II. How Lazaro Took up with a Priest and the Things That Happened to Him with That Man

Otro día, no pareciéndome estar allí seguro, fuime a un lugar que llaman Maqueda, adonde me toparon mis pecados con un clérigo, que, llegando a pedir limosna, me preguntó si sabía ayudar a misa. Yo dije que sí, como era verdad; que, aunque maltratado, mil cosas buenas me mostró el pecador del ciego, y una de ellas fue ésta. Finalmente, el clérigo me recibió por suyo.

I didn't feel very safe in that town, so the next day I went to a place named Maqueda. There I met up with a priest (it must have been because of all my sins). I started to beg from him, and he asked me if I knew how to assist at mass. I told him I did, and it was the truth: even though that sinner of a blind man beat me, he'd taught me all kinds of good things, too, and this was one of them. So the priest took me in, and I was out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Escapé del trueno y di en el relámpago, porque era el ciego para con éste un Alejandro Magno, con ser la misma avaricia, como he contado. No digo más, sino que toda la lacería del mundo estaba encerrada en éste: no sé si de su cosecha era o lo había anejado con el hábito de clerecía.

Because even though the blind man was the very picture of greed, as I've said, he was an Alexander the Great compared to this fellow. I won't say any more, except that all the miserliness in the world was in this man. I don't know if he'd been born that way, or if it came along with his priest's frock.

Él tenía un arcaz viejo y cerrado con su llave, la cual traía atada con un agujeta del paletoque. Y en viniendo el bodigo de la iglesia, por su mano era luego allí lanzado y tornada a cerrar el arca. Y en toda la casa no había ninguna cosa de comer, como suele estar en otras algún tocino colgado al humero, algún queso puesto en alguna tabla o en el armario, algún canastillo con algunos pedazos de pan que de la mesa sobran; que me parece a mí que, aunque de ello no me aprovechara, con la vista de ello me consolara.

He had an old chest that he kept locked, and he kept the key tied to his cassock with a leather cord. When the holy bread was brought from church, he'd throw it in the chest and lock it up again. And there wasn't a thing to eat in the whole place, the way there is in most houses: a bit of bacon hanging from the chimney, some cheese lying on the table or in the cupboard, a basket with some slices of bread left over from dinner. It seemed to me that even if I hadn't eaten any of it, I would have felt a lot better just being able to look at it.

Solamente había una horca de cebollas, y tras la llave, en una cámara en lo alto de la casa. De éstas tenía yo de ración una para cada cuatro días, y, cuando le pedía la llave para ir por ella, si alguno estaba presente, echaba mano al falsopeto y con gran continencia la desataba y me la daba diciendo: -Toma y vuélvela luego, y no hagáis sino golosinar. Como si debajo de ella estuvieran todas las conservas de Valencia, con no haber en la dicha cámara, como dije, maldita la otra cosa que las cebollas colgadas de un clavo. Las cuales él tenía tan bien por cuenta, que, si por malos de mis pecados me desmandara a más de mi tasa, me costara caro.

The only thing around was a string of onions, and that was kept locked in a room upstairs. I was rationed out one onion every four days. And if anyone else was around when I asked him for the key to get it, he'd reach into his breast pocket and untie the key with great airs, and he'd hand it to me and say, "Here. Take it, but bring it back as soon as you're through, and don't stuff yourself." And this as if all the oranges in Valencia were up there, while there really wasn't a damned thing, as I said, besides the onions hanging from a nail. And he had those counted so well that if I (being the sinner that I am) had taken even one extra onion, I would really have been in for it.

 

Finalmente, yo me finaba de hambre. Pues ya que conmigo tenía poca caridad, consigo usaba más. Cinco blancas de carne era su ordinario para comer y cenar. Verdad es que partía conmigo del caldo, que de la carne ¡tan blanco el ojo!, sino un poco de pan, y ¡pluguiera a Dios que me demediara!

So there I was, dying of hunger. But if he wasn't very charitable to me, he was to himself. A good five coppers' worth of meat was his usual fare for supper. I have to admit that he did give me some of the soup, but as for the meat--I didn't even get a whiff of it. All I got was a little bread: that blasted man wouldn't give me half of what I really needed!

Los sábados cómense en esta tierra cabezas de carnero, y enviábame por una, que costaba tres maravedís. Aquélla le cocía, y comía los ojos y la lengua y el cogote y sesos y la carne que en las quijadas tenía, y dábame todos los huesos roídos, y dábamelos en el plato, diciendo: -Toma, come, triunfa, que para ti es el mundo. Mejor vida tienes que el papa. «¡Tal te la dé Dios!» -decía yo paso entre mí. A cabo de tres semanas que estuve con él vine a tanta flaqueza, que no me podía tener en las piernas de pura hambre.

And on Saturdays everyone around here eats head of mutton, and he sent me for one that cost six coppers. He cooked it and ate the eyes, the tongue, the neck, the brains and the meat in the jaws. Then he gave me the chewed-over bones; he put them on a plate and said, "Here, eat this and be happy. It's a meal fit for a king. In fact, you're living better than the Pope." "May God grant you this kind of life," I said under my breath. After I had been with him for three weeks, I got so skinny that my legs wouldn't hold me up out of sheer hunger.

Vime claramente ir a la sepultura, si Dios y mi saber no me remediaran. Para usar de mis mañas no tenía aparejo, por no tener en qué dalle salto. Y, aunque algo hubiera, no podía cegalle, como hacía al que Dios perdone (si de aquella calabazada feneció), que todavía, aunque astuto, con faltalle aquel preciado sentido, no me sentía; mas estotro, ninguno hay que tan aguda vista tuviese como él tenía.

I saw that I was heading right straight for the grave if God and my wits didn't come to my rescue. But there was no way I could trick him because there wasn't a thing I could steal. And even if there had been something, I couldn't blind him the way I did the other one (may he rest in peace if that blow on the head finished him off). Because even though the other fellow was smart, without that valuable fifth sense he couldn't tell what I was doing. But this new guy--there isn't anyone whose sight was as good as his was.

Cuando al ofertorio estábamos, ninguna blanca en la concha caía, que no era de él registrada: el un ojo tenía en la gente y el otro en mis manos. Bailábanle los ojos en el casco como si fueran de azogue. Cuantas blancas ofrecían tenía por cuenta, y, acabado el ofrecer, luego me quitaba la concha y la ponía sobre el altar. No era yo señor de asirle una blanca todo el tiempo que con él viví, o, por mejor decir, morí. De la taberna nunca le traje una blanca de vino; mas aquel poco que de la ofrenda había metido en su arcaz compasaba de tal forma que le duraba toda la semana Y por ocultar su gran mezquindad, decíame:

When we were passing around the offering plate, not a penny fell into the basket that he didn't have it spotted. He kept one eye on the people and the other on my hands. His eyes danced in their sockets like quicksilver. Every cent that was put in was ticked off in his mind. And as soon as the offering was over, he would take the plate away from me and put it on the altar.

I wasn't able to get a penny away from him all the time I lived with him--or, to be more precise, all the time I died with him. He never sent me to the tavern for even a drop of wine: what little he brought back from the offering and put in the chest he rationed out so that it lasted him a whole week. And to cover up his terrible stinginess, he would say to me,

-Mira, mozo, los sacerdotes han de ser muy templados en su comer y beber, y por esto yo no me desmando como otros. Mas el lacerado mentía falsamente, porque en cofradías y mortuorios que rezamos, a costa ajena comía como lobo y bebía más que un saludador. Y porque dije de mortuorios, Dios me perdone, que jamás fui enemigo de la naturaleza humana sino entonces.

"Look, son, we priests have to be very moderate in our eating and drinking, and that's why I don't indulge the way other people do." But that old miser was really lying, because when we prayed at meetings or at funerals and other people were paying for the food, he ate like a wolf and drank more than any old, thirsty quack doctor.

Speaking of funerals, God forgive me but I was never an enemy of mankind except during them.

Y esto era porque comíamos bien y me hartaban. Deseaba y aun rogaba a Dios que cada día matase el suyo. Y cuando dábamos sacramento a los enfermos, especialmente la extremaunción, como manda el clérigo rezar a los que están allí, yo cierto no era el postrero de la oración, y con todo mi corazón y buena voluntad rogaba al Señor, no que le echase a la parte que más servido fuese, como se suele decir, mas que le llevase de aqueste mundo.

This was because we really ate well and I was able to gorge myself. I used to hope and pray that God would kill off someone every day. We'd give the sacraments to the sick people, and the priest would ask everyone there to pray. And I was certainly not the last to begin--especially at extreme unction. With all my heart and soul I prayed to God--not that His will be done, as they say, but that He take the person from this world.

Y cuando alguno de éstos escapaba, ¡Dios me lo perdone!, que mil veces le daba al diablo; y el que se moría, otras tantas bendiciones llevaba de mí dichas. Porque en todo el tiempo que allí estuve, que serían casi seis meses, solas veinte personas fallecieron, y éstas bien creo que las maté yo, o, por mejor decir, murieron a mi recuesta; porque, viendo el Señor mi rabiosa y continua muerte, pienso que holgaba de matarlos por darme a mí vida.

And when one of them escaped (God forgive me), I damned him to hell a thousand times. But when one died, I blessed him just as much. Because in all the time that I was there--which must have been nearly six months--only twenty people died. And I really think that I killed them; I mean, they died at my request. Because I think that the Lord must have seen my own endless and awful dying, and He was glad to kill them so that I could live.

Mas de lo que al presente padecía, remedio no hallaba; que, si el día que enterrábamos yo vivía, los días que no había muerto, por quedar bien vezado de la hartura, tornando a mi cotidiana hambre, más lo sentía. De manera que en nada hallaba descanso, salvo en la muerte, que yo también para mí, como para los otros deseaba algunas veces; mas no la veía, aunque estaba siempre en mí.

But at that time I couldn't find any relief for my misery. If I came to life on the days that we buried someone, I really felt the pangs of hunger when there wasn't any funeral. Because I would get used to filling myself up, and then I would have to go back to my usual hunger again. So I couldn't think of any way out except to die: I wanted death for myself sometimes just as much as for the others. But I never saw it, even though it was always inside of me.

Pensé muchas veces irme de aquel mezquino amo; mas por dos cosas lo dejaba: la primera, por no me atrever a mis piernas, por temer de la flaqueza que de pura hambre me venía; y la otra, consideraba y decía: «Yo he tenido dos amos: el primero traíame muerto de hambre y, dejándole, topé con este otro, que me tiene ya con ella en la sepultura; pues si de éste desisto y doy en otro más bajo, ¿qué será, sino fenecer?».

Lots of times I thought about running away from that penny- pinching master, but I didn't for two reasons. First, I didn't trust my legs: lack of food had made them so skinny that I was afraid they wouldn't hold me up. Second, I thought a while, and I said: "I've had two masters: the first one nearly starved me to death, and when I left him I met up with this one; and he gives me so little to eat that I've already got one foot in the grave. Well, if I leave this one and find a master who is one step lower, how could it possibly end except with my death?"

Con esto no me osaba menear, porque tenía por fe que todos los grados había de hallar más ruines. Y a abajar otro punto, no sonara Lázaro ni se oyera en el mundo. Pues estando en tal aflicción, cual plega al Señor librar de ella a todo fiel cristiano, y sin saber darme consejo, viéndome ir de mal en peor, un día que el cuitado, ruin y lacerado de mi amo había ido fuera del lugar, llegóse acaso a mi puerta un calderero, el cual yo creo que fue ángel enviado a mí por la mano de Dios en aquel hábito. Preguntóme si tenía algo que adobar.

So I didn't dare to move an inch. I really thought that each step would just get worse. And if I were to go down one more step, Lazaro wouldn't make another peep and no one would ever hear of him again. So there I was, in a terrible state (and God help any true Christian who finds himself in those circumstances), not knowing what to do and seeing that I was going from bad to worse. Then one day when that miserable, tightfisted master of mine had gone out, a tinker came to my door. I think he must have been an angel in disguise, sent down by the hand of God. He asked me if there was anything I wanted fixed.

«En mí teníades bien que hacer, y no haríades poco, si me remediásedes» -dije paso, que no me oyó. Mas, como no era tiempo de gastarlo en decir gracias, alumbrado por el Espíritu Santo, le dije: -Tío, una llave de este arcaz he perdido, y temo mi señor me azote. Por vuestra vida, veáis si en ésas que traéis hay alguna que le haga, que yo os lo pagaré. Comenzó a probar el angélico calderero una y otra de un gran sartal que de ellas traía, y yo ayudalle con mis flacas oraciones. Cuando no me cato, veo en figura de panes, como dicen, la cara de Dios dentro del arcaz, y, abierto, díjele: -Yo no tengo dineros que daros por la llave; mas tomad de ahí el pago.

"You could fix me up, and you wouldn't be doing half bad," I said softly but not so he could hear me. But there wasn't enough time so I could waste it on witty sayings and, inspired by the Holy Spirit, I said to him, "Sir, I've lost the key to this chest, and I'm afraid my master will beat me. Please look and see if one of those keys you have will fit. I'll pay you for it." The angelic tinker began to try out the keys on his chain, one after the other, and I was helping him with my feeble prayers. Then, when I least expected it, I saw the face of God, as they say, formed by the loaves of bread inside that chest. When it was all the way open I said to him, "I don't have any money to give you for the key, but take your payment from what's in there."

Él tomó un bodigo de aquéllos, el que mejor le pareció, y, dándome mi llave, se fue muy contento, dejándome más a mí. Mas no toqué en nada por el presente, porque no fuese la falta sentida, y, aun porque me vi de tanto bien señor, parecióme que la hambre no se me osaba allegar. Vino el mísero de mi amo, y quiso Dios no miró en la oblada que el ángel había llevado. Y otro día, en saliendo de casa, abro mi paraíso panal y tomo entre las manos y dientes un bodigo y en dos credos le hice invisible, no olvidándoseme el arca abierta. Y comienzo a barrer la casa con mucha alegría, pareciéndome con aquel remedio remediar dende en adelante la triste vida.

He took the loaf of bread that looked best to him, and he gave me the key and went away happy, leaving me even happier. But I didn't touch a thing right then so that the loss wouldn't be noticeable. And, too, when I saw that I was the Lord of all that, I didn't think my hunger would dare come near me. Then my miserly old master came back, and--thank God--he didn't notice the missing loaf of bread that the angel had carried off. The next day, when he left the house, I opened my breadly paradise and sank my hands and teeth into a loaf, and in a flash I made it invisible. And, of course, I didn't forget to lock up the chest again. Then I began to sweep the house very happily, thinking that from now on my sad life would change.

Y así estuve con ello aquel día y otro gozoso; mas no estaba en mi dicha que me durase mucho aquel descanso, porque luego, al tercero día, me vino la terciana derecha. Y fue que veo a deshora al que me mataba de hambre sobre nuestro arcaz, volviendo y revolviendo, contando y tornando a contar los panes. Yo disimulaba, y en mi secreta oración y devociones y plegarias decía: «¡San Juan y ciégale!»

And so that day and the next I was happy. But it wasn't meant for that peace to last very long because on the third day real tertian fever struck. It happened that I suddenly saw that man who was starving me to death standing over our chest, moving the loaves of bread from one side to the other, counting and recounting them. I pretended not to notice, and silently I was praying, hoping, and begging, "Saint John, blind him!"

Después que estuvo un gran rato echando la cuenta, por días y dedos contando, dijo: -Si no tuviera a tan buen recaudo esta arca, yo dijera que me habían tomado de ella panes; pero de hoy más, sólo por cerrar la puerta a la sospecha, quiero tener buena cuenta con ellos: nueve quedan y un pedazo. «¡Nuevas malas te dé Dios!» -dije yo entre mí. Parecióme con lo que dijo pasarme el corazón con saeta de montero y comenzóme el estómago a escarbar de hambre, viéndose puesto en la dieta pasada. Fue fuera de casa. Yo, por consolarme, abro el arca y, como vi el pan, comencélo de adorar, no osando recebillo.

After he had stood there quite a while, counting the days and the loaves on his fingers, he said, "If I weren't so careful about keeping this chest closed, I'd swear that someone had taken some of the loaves of bread. But from now on, just to close the door on all suspicion, I'm going to keep close track of them. There are nine and a half in there now." "May God send you nine pieces of bad news, too," I said under my breath. It seemed to me that what he said went into my heart like a hunter's arrow, and my stomach began to rumble when it saw that it would be going back to its old diet. Then he left the house. To console myself I opened the chest, and when I saw the bread I began to worship it--but I was afraid to "take any in remembrance of Him."

Contélos, si a dicha el lacerado se errara, y hallé su cuenta más verdadera que yo quisiera. Lo más que yo pude hacer fue dar en ellos mil besos, y, lo más delicado que yo pude, del partido partí un poco al pelo que él estaba, y con aquél pasé aquel día, no tan alegre como el pasado.

Then I counted the loaves to see if the old miser had made a mistake, but he had counted them much better than I'd have liked. The best I could do was to kiss them over and over, and as delicately as I could, I peeled a little off the half-loaf on the side where it was already cut. And so I got through that day but not as happily as the one before.

Mas, como la hambre creciese, mayormente que tenía el estómago hecho a más pan aquellos dos o tres días ya dichos, moría mala muerte; tanto, que otra cosa no hacía, en viéndome solo, sino abrir y cerrar el arca y contemplar en aquella cara de Dios, que así dicen los niños. Mas el mismo Dios, que socorre a los afligidos, viéndome en tal estrecho, trajo a mi memoria un pequeño remedio, que, considerando entre mí, dije:

But my hunger kept growing, mainly because my stomach had gotten used to more bread during those previous two or three days. I was dying a slow death, and finally I got to the point that when I was alone the only thing I did was open and close the chest and look at the face of God inside (or at least that's how children put it). But God Himself--who aids the afflicted--seeing me in such straits, put a little thought into my head that would help me. Thinking to myself, I said:

«Este arquetón es viejo y grande y roto por algunas partes, aunque pequeños agujeros. Puédese pensar que ratones, entrando en él, hacen daño a este pan. Sacarlo entero no es cosa conveniente, porque verá la falta el que en tanta me hace vivir. Esto bien se sufre».

This chest is big and old, and it's got some holes in it, although they're small. But he might be led to believe that mice are getting into it and are eating the bread. It wouldn't do to take out a whole loaf: he'd notice that it was missing right away, since he hardly gives me any food at all to live on. But he'll believe this all right.

Y comienzo a desmigajar el pan sobre unos no muy costosos manteles que allí estaban, y tomo uno y dejo otro, de manera que, en cada cual, de tres o cuatro desmigajé su poco. Después, como quien toma gragea, lo comí y algo me consolé. Mas él, como viniese a comer y abriese el arca, vio el mal pesar y sin duda creyó ser ratones los que el daño habían hecho, porque estaba muy al propio contrahecho de como ellos lo suelen hacer. Miró todo el arcaz de un cabo a otro y viole ciertos agujeros por do sospechaba habían entrado. Llamóme, diciendo:

And I began to break off crumbs over some cheap tablecloths he had there. I would pick up one loaf and put another one down, so that I broke a few little pieces off of three or four of them. Then I ate those up just as if they were bonbons, and I felt a little better. But when he came home to eat and opened the chest, he saw the mess. And he really thought that mice had done the damage because I'd done my job to perfection, and it looked just like the work of mice. He looked the chest over from top to bottom, and he saw the holes where he suspected they'd gotten in. Then he called me over and said,

-¡Lázaro, mira, mira, qué persecución ha venido aquesta noche por nuestro pan! Yo híceme muy maravillado, preguntándole qué sería. -¿Qué ha de ser? -dijo él-. Ratones, que no dejan cosa a vida. Pusímosnos a comer, y quiso Dios que aun en esto me fue bien: que me cupo más pan que la lacería que me solía dar, porque rayó con un cuchillo todo lo que pensó ser ratonado, diciendo:

"Lazaro, look! Look at what a terrible thing happened to our bread this evening!" And I put on a very astonished face and asked him what it could have been. "What else," he said, "but mice? They get into everything." We began to eat, and--thank God--I came out all right in this, too. I got more bread than the miserable little bit he usually gave me because he sliced off the parts he thought the mice had chewed on, and said, "Eat this. The mouse is a very clean animal."

-Cómete eso, que el ratón cosa limpia es. Y así, aquel día, añadiendo la ración del trabajo de mis manos, o de mis uñas por mejor decir, acabamos de comer, aunque yo nunca empezaba. Y luego me vino otro sobresalto, que fue verle andar solícito quitando clavos de las paredes y buscando tablillas, con las cuales clavó y cerró todos los agujeros de la vieja arca.

So that day, with the extra that I got by the work of my hands--or of my fingernails, to be exact--we finished our meal, although I never really got started.

And then I got another shock: I saw him walking around carefully, pulling nails out of the walls and looking for little pieces of wood. And he used these to board up all the holes in the old chest.

«¡Oh Señor mío -dije yo entonces-, a cuánta miseria y fortuna y desastres estamos puestos los nacidos, y cuán poco duran los placeres de esta nuestra trabajosa vida! Heme aquí, que pensaba con este pobre y triste remedio remediar y pasar mi lacería, y estaba ya cuanto que alegre y de buena ventura.

"Oh, Lord!" I said then. "What a life full of misery, trials, and bad luck we're born into! How short the pleasures of this hard life of ours are! Here I was, thinking that this pitiful little cure of mine would get me through this miserable situation, and I was happy, thinking I was doing pretty well.

Mas no quiso mi desdicha, despertando a este lacerado de mi amo y poniéndole más diligencia de la que él de suyo se tenía (pues los míseros por la mayor parte nunca de aquélla carecen), agora, cerrando los agujeros del arca, cerrase la puerta a mi consuelo y la abriese a mis trabajos». Así lamentaba yo, en tanto que mi solícito carpintero, con muchos clavos y tablillas, dio fin a sus obras, diciendo: -Agora, donos traidores ratones, conviéneos mudar propósito, que en esta casa mala medra tenéis. De que salió de su casa, voy a ver la obra, y hallé que no dejó en la triste y vieja arca agujero ni aun por donde le pudiese entrar un mosquito.

Then along came my bad luck and woke up this miser of a master of mine and made him even more careful than usual (and misers are hardly ever not careful). Now, by closing up the holes in the chest, he's closing the door to my happiness, too, and opening the one to my troubles." That's what I kept sighing while my conscientious carpenter finished up his job with nails and little boards, and said, "Now, my dear treacherous mice, you'd better think about changing your ways. You won't get anywhere in this house." As soon as he left, I went to see his work. And I found that he didn't leave a hole where even a mosquito could get into the sorry old chest.

Abro con mi desaprovechada llave, sin esperanza de sacar provecho, y vi los dos o tres panes comenzados, los que mi amo creyó ser ratonados, y de ellos todavía saqué alguna lacería, tocándolos muy ligeramente, a uso de esgrimidor diestro. Como la necesidad sea tan gran maestra, viéndome con tanta siempre, noche y día estaba pensando la manera que tendría en sustentar el vivir. Y pienso, para hallar estos negros remedios, que me era luz la hambre, pues dicen que el ingenio con ella se avisa, y al contrario con la hartura, y así era por cierto en mí.

I opened it up with my useless key, without a hope of getting anything. And there I saw the two or three loaves that I'd started to eat and that my master thought the mice had chewed on, and I still got a little bit off of them by touching them very lightly like an expert swordsman. Since necessity is the father of invention and I always had so much of it, day and night I kept thinking about how I was going to keep myself alive. And I think that hunger lit up my path to these black solutions: they say that hunger sharpens your wits and that stuffing yourself dulls them, and that's just the way it worked with me.

Pues estando una noche desvelado en este pensamiento, pensando cómo me podría valer y aprovecharme del arcaz, sentí que mi amo dormía, porque lo mostraba con roncar y en unos resoplidos grandes que daba cuando estaba durmiendo.

Well, while I was lying awake one night thinking about this--how I could manage to start using the chest again--I saw that my master was asleep: it was obvious from the snoring and loud wheezing he always made while he slept.

Levantéme muy quedito, y, habiendo en el día pensado lo que había de hacer y dejado un cuchillo viejo que por allí andaba en parte do le hallase, voyme al triste arcaz, y, por do había mirado tener menos defensa, le acometí con el cuchillo, que a manera de barreno de él usé. Y como la antiquísima arca, por ser de tantos años, la hallase sin fuerza y corazón, antes muy blanda y carcomida, luego se me rindió y consintió en su costado, por mi remedio, un buen agujero.

I got up very, very quietly, and since during the day I had planned out what I would do and had left an old knife lying where I'd find it, I went over to the sorry-looking chest, and in the place where it looked most defenseless, I attacked it with the knife, using it like a boring tool. It was really an old chest, and it had been around for so many years that it didn't have any strength or backbone left. It was so soft and worm-eaten that it gave in to me right away and let me put a good-sized hole in its side so I could relieve my own suffering.

Esto hecho, abro muy paso la llagada arca, y, al tiento, del pan que hallé partido, hice según de yuso está escrito. Y con aquello algún tanto consolado, tornando a cerrar, me volví a mis pajas, en las cuales reposé y dormí un poco, lo cual yo hacía mal, y echábalo al no comer. Y así sería, porque cierto, en aquel tiempo, no me debían de quitar el sueño los cuidados del rey de Francia.

When I finished this, I opened the slashed-up chest very quietly, and feeling around and finding the cut-up loaf, I did the usual thing--what you've seen before. Feeling a little better after that, I closed it up again and went back to my straw mat. I rested there and even slept a while. But I didn't sleep very well, and I thought it was because I hadn't eaten enough. And that's what it must have been because at that time all the troubles of the King of France wouldn't have been able to keep me awake.

Otro día fue por el señor mi amo visto el daño, así del pan como del agujero que yo había hecho, y comenzó a dar a los diablos los ratones y decir: -¿Qué diremos a esto? ¡Nunca haber sentido ratones en esta casa, sino agora! Y sin duda debía de decir verdad, porque, si casa había de haber en el reino justamente de ellos privilegiada, aquélla de razón había de ser, porque no suelen morar donde no hay qué comer.

The next day my master saw the damage that had been done to the bread along with the hole I'd made, and he began to swear at the mice and say, "How can this be? I've never even seen a mouse in this house until now!" And I really think he must have been telling the truth. If there was one house in the whole country that by rights should have been free of mice, it was that one, because they don't usually stay where there's nothing to eat.

Torna a buscar clavos por la casa y por las paredes, y tablillas a atapárselos. Venida la noche y su reposo, luego yo era puesto en pie con mi aparejo y, cuantos él tapaba de día, destapaba yo de noche.

He began to look around on the walls of the house again for nails and pieces of wood to keep them out. Then when night came and he was asleep, there I was on my feet with my knife in hand, and all the holes he plugged up during the day I unplugged at night.

En tal manera fue y tal prisa nos dimos, que sin duda por esto se debió decir: «donde una puerta se cierra, otra se abre». Finalmente, parecíamos tener a destajo la tela de Penélope, pues, cuanto él tejía de día rompía yo de noche. Ca en pocos días y noches pusimos la pobre despensa de tal forma que, quien quisiera propiamente de ella hablar, más corazas viejas de otro tiempo, que no arcaz, la llamara, según la clavazón y tachuelas sobre sí tenía.

That's how things went, me following him so quickly that this must be where the saying comes from: "Where one door is closed, another opens." Well, we seemed to be doing Penelope's work on the cloth because whatever he wove during the day I took apart at night. And after just a few days and nights we had the poor pantry box in such a shape that, if you really wanted to call it by its proper name, you'd have to call it an old piece of armor instead of a chest because of all the nails and tacks in it.

De que vio no aprovecharle nada su remedio, dijo: -Este arcaz está tan maltratado y es de madera tan vieja y flaca, que no habrá ratón a quien se defienda. Y va ya tal que, si andamos más con él, nos dejará sin guarda. Y aun lo peor, que, aunque hace poca, todavía hará falta faltando, y me pondrá en costa de tres o cuatro reales. El mejor remedio que hallo, pues el de hasta aquí no aprovecha: armaré por de dentro a estos ratones malditos.

When he saw that his efforts weren't doing any good, he said, "This chest is so beat up and the wood in it is so old and thin that it wouldn't be able to stand up against any mouse. And it's getting in such bad shape that if we put up with it any longer it won't keep anything secure. The worst part of it is that even though it doesn't keep things very safe, if I got rid of it I really wouldn't be able to get along without it, and I'd just end up having to pay three or four pieces of silver to get another one. The best thing that I can think of, since what I've tried so far hasn't done any good, is to set a trap inside the chest for those blasted mice."

Luego buscó prestada una ratonera, y con cortezas de queso que a los vecinos pedía, contino el gato estaba armado dentro del arca. Lo cual era para mí singular auxilio, porque, puesto caso que yo no había menester muchas salsas para comer, todavía me holgaba con las cortezas del queso que de la ratonera sacaba, y sin esto no perdonaba el ratonar del bodigo. Como hallase el pan ratonado y el queso comido y no cayese el ratón que lo comía, dábase al diablo, preguntaba a los vecinos qué podría ser comer el queso y sacarlo de la ratonera y no caer ni quedar dentro el ratón, y hallar caída la trampilla del gato.

Then he asked someone to lend him a mousetrap, and with the cheese rinds that he begged from the neighbors, the trap was kept set and ready inside the chest. And that really turned out to be a help to me. Even though I didn't require any frills for eating, I was still glad to get the cheese rinds that I took out of the mousetrap, and even at that I didn't stop the mouse from raiding the bread.

When he found that mice had been into the bread and eaten the cheese, but that not one of them had been caught, he swore a blue streak and asked his neighbors, "How could a mouse take cheese out of a trap, eat it, leave the trap sprung, and still not get caught?"

Acordaron los vecinos no ser el ratón el que este daño hacía, porque no fuera menos de haber caído alguna vez. Díjole un vecino: -En vuestra casa yo me acuerdo que solía andar una culebra, y ésta debe de ser sin duda. Y lleva razón, que como es larga, tiene lugar de tomar el cebo, y, aunque la coja la trampilla encima, como no entre toda dentro, tórnase a salir.

The neighbors agreed that it couldn't be a mouse that was causing the trouble because it would have had to have gotten caught sooner or later. So one neighbor said to him, "I remember that there used to be a snake around your house--that must be who the culprit is. It only stands to reason: it's so long it can get the food, and even though the trap is sprung on it, it's not completely inside, so it can get out again."

Cuadró a todos lo que aquél dijo y alteró mucho a mi amo, y dende en adelante no dormía tan a sueño suelto, que cualquier gusano de la madera que de noche sonase, pensaba ser la culebra que le roía el arca. Luego era puesto en pie, y con un garrote que a la cabecera, desde que aquello le dijeron, ponía, daba en la pecadora del arca grandes garrotazos, pensando espantar la culebra.

Everyone agreed with what he'd said, and that really upset my master. From then on he didn't sleep so soundly. Whenever he heard even a worm moving around in the wood at night, he thought it was the snake gnawing on the chest. Then he would be up on his feet, and he'd grab a club that he kept by the head of the bed ever since they'd mentioned a snake to him, and he would really lay into that poor old chest, hoping to scare the snake away.

A los vecinos despertaba con el estruendo que hacía, y a mí no me dejaba dormir. Íbase a mis pajas y trastornábalas, y a mí con ellas, pensando que se iba para mí y se envolvía en mis pajas o en mi sayo; porque le decían que de noche acaecía a estos animales, buscando calor, irse a las cunas donde están criaturas, y aún mordellas y hacerles peligrar.

He woke up the neighbors with all the noise he made, and he wouldn't let me sleep at all. He came up to my straw mat and turned it over and me with it, thinking that the snake had headed for me and gotten into the straw or inside my coat. Because they told him that at night these creatures look for some place that's warm and even get into babies' cribs and bite them.

Yo las más veces hacía del dormido, y en la mañana, decíame él: -¿Esta noche, mozo, no sentiste nada? Pues tras la culebra anduve, y aun pienso se ha de ir para ti a la cama, que son muy frías y buscan calor. -¡Plega a Dios que no me muerda -decía yo-, que harto miedo le tengo!

Most of the time I pretended to be asleep, and in the morning he would ask me, "Didn't you feel anything last night, son? I was right behind the snake, and I think it got into your bed: they're very cold-blooded creatures, and they try to find a place that's warm." "I hope to God it doesn't bite me," I said. "I'm really scared of it."

De esta manera andaba tan elevado y levantado del sueño, que, mi fe, la culebra (o culebro por mejor decir) no osaba roer de noche ni levantarse al arca; mas de día, mientras estaba en la iglesia o por el lugar, hacía mis saltos. Los cuales daños viendo él, y el poco remedio que les podía poner, andaba de noche, como digo, hecho trasgo.

He went around all excited and not able to sleep, so that--on my word of honor--the snake (a male one, of course) didn't dare go out chewing at night, or even go near the chest. But in the daytime, while he was at church or in town, I did my looting. And when he saw the damage and that he wasn't able to do anything about it, he wandered around at night--as I've said--like a spook.

Yo hube miedo que con aquellas diligencias no me topase con la llave, que debajo de las pajas tenía, y parecióme lo más seguro metella de noche en la boca, porque ya, desde que viví con el ciego, la tenía tan hecha bolsa que me acaeció tener en ella doce o quince maravedís, todo en medias blancas, sin que me estorbase el comer, porque de otra manera no era señor de una blanca que el maldito ciego no cayese con ella, no dejando costura ni remiendo que no me buscaba muy a menudo.

I was afraid that in his wanderings he might stumble onto my key that I kept under the straw. So it seemed to me that the safest thing was to put it in my mouth at night. Because since I'd been with the blind man my mouth had gotten round like a purse, and I could hold twenty or thirty coppers in it--all in half-copper coins--and eat at the same time. If I hadn't been able to do that I couldn't have gotten hold of even a copper that the blasted blind man wouldn't have found: he was always searching every patch and seam on my clothes.

Pues, así como digo, metía cada noche la llave en la boca y dormía sin recelo que el brujo de mi amo cayese con ella; mas cuando la desdicha ha de venir, por demás es diligencia. Quisieron mis hados, o por mejor decir mis pecados, que, una noche que estaba durmiendo, la llave se me puso en la boca, que abierta debía tener, de tal manera y postura que el aire y resoplo, que yo durmiendo echaba, salía por lo hueco de la llave, que de cañuto era, y silbaba, según mi desastre quiso, muy recio, de tal manera que el sobresaltado de mi amo lo oyó, y creyó sin duda ser el silbo de la culebra, y cierto lo debía parecer.

Well, as I say, I put the key in my mouth every night, and I went to sleep without being afraid that the zombie master of mine would stumble onto it. But when trouble is going to strike, you can't do a thing to stop it. The fates--or to be more exact, my sins--had it in store for me that one night while I was sleeping my mouth must have been open, and the key shifted so that the air I breathed out while I was asleep went through the hollow part of the key. It was tubular, and (unfortunately for me) it whistled so loud that my master heard it and got excited. He must have thought it was the snake hissing, and I guess it really sounded like one.

Levantóse muy paso con su garrote en la mano, y, al tiento y sonido de la culebra, se llegó a mí con mucha quietud, por no ser sentido de la culebra. Y, como cerca se vio, pensó que allí en las pajas, do yo estaba echado, al calor mío se había venido. Levantando bien el palo, pensando tenerla debajo y darle tal garrotazo que la matase, con toda su fuerza me descargó en la cabeza un tan gran golpe que sin ningún sentido y muy mal descalabrado me dejó.

He got up very quietly with his club in hand, and by feeling his way toward the sound he came up to me very softly so the snake wouldn't hear him. And when he found himself so close, he thought that it had come over to where I was lying, looking for a warm place, and had slipped into the straw. So, lifting the club up high, and thinking that he had the snake trapped down there and that he would hit it so hard that he'd kill it, he swung down on me with such a mighty blow that he knocked me unconscious and left my head bashed in.

Como sintió que me había dado, según yo debía hacer gran sentimiento con el fiero golpe, contaba él que se había llegado a mí y, dándome grandes voces, llamándome, procuró recordarme. Mas, como me tocase con las manos, tentó la mucha sangre que se me iba, y conoció el daño que me había hecho. Y con mucha prisa fue a buscar lumbre y, llegando con ella, hallóme quejando, todavía con mi llave en la boca, que nunca la desamparé, la mitad fuera, bien de aquella manera que debía estar al tiempo que silbaba con ella.

Then he saw that he'd hit me (I must have really cried out when the blow leveled me), and--as he later told me--he reached over and shouted at me, calling my name and trying to revive me. But when his hands touched me and he felt all the blood, he realized what he'd done, and he went off to get a light right away. When he came back with it he found me moaning with the key still in my mouth: I had never let loose of it, and it was still sticking half out--just like it must have been when I was whistling through it.

Espantado el matador de culebras qué podría ser aquella llave, miróla sacándomela del todo de la boca, y vio lo que era, porque en las guardas nada de la suya diferenciaba. Fue luego a proballa, y con ella probó el maleficio. Debió de decir el cruel cazador: «El ratón y culebra que me daban guerra y me comían mi hacienda he hallado».

The snake killer was terrified, wondering what it could be. He took it all the way out of my mouth and looked at it. Then he realized what it was because its ridges matched his key exactly. He went to try it out, and he solved the crime. Then that cruel hunter must have said: "I've found the mouse and the snake that were fighting me and eating me out of house and home."

De lo que sucedió en aquellos tres días siguientes ninguna fe daré, porque los tuve en el vientre de la ballena, mas, de cómo esto que he contado oí, después que en mí torné, decir a mi amo, el cual a cuantos allí venían lo contaba por extenso. A cabo de tres días yo torné en mi sentido, y vime echado en mis pajas, la cabeza toda emplastada y llena de aceites y ungüentos, y, espantado, dije: -¿Qué es esto?

I can't say for sure what happened during the next three days because I spent them inside the belly of the whale. But what I've just told I heard about from my master when I came to; he was telling what had happened in detail to everyone who came by. At the end of three days, when I was back in my senses, I found myself stretched out on my straw bed with my head all bandaged up and full of oils and salves. And I got scared and said, "What is this?"

Respondióme el cruel sacerdote: -A fe que los ratones y culebras que me destruían ya los he cazado. Y miré por mí, y vime tan maltratado que luego sospeché mi mal. A esta hora entró una vieja que ensalmaba, y los vecinos. Y comiénzanme a quitar trapos de la cabeza y curar el garrotazo. Y, como me hallaron vuelto en mi sentido, holgáronse mucho y dijeron: -Pues ha tornado en su acuerdo, placerá a Dios no será nada. Ahí tornaron de nuevo a contar mis cuitas y a reírlas, y yo, pecador, a llorarlas.

The cruel priest answered, "It seems that I caught the mice and snakes that were ruining me." I looked myself over, and when I saw how badly beaten up I was, I guessed what had happened. Then an old lady who was a healer came in, along with the neighbors. And they began to take the wrappings off my head and treat the wound. When they saw that I was conscious again, they were very happy, and they said, 'Well, he's got his senses back. God willing, it won't be too serious." Then they began to talk again about what had happened to me and to laugh. While I--sinner that I am--I was crying.

Con todo esto, diéronme de comer, que estaba transido de hambre, y apenas me pudieron demediar. Y así, de poco en poco, a los quince días me levanté y estuve sin peligro (mas no sin hambre) y medio sano. Luego otro día que fui levantado, el señor mi amo me tomó por la mano y sacóme la puerta fuera y, puesto en la calle, díjome:

Anyway, they fed me, and I was famished, but they really didn't give me enough. Yet, little by little, I recovered, and two weeks later I was able to get up, out of any danger (but not out of my state of hunger) and nearly cured. The next day when I'd gotten up, my master took me by the hand and led me out the door, and when I was in the street he said to me:

"Lazaro, from now on you're on your own--I don't want you. Go get yourself another master, and God be with you. I don't want such a diligent servant here with me. You could only have become this way from being a blind man's guide."