079. The Young Pilgrim (La Peregrinita)
Once there was a cursed prince [who lived] in a beautiful palace. While being cursed, the prince was not able to leave the palace; however, he was able to walk around in all of his gardens or to go on hunts even, as long as he never crossed the boundary of that magnificent palace.
The prince loved to go hunting, and on one of his trips he managed to pass by a house in the field, where he saw a girl whose beauty seemed to him beyond comparison (literal translation of ‘el colmo de la belleza’, which can be taken as ‘the height of beauty’). He asked about her and found out that she was the envy of all women in those areas.
The prince fell in love with her; and as he was very handsome, the girl also quickly fell in love with him. The prince then proposed to make her his wife. This seemed well to the girl and she agreed, so that he took her to the palace where he lived under a curse and surrounded her with all the comforts that she could desire.
Shortly after she began living there, the prince announced to his wife that in only a little while would the curse be lifted and he could then return to the palace of his father, the king, and there they would celebrate their wedding; but he also warned her that she must be very careful and attentive, as she must not fall asleep on the day in which he was to leave, for he would not be able to call on her, and if she lost him from view then it would not be easy to ever see him again.
Anyway, that day arrived in which he would be rid of his curse and his father, the king, came searching for him in a grand horse-drawn carriage. Just before leaving, the young man went to see his wife and found her asleep. As he was unable to call her due to the curse, he picked a good number of flowers and laid them around her; then he took a dagger with [a] golden handle from his clothes and placed it on her chest. Then, as his father was now impatiently waiting for him, since it was the day in which they had to leave before the night could surprise them while still inside the palace’s domain, he left the young woman, climbed up the carriage with his father and left that locale.
At the moment they left the palace’s domain, it disappeared in thin air and there was no remaining trace of it other than the young woman sleeping on the ground. Then she woke up feeling cold and, on seeing that she was the only one in the middle of the field, understood it was time that the curse got lifted and the prince had left while she was asleep.
The sorrowful young woman picked up the flowers and dagger and followed the carriage, guided by the trail left by its wheels. In this way she walked until she reached a stop, sighting a cloud of dust in the background and supposed that it was the carriage in which the prince traveled, so that she quickened her pace but was not able to reach it.
In one such stop she encountered a female pilgrim coming from the opposite direction, and she asked the pilgrim if she had seen the carriage, and who were [riding] inside; and from the indication the pilgrim gave her, she knew that it was the prince’s carriage and he was in it. She proposed to the pilgrim to exchange clothing, and as hers was very nice, the other immediately accepted.
So she followed that way, and much later, she saw a carriage stopping next to a fountain and was able to approach it.
She had barely begun to rest for a bit around the carriage when it started to leave once more. However, the prince had seen the pilgrim speaking to a young girl and he wanted to talk to and ask news from her, as she reminded him of the young woman whom he had left [sleeping] behind. So he gave order for the horses to go easy, which annoyed the king, who preferred to advance quickly.
As the carriage was going slowly, it was not hard for the pilgrim to catch up to it; and the prince, leaning his head out of the door, said to her:
– Young pilgrim, have I not seen you talking to someone on the road?
To which she replied:
– Yes, señor, with a very pretty young girl.
– And what did that girl said to you? – asked the prince again.
– Aye, poor little thing! – replied the young pilgrim – she said: ‘The gentleman covered me in flowers, only to forget my love [for him].’
The prince continued talking to her, because he liked to hear her speak, but the king, tired from all this [small] talk, wanted the horses to pick up their pace. The prince, on hearing this, said he would only agree to this if the pilgrim could enter the carriage. And the king, in order to arrive quickly at his palace, consented to his son’s impulse. The pilgrim climbed up and they continued until arriving at their destination. The prince had not recognized the young woman, but he seemed to recognize the sound of her voice; and now at his palace he gave order to allocate her a room that was very close to his.
To all this, the king had arranged and prepared a wedding between his son and a princess whom he had called for to be at the palace on the same day which they arrived. On the following day he announced to the prince that he must wed her, and the prince asked him for some time to think about it. But the king told him that this was not possible, because the bride had come with all her entourage and dowry and they must not make her wait. In this manner, they celebrated the wedding between the prince and the princess chosen by his father that next day.
The prince still remembered the girl he left sleeping in the field and, for her part, the pilgrim had hopes to be recognized by the prince, but lost them completely upon seeing him getting married and [thus] did not want to attend the wedding’s after-party.
In the end, night came and everyone went to bed, but the prince wanted to go say hello to the pilgrim before retiring for the night, to see if she was sick since he had not seen her all day. So he went to her room and found it empty. He asked the servants but no one remembered having seen her. The prince searched for her in the palace and later, in the garden, and there he found her, [lying] spread out on the ground with a dagger piercing her chest and many flowers scattered around her. On leaning over her, he saw the dagger had a golden handle and he recognized her as the girl that he loved.
It was not long before he understood why she had killed herself; and he said:
– Since you don’t want to live without my love, I cannot live without yours.
And he took the dagger and pierced his heart with it, and fell dead beside the pilgrim.
Meanwhile, the princess, seeing that her spouse was late, got up to see where he was. The first place that she looked was in the pilgrim’s room, as they told her that she had come with him in the carriage and, not finding her there, she thought they had run away together. She searched for them all over the palace, and then in the garden, and there she found them both [lying] dead. And the princess was so jealous of the the pilgrim that she took the golden dagger that the prince had in his chest, pierced herself with it, and fell dead by his side.
The next morning, the king and queen went over to see if the newlyweds had waken, but they did not find them in their room. Then they went down to the garden and to their [great] pain saw the scene with the three deceased. The queen faulted the king for having forced their son to marry someone whom he did not love, and the king was inconsolable.
There they remained focused on their pain, surrounded by their friends and servants, when they saw a white dove descended from the sky. The dove fluttered for a moment above the dead and later landed on the ground. It brought with it a tiny basket from which it extracted with its beak a pommel and a bird feather. Everyone was expectant, as this event seemed to them [most] extraordinary. The dove dipped the feather in a liquid contained in the pommel, smeared this on the prince’s wound and with this he rose [again] in good health, much to the surprise and joy of everyone present.
After this miracle, the dove approached the prince and spoke to him in this way:
– Prince, I bring order to return to life only one of the two deceased women. You have to be the one who chooses which of the two you’d like to see alive once more.
And the prince, without vacillating, replied:
– The young pilgrim.
The dove then took the feather and smeared the pilgrim’s wound with it, bringing her back to life. Then it picked up the tiny basket, took flight and disappeared from everyone’s view.
But everyone was a little sad because they had wanted to resuscitate the poor princess as well; as this was impossible, because the dove had taken with it the pommel and feather, they were satisfied to see the prince and the woman he loved being alive again, and arranged with great pomp a burial for the princess.
After the burial, the princess’s entourage carried the sad news back to her kingdom. The prince then said to his parents that he would not marry anyone else other than the young pilgrim, and the king and queen, shocked by what had happened, agreed to it. They set aside a period of mourning for the princess, at the end of which they celebrated the wedding between the prince and the pilgrim, and they were happy until the end of their days.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Acertar a – (to be able to) to manage to; (to identify accurately) to get right, to guess correctly
Acostar – to put to bed, to put to sleep
Alcanzar – to reach
Al fondo – in the background; at the back; at the end; at the bottom
Alto – stop
Andeles – trail, marks
Apretar – (to hurry) to quicken
Apuesto – handsome, good-looking
Asistir – to attend
Atenta – attentive
Atentar – (to put in jeopardy) to threaten, to infringe, to put at risk; (to try to attack) to make an attempt
Aun – even
Avanzar – to advance, to move forward
Belleza – (quality) beauty
Capricho – (fancy) whim, impulse, caprice;
Celos – (envy) jealousy; (suspicion) jealousy
Charla – chat
Clavado – (fastened with nails) nailed
Colmar – (to overfill) to fill to the brim, to fill up to the top; (to satisfy) to fulfill
Colmo – (limit) height
Comodidad – (physical ease) comfort; (advantage) convenience; (benefit) interest
Conformarse con – to be satisfied with
Conforme – (content) happy, satisfied
Conmocionado – shocked, dazed
Con tal de – (in order to) to; (provided; use with ‘no’) as long as
Costar – (to be difficult to) to be hard
De modo que – so that
Descansar – (to take a break) to rest, to have a break, to take it easy; (to be asleep) to sleep, to nap
Despacio – slowly
Destinar – to allocate
Desvanecer – (to make disappear) to dispel, to dissipate; (to decolor) to fade; (to make indistinct) to blur
Difuntos – deceased, departed
Disponer – (to place) to arrange, to set out;
Disponer con – freely dispose
Divisar – (to detect) to make out, to spot, to spy, to sight
Dominio – (area) domain, field, realm; (command) control, authority; (awareness) mastery, knowledge, fluency
Dote – dowry
Durar – (to go on) to last, to be long; (to continue being usable) to last
Eco – echo; (reaction) repercussion, impact
Enramarse – to cover with branches
Entregado – (committed) devoted, dedicated; (sacrificed) selfless
Esparcido – scattered
Extraer – to extract, to pull out
Guiar – (to show the way) to guide, to lead; (automobile) to drive; (to direct the path of) to train
Huir – to escape, to flee, to run away
Inclinarse – (to angle) to lean, to bend, to bow
Ir al paso – go easy; go at a walk; to skip
Luto – mourning
Mango – (object to grip) handle; fruit: mango
Mojar – (to cover in liquid) to get wet, to wet, to dampen, to moisten; (to submerge) to dip, to dunk
Nube – (weather) cloud
Paso – step, footstep
Pecho – chest
Peregrino – (religious) pilgrim; (wandering) traveling; (bird) migratory; (idea or suggestion) strange
Permanecer – (to remain in a place) to stay
Pesarosa – sorrowful, full of repentance; restless, uneasy
Pico – beak, bill (bird)
Polvo – (earth particles) dust
Pomo – (handgrip) knob, handle; (haft) pommel
Portezuela – (automobile) door
Posarse – (to settle on a surface after flying) to land, to perch, to alight
Prodigio – (something incredible) wonder, prodigy, marvel; (gifted) prodigy
Puesto que – since
Puñal – dagger
Recordar – to remember
Recorrer – to travel around
Reponer – (to respond) to reply
Revolotear – (to hover around) to flutter, to flit, to flit about; (to whirl around) to fly around
Rodear – to surround, to encircle
Ruedas – wheels
Señas – (indication) sign; (gesture) sign, signal
Séquito – retinue, entourage, train
Soberbio – (impressive) magnificent, superb, grand; (conceited) arrogant, haughty; (unforgiving) proud
Suceso – event
Suponer – to suppose
Supo que – he knew that; he found out that
Traspasar – (to penetrate) to go through, to pierce, to run through; (to traverse) to cross
Vacilar – to hesitate