004. The Seven White Rabbits (Los Siete Conejos Blancos)
A king had a very beautiful daughter whom he loved with all his heart. His wife, the queen, had brought the princess up with much love and attention, and had taught her to sew and embroider exquisitely, so that the princess greatly enjoyed doing all kinds of [needle] work.
The princess’s room had a balcony overlooking the countryside. One day, she sat sewing on the balcony as she often used to do; and between stitches [while] she was gazing [out] at the magnificent fields that extended before the castle, the forests and the hills, when she suddenly saw seven white rabbits coming [her way] and making a wheel under her balcony. She was so amused and admiringly observing the rabbits when, out of carelessness, she dropped her thimble; one of the rabbits caught it in its mouth, then they all broke up the wheel and ran away until she lost sight of them.
She went back to sewing on the balcony the next day, and after a while she saw the seven white rabbits arrived and [again] formed a wheel under her. And as she leaned out to get a better view of them, the princess dropped a ribbon, [whereby] one of the rabbits caught it with its mouth and they all ran away once more until she lost sight of them.
The same thing happened again the next day, but this time it was the sewing scissors that she lost.
And after the scissors was a spool of thread, a silk lace, a pin cushion, a comb… And from then on the rabbits never appeared again.
As the rabbits did not return no matter how many times she went out on the balcony everyday, the princess fell ill with sadness and was put to bed, and her parents believed that she would die. But the king loved her so much that he sent for the most famous doctors [in the land], and when they admitted that they did not know what kind of illness the princess had, he sent out a proclamation announcing that the princess was sick with an unknown illness and that anyone confident in being able to cure her should come immediately to the palace; and to whom who could cure her he offered, if she was a woman, a large amount of money, and if he was a man without impediment to marry, the hand of his daughter.
Many people answered the king’s proclamation, but no one knew how to cure the princess, who was languishing helplessly.
One day, a mother and a daughter who lived in a nearby village decided to go to the palace to see if they could cure the princess, since both were dedicated herbalists and were confident that, with their knowledge of all the plants in the kingdom, they would [be able to] find a remedy to heal her. [And] So they set out on their way.
And they were on their way when they decided to save time by taking a shortcut; and when they were taking the shortcut, they decided to take a break to eat and rest a little. But as luck would have it, when they took out the bread, it fell and rolled down the hill whose peak they were sitting on, and the two of them, without [any] hesitation, ran after it until they saw it fell into a hole at the bottom of the hill. So they got to the hole and, on crouching down to retrieve it, they saw that the hole led to a large cave that was lit from within. Looking through the hole, they saw a table set with seven chairs and, a little later, they saw seven white rabbits entering the cave and, [after] taking off their skins, they transformed into seven princes and the seven of them sat [down] around the table.
Then they heard one of them said, while taking a thimble from the table:
This is the princess’s thimble. Who would have her here!
[Note: the original Spanish text is “Éste es el dedal de la princesa. ¡Quién la tuviera aquí!” I don’t know what the second sentence means, perhaps it’s “Who would love to have her here!”, so I just provide a literal translation here. Please feel free to let me know if there is a better interpretation.]
And another:
This is the princess’s ribbon. Who would have her here!
And another:
These are the princess’s scissors. Who would have her here!
And so on, one after another, until all seven spoke.
The two women withdrew cautiously without making any noise, but before they went away they noticed that not far from the hole was a door well concealed in the undergrowth.
Then they hurried to the palace and, once there, asked to see the princess. The princess was lying down and no longer wished to see anyone, but the two women began to talk to her and told her who they were and what they did and, finally, they told her about the journey that they had made, and recounted to her the mysterious scene of the cave and the seven white rabbits.
At this point, the princess straightened up in her bed and asked for something to eat. And the king, [up]on finding out, went immediately to her room full of joy, as it was the first time that the princess had wanted to eat since she fell ill.
Father – the princess said to him -, now I’m going to get well, but I have to go with these ladies.
That cannot be! – the king protested -. You are still too weak!
Well, it has to be this way – the princess said determinedly.
And the king understood that he had no choice but to give in and ordered [his servants] to prepare the princess’s carriage.
The three of them [then] set out at once, and halfway down the road where the women told her [to go], the princess ordered the carriage to stop and the three of them got off to search for the cave, which was quite far from the road. At last they reached the hole and the concealed door and looked through one and the other, but they could not see anything and night began to fall on them. It got so dark that the three agreed to return the next day at the same hour in hope of getting better luck, when suddenly they saw the cave’s interior lit up and saw also the seven white rabbits, who had shed their skins and transformed into princes.
The seven [rabbits] sat at the table and repeated again what the two women had already heard [before]:
This is the princess’s thimble. Who would have her here!
And the next one:
This is the princess’s ribbon. Who would have her here!
Until the last one:
This is the princess’s comb. Who would have her here!
Then the princess gave a push at the door, entered and said:
Well, here you have me [well, here I am].
And she chose the one she liked best among them; and she asked the two women who had helped her so much, together with the other six princes, to accompany her to the palace for they were all invited to the wedding.
—– VOCABULARY —–
A partir de entonces – from then on
Acabar – to finish, to end
Acercarse – to approach, to take an interest in
Acordar – to agree
Acudiera – I/s/he came, acudir – to come, to turn to, to go to
Agacharse – to crouch down, to bend down, to duck, to squat
Agujero – hole
Al cabo del rato – after a while
Alejarse – to move away, to withdraw from
Alfiletero – needlecase, pin cushion
Amaba – s/he loved; amar – to love
Apearse – to get off, to get out off
Apresurar – to hurry, to hurry along, to speed up, to quicken
Asiento – seat
Atajo – shortcut
Aún – still
Bastante – enough, quite a lot of, quite
Bordar – to embroider, to be excellent in
Caer – to fall; cayera – s/he fell
Cariño – affection, care
Carrete – roll, spool
Casarse – to get married, to marry
Ceder – to cede, to give in
Cinta – ribbon, tape, belt
Colina – hill
Comunicar – to connect, to link
Convidar – to invite
Cordón – lace, cord
Coser – to sew, to stitch
Costura – sewing, needlework
Creyeron – they believed, creer – to believe
Cueva – cave, cellar
Dar – to overlook, to face
De pronto – suddenly
Débil – weak
Dedal – thimble (sewing)
Demasiado – too, too much
Dentro – inside, in
Descansar – to rest, to sleep, to nap
Descuido – carelessness, negligence
Deshicieron – they undid; deshacer – to undo, to untie, to break up
Despojar – to strip, to divest
Detener – to stop, to arrest, to delay
Disfrutar – to enjoy
Disimular – to conceal, to hide
Echaron a correr – they ran (away)
Echarse – to start, to begin
Educar – to bring up
Empeñada – determined
Empujón – push, shove
Encima – above, on top, on
Enderezó – s/he straightened; enderezar – to straighten, to put upright, to straighten out
Enterarse – to find out, to hear, to notice, to understand
Entretenido – entertaining, enjoyable
Escogió – s/he chose; escoger – to choose
Esperanza – (desire) hope; (something or someone that gives hope) hope
Fijarse – to notice, to pay attention
Ganar – to win, to earn; ganar tiempo – to buy time, to save time
Ha de ser – has to be
Hallarse – to be situated
Herboristería – herbal, herbalist
Hilo – thread, yarn
Impedimento – obstacle, impediment, hindrance
Inclinarse – to be inclined to, to tend to; to lean, to bend, to bow
Languidecer – to languish
Lejos – far away
Loma – hill
Maleza – undergrowth, weeds
Mandó – s/he ordered; mandar – to order, to tell, to send
A menudo – often
Menudo – small, slight, insignificant, meticulous
Mesa puesta – table set
Muchísimo – very much, a lot of
Oscurecer – to darken, to obscure, to confuse, to cloud
Paño – (fabric) wool; (piece of cloth) cloth, dishcloth, washcloth
Paraje – place, spot
Peineta – ornamental comb
Pellejo – skin, hide
Pelo suelto – hair down
Pie – foot, base, stem
Ponerse a coser – to start sewing
Por más que – no matter how, as much as
Pregón – proclamation, announcement
Primorosa – exquisite
Pues – then, well, since, because
Puntada – (sewing) stitch
Quedaban convidados – they were invited
Quedar – to remain, to be located, to meet, to agree to meet
Querer – to want, to love
Quiso la suerte que – as luck would have it
Quitar – to remove, to take away; quitarse – to take off
Recuperar – to recover, to get back, to regain
Remedio – choice, alternative, remedy, cure
Rodar – to roll, to go round, to turn
Rueda – wheel, circle
Sacar – to take out, to remove
Sanar – to cure, to heal
Seda – silk
Silla – chair, seat
Sin dudarlo – without hesitation
Soler – to use to, usually, to be in the habit of
Supo – s/he knew; saber – to know
Tijeras – scissors
Tristeza – sadness, sorrow
Ya me voy – I’m leaving, I’m about to leave, I’m going to