, malhadado; enfadoso, molesto]]
Gallardo – (valiant) gallant, brave; (stylish) dashing, fine-looking, striking, elegant, fine [[desembarazado, airoso y galán; bizarro, valiente; dicho de lo que corresponde al ánimo: grande, excelente]]
Mayordomo – (chief male servant of a household) butler, major domo; (administrator of a property) (Latin America) steward; (person in charge of a group of workers) (Andes) foreman; (religious) administrator [[criado principal a cuyo cargo está el gobierno económico de una casa o hacienda; oficial que se nombra en las congregaciones o cofradías para que atienda a los gastos y al cuidado y gobierno de las funciones; cada uno de los individuos de ciertas cofradías religiosas]]