092. The Candle of Life (La Vela de La Vida)
There was a very poor father who had many children. As he was so poor, one day he saw the need to leave his village and go out in the world to earn a living to feed his family. And the first thing that occurred to him was to serve [as a servant] in a house. He was thinking about the matter when he saw a man coming along on the road, who stopped next to him and asked if he would like to accompany him on a long trip that he had to make. The man said that, if he was to accompany him on this trip, he would give him three thousand reales and, of course, the father thought that, with the needs his family had, those three thousand reales would help mend their lives. So he told the man that if he could pay the money in advance, he would go with him. As he paid, the father left the money to his children and made his service available to the man.
[Note: The real (English: /ɹeɪˈɑl/ Spanish: /reˈal/) (meaning: “royal”, plural: reales) was a unit of currency in Spain for several centuries after the mid-14th century.]
The man took him home and said:
– Wait here in my house while I go fetch the horses. In the meantime, go prepare the saddlebags with what you have and we’ll be on our way.
The father filled the saddlebags with everything that he could find and, once he had finished, he wanted to see the master’s home and entered to look [around]. He [then] discovered that one of the rooms was full of lighted candles [where] one of the candles was close to burning out, and he said loudly:
– This candle will soon burn out.
And the candle replied:
– You will burn out sooner.
The father was frightened to death upon hearing this and ran to the door of the house to wait for the master.
The master returned with the horses, which were loaded with what they had to bring along, and they began on their announced journey. On the way, the father found himself in various mountains that he did not recognize. He asked the master where they were going and the latter replied:
– To nowhere of importance to you, that your salary has already been paid and you will have nothing more to say [about this matter].
They arrived at a river with a strong current, [the sight of] which gave him fright and it seemed [to him] that the horses wouldn’t be able to cross without getting hurt, but the master crossed it and he, steeling his gut, managed to cross it as well. Then they came to a castle and the master gave him a blade, a net needle, and some twine and said to the father to kill his horse and make a sack with its skin. The father asked why he must do this and the master told him to be quiet, that he must do what he was ordered to, then sat himself in front of the castle to wait.
In the end, the father killed his horse, skinned it, sewed a sack with its skin and carried it to the master. Then the master took out a paper that he had in his bag, blew on it, and just like that, a staircase was formed then and there. The master told him to climb up that staircase to fill the sack that he had sewn with the money that he would find there in the castle. But the father said to him that he dared not climb up a paper staircase.
Well, watch how I go up there – said the master, and he went up in front of him.
When he saw that, he was resolved to also go up and the master returned below to wait. The father began to search for the money and after a while he said to the master:
– My master, I don’t find any money here, only [human] bones.
– Good – said the master – well fill the sack with those bones.
This he did and, when he had filled it, he threw the sack to the master. And he was ready to go down when the master, with another blow, made the staircase disappeared. And he said:
– Didn’t the candle tell you that you will burn out before it does? Well you will remain [up] there and die before the candle extinguishes.
Then the father understood that those bones that he had picked up from there belonged to those who had suffered the same fate that awaited him.
But, as he was not satisfied [with this outcome / fate], he picked up the knife [blade] given to him by the master to skin the horse and began to dig in the ground with it. Little by little a hole was made, then he enlarged it and, finally, when he saw that he could fit in it, he slipped in to see where it would take him. He found himself in a room with a table at its center, [which is] filled with all sorts of delicacies that are ready to be eaten; and as he was starving, he sat down to eat. There was no one there, but at that moment a hand appeared and that hand changed the plates as he emptied them and brought him more food.
When he finished eating, he wandered about the castle, found a bed and lied down in it. As he was very tired, he fell asleep right away, but every now and then a hand appeared and gave him a smack and woke him up. The father got frightened and escaped to the courtyard, and there he encountered a little old lady who said to him:
– Who loves you so badly that he brings you to this castle?
[And] He replied:
– My fortune, be it good or bad.
And he told her what had happened to him. Then the old little woman told him to stay there with her going forward and gave him all the keys to the castle, but forbade him to open the room corresponded to the smallest key. This, he gratefully promised her. The truth is that he opened all the rooms except that one, but in the end his curiosity got the better of him and he also opened that room of the small key. There he found, to his great surprise, a man and a woman who were half man and half lion and half woman and half lion. He was ready to run away when he saw that they spoke to him with fine words – please, do not leave. So then he gathered courage to enter [again] and they told him that they were a prince and a princess who were enchanted and that he could free them from the enchantment. The father asked how he could do that, and they told him to go see the old little lady and offer to comb her hair.
– When she accepts – they said – stick this pin that we give you in her head, remove the keys that she carries on her neck and return here with them.
The father did this, he pierced her with the pin and she fell dead. The he grabbed the keys and went to where the prince and princess were.
They said to him:
– Tonight, when it strikes twelve, the lions in this castle will wake up. Only then, when the hour strikes, can we escape.
As the bells began to toll, those two turned into full man and woman, and they ran off with the father and left the castle. At the end of the bell tolls, the guarding lions woke up, but they were already outside [the castle]. At the same time that they left, the castle and the river circling it on the outside disappeared, and they found themselves close to the place where they lived. The prince and princess went back to their palace, but the father told them that he had to go search for the man who brought him to the castle in order to kill him. They told him to come with his family to live at the palace once he had killed the master, as they were very grateful to him for having saved them.
The father went to the house of his former master, knocked [on the door] and an old woman came out to greet him. He asked for the master and the old woman told him that he was inside. Then he told her who he was and instructed her to tell the master that he was at the door waiting [for him]. The master came out and was greatly surprised to see him alive:
– You are here? – he said.
And the father answered him:
– I am here, the same as you are.
And he took out the knife and stabbed him in the heart while telling him:
– Didn’t the candle say that I would burn out before it does? Well, you burnt out before me. Didn’t you want to kill me? Well, now I’m going to kill you for your wicked heart.
He then entered the room with the candles and saw that the one which had spoken to him had just been extinguished and it was that of the master, who loved it so dearly, and that his own was still shining high and large. So he left there and went to search for his family, and together they all began to go to the palace of the prince and the princess. And there they lived in abundance, instead of the miseries as they had suffered prior to that.
[Note: The full Spanish sentence is: “Entonces entró en el cuarto de las velas y vio que la vela que le había hablado se acababa de extinguir y era la del amo, que tan mal le quería, y que la suya lucía alta y grande todavía.” For better or worse I just kept it as that: “who loved it so dearly”, which may not be the intended meaning?]
—– VOCABULARY —–
Acabar – (to complete) to finish; (to come to an end) to end, to be over, to be done
Adelantado – (highly developed) advanced; (progressing) well-ahead; (premature) early; (clock) fast; (sports) forward
Agrandar – (to make bigger) to enlarge; (to overstate) to exaggerate
Aguadar – (to be in a state of expectation) to wait for, to await, to expect
Aguja – needle
Agujero – (opening) hole; (commerce) hole, deficit, shortfall
Alfiler – (sewing) pin; (jewelry) pin, brooch
Alforja – (bag) saddlebag (for mount); knapsack (backpack)
Animarse – (to become more cheerful) to liven up, to brighten up, to get energized; (to resolve) to decide
Apagar – (to disconnect) to turn off, to switch off, to put out; (to cause to stop burning) to blow out, to extinguish
Arreglar – (to solve) to settle, to sort out; (to clean) to tidy; (to organize) to arrange; (to restore) to fix, to repair, to mend
Caber – to fit
Callar – to keep quiet; to be quiet, to shut up
Caudal – (amount of flowing water) flow, volume; (assets and money) wealth, fortune
Clavar – (to force) to hammer, to drive, to thrust, to pin
Colarse- (to enter furtively) to sneak in, to slip in
Conformarse – to be satisfied with
Emprender – (to take up) to undertake; (to initiate) to start (work), to embark on (a journey)
Entrar ganas de – to feel like [doing something]
Escalera – stairs, ladder
Escarbar – (to excavate) to dig (deep); to scratch around in (superficially); to dig up (causing damage)
Guardar – (to place) to put away, to put; (to reserve) to save, to keep; (to watch over) to guard, to protect
Guita – (cord) string, twine; (slang) (money) (S. America, Spain) dough, cash
Hueso – (anatomy) bone; (fruit) pit, stone
Manjar – (pleasing food) delicacy, delicious; (delight) food
Ponerse a disposición – be made available to; be made available
Por fuera – on the outside
Proveer – (to give) to provide, to supply; (to hire) to fill; (to furnish) to provide
Red – (mesh) net
Sin más – just like that
Tripas corazón – bite the bullet; bullet; courage
Vela – (piece of wax) candle; (part of a boat) sail