Marcela's Speech in Don Quixote: Introduction and Translation
for beauty in an honest woman is like a distant fire or a sharp sword
In Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, Marcela is a divinely beautiful shepherdess who lives alone in the woods, of her own free will. Well, sort of her own free will. She has been driven to choose this life by the unrelenting pursuit of her beauty by the men of her region, who desire her with the courtliest of love (more on that shortly); nonetheless, she is perfectly happy.
The reader finds himself at the funeral of Grisóstomo, the “love-struck” (read “lust-struck” or “self-struck”) shepherd who killed himself after being rejected by Marcela. All of Marcela’s pursuers/suitors, present at this burial set in the bucolic hills, are driven by a Girardian mimetic desire for her, and so they naturally blame her for the death of their friend/rival; she has killed him by her cruelty in rejecting a love he was helpless to control. Yes, this is incel rage.
They must scapegoat her: their desire is not for Marcela the woman, but rather for the desire of their rivals, which is to possess the most beautiful woman in the world.
In her discourse, Marcela lays all of this bare.
Don Quixote, on the other hand, arrives at the funeral because of his chivalric desire to succor and save any in distress. He believes Marcela may be a noblewoman forced into a pastoral life. He is soon desengañado1, as are they all, in their own fashion, by the power of her speech. She will not be forced into anything (although she only confirms her nobility further in Quixote’s eyes).
The text of Marcela’s discourse is often cited as a proto-feminist text, but that is stupid.
I will not get into the whole rant now, but I mention it because of the context that it provides when I say that this book is a profoundly Christian book, and very much a product of the Reformation. It was written in 1605, and is thoroughly modern and thoroughly of Christendom. Many present Don Quixote de la Mancha as a send-up of Christianity, as if this were Voltaire. It’s not. It’s a send-up of chivalric culture, and here, with Marcela, of courtly love (one of Cervantes’ chief targets in the work). Courtly love was utterly pagan, with origins in the most pagan parts of France and the Pyrenees.
Anyway, I know it’s outrageous to say that Don Quixote is a Reformational or Protestant-influenced work. Even more outrageously, I won’t defend the idea. Perhaps some other day. For now I will say that from 1500-1600 Spain was inundated with novel literature, Protestant and otherwise, domestic and otherwise, with Christian devotional books being most popular (in fact, fashionable). Carlos V had to kick off the Inquisition (a secular tool, by the way) most hard-core, because these Protestants were dangerous to the state, what with converting nobility and the merchant class, all the literati. These were dangerous times for monarchs in Europe, especially when Protestants were nearby, as in Germany or Britain. Even Erasmians and ecstatics got in trouble; their Most Catholic Majesties were concerned, and not for nothing.
I own a two volume set by Nobel Prize winning historian Marcelino Menendez Pelayo (d. 1912), History of the Spanish Heterodox. It is divided into three parts: Roman and Visigothic Spain, the period of the Reconquest, and then…Erasmianism and Protestantism. Books published in 1882, and the summation of 400 years of Spanish heterodoxy was encapsulated in two words, Erasmianism and Protestantism.
And in fact, many historians and critics judge Cervantes to be an Erasmian, and I think it is so: he is not critical of Christianity, nor even of the Church. He is critical of the papacy, the clergy, the Roman church, and the Spanish church. Remember, this is an age of ecclesiefied secular power in Spain, as with the national police force, called the Holy Brotherhood, which Cervantes mocks by name. Read Don Quixote. I think you’ll find it quite Reformational.
Circling back, Marcela’s discourse is neither anti-Christian nor feminist. It is against the pagan syncretism of high medieval romance, in which courtly love demanded adultery, and made its victims helplessly seductive and rapey.
Her discourse is Aristotelian. It is humanistic. It is plain and straightforward in beauty. Most of all, it is Christian, reasonable and ennobling.
Also, it puts women and men in their place. Let the reader understand.
So…I’ve translated Marcela’s discourse. That’s what this has all been about. I’m considering versifying my translation, but for now, let this suffice. I hope you enjoy, and I’d love to receive your comments. I include the Spanish original below, and I hope the alternating layout will not be annoying.
Again, let me know what you think!
—No vengo, ¡oh Ambrosio!, a ninguna cosa de las que has dicho —respondió Marcela—,
I come, oh Ambrosius, for none of the reasons you have said – responded Marcela.
sino a volver por mí misma y a dar a entender cuán fuera de razón van todos aquellos que de sus penas y de la muerte de Grisóstomo me culpan;
but to return for my own sake and make understood how far outside the right go all those who blame me for their sorrows and the death of Chrysostom;
y, así, ruego a todos los que aquí estáis me estéis atentos, que no será menester mucho tiempo ni gastar muchas palabras para persuadir una verdad a los discretos.
and so, I beseech all you present to grant me your attention, for it shall not take me long to persuade the discrete of any truth.
Hízome el cielo, según vosotros decís, hermosa2, y de tal manera, que,
Heaven made me, according to all of you, shapely, and in such a way that,
sin ser poderosos a otra cosa, a que me améis os mueve mi hermosura, y por el amor que me mostráis decís y aun queréis que esté yo obligada a amaros.
powerless to do otherwise, you love me as my shapeliness moves you, and by the love you show me you say and even desire that I be obligated to love you all.
Yo conozco, con el natural entendimiento que Dios me ha dado, que todo lo hermoso es amable;
I know, with the natural understanding that God has given me, that all which is beautiful is lovable;
mas no alcanzo que, por razón de ser amado, esté obligado lo que es amado por hermoso a amar a quien le ama.
but I do not see how, by reason of being loved, that which is loved for its beauty be obligated to love that which loves it.
Y más, que podría acontecer que el amador de lo hermoso fuese feo, y siendo lo feo digno de ser aborrecido, cae muy mal el decir «Quiérote por hermosa: hasme de amar aunque sea feo».
What is more, it could happen that the lover of that which is beautiful be ugly, and since that which is ugly is worthy of hatred, it would be very wicked to say “I desire you for your beauty: you must love me even though I be ugly.”
Pero, puesto caso que corran igualmente las hermosuras, no por eso han de correr iguales los deseos, que no todas hermosuras enamoran:
It may be that two beauties run equally alongside each other, but that does not mean that their desires must run equally, for not all beauties fall in love;
que algunas alegran la vista y no rinden la voluntad;
for some gladden the sight and do not surrender their wills;
que si todas las bellezas enamorasen y rindiesen,
for if all beauties were to fall in love and surrender themselves,
sería un andar las voluntades confusas y descaminadas, sin saber en cuál habían de parar, porque,
it would be a wild walk of confused and unpath’d wills, without knowing where they would end up, because,
siendo infinitos los sujetos hermosos, infinitos habían de ser los deseos.
as beautiful subjects are of infinite number, so would their desires be.
Y, según yo he oído decir, el verdadero amor no se divide, y ha de ser voluntario, y no forzoso.
And , according to what I have heard said, true love is not divided, and must be voluntary, not forced.
Siendo esto así, como yo creo que lo es, ¿por qué queréis que rinda mi voluntad por fuerza, obligada no más de que decís que me queréis bien?
Being that this is so, as I believe it is, why do you by force desire me to give up my will, obligated by no more than that you say you love me very much?
Si no, decidme: si como el cielo me hizo hermosa me hiciera fea, ¿fuera justo que me quejara de vosotros porque no me amábades?
If not, tell me: if, as heaven made me shapely, it had made me ugly, would it be fair of me to complain of you all because you did not love me?
Cuanto más, que habéis de considerar que yo no escogí la hermosura que tengo, que tal cual es el cielo me la dio de gracia, sin yo pedilla ni escogella.
How much more must you consider that I did not choose the beauty I have, which heaven gave me by free grace, without my asking for nor even choosing it.
Y así como la víbora no merece ser culpada por la ponzoña que tiene,
And just as the viper does not deserve to be blamed for its venomous bite,
puesto que con ella mata, por habérsela dado naturaleza, tampoco yo merezco ser reprehendida por ser hermosa,
even if with it she kills, because nature has given it to her, so do I not deserve to be castigated for being beautiful,
que la hermosura en la mujer honesta es como el fuego apartado o como la espada aguda,
for beauty in an honest3 woman is like a distant fire or a sharp sword,
que ni él quema ni ella corta a quien a ellos no se acerca.
for the one does not burn nor the other cut those who do not approach them.
La honra y las virtudes son adornos del alma, sin las cuales el cuerpo, aunque lo sea, no debe de parecer hermoso.
Honor and the virtues are adornments of the soul. The body lacking them, even though it be beautiful, should not so appear.
Pues si la honestidad es una de las virtudes que al cuerpo y al alma más adornan y hermosean,
For if honesty is one among the virtues that most adorn and beautify the body and the soul,
¿por qué la ha de perder la que es amada por hermosa, por corresponder a la intención de aquel que, por solo su gusto, con todas sus fuerzas e industrias procura que la pierda?
why must the one who is loved for her beauty lose it, simply for being the object of one who, by his own whim, with all his strength and industry seeks to make her lose it?
Yo nací libre, y para poder vivir libre escogí la soledad de los campos: los árboles destas montañas son mi compañía;
I was born free, and in order to be able to live free I chose solitude in the fields: the trees of these mountains are my company;
las claras aguas destos arroyos, mis espejos; con los árboles y con las aguas comunico mis pensamientos y hermosura.
the clear waters of these ravines, my mirrors; with the trees and with the waters I communicate my thoughts and my beauty.
Fuego soy apartado y espada puesta lejos.
I am a fire set distant, and a sword put up far away.
A los que he enamorado con la vista he desengañado con las palabras;
Those whom I have by sight stricken with love for me I have disabused by my words;
y si los deseos se sustentan con esperanzas, no habiendo yo dado alguna a Grisóstomo,
and if desires are sustained by hopes, and I having given none to Chrysostom,
ni a otro alguno el fin de ninguno dellos, bien se puede decir que antes le mató su porfía que mi crueldad.
nor to any of them, well it could be said that his stubbornness killed him well before my cruelty would have.
Y si se me hace cargo que eran honestos sus pensamientos y que por esto estaba obligada a corresponder a ellos,
And if it were said to me that because his thoughts were honest I were obligated to requite them,
digo que cuando en ese mismo lugar donde ahora se cava su sepultura me descubrió la bondad de su intención,
I say in reply, that when in this same place where now is dug his grave he uncovered to me the goodness of his intention,
le dije yo que la mía era vivir en perpetua soledad y de que sola la tierra gozase el fruto de mi recogimiento y los despojos de mi hermosura;
I said to him that my part was to live in perpetual solitude and that only the earth would enjoy the fruit of my harvesting and the spoils of my beauty;
y si él, con todo este desengaño, quiso porfiar contra la esperanza y navegar contra el viento,
and if he, with all this disingenuousness, wished to be stubborn beyond hope and sail against the wind,
¿qué mucho que se anegase4 en la mitad del golfo de su desatino?
so what if he were to frustrate his flesh halfway across the abyss of his wanderings?
Si yo le entretuviera, fuera falsa; si le contentara, hiciera contra mi mejor intención y prosupuesto.
If I had entertained him, I would have been false; if I had pleased him, I would have done it against my best intention and purpose.
Porfió desengañado, desesperó sin ser aborrecido: ¡mirad ahora si será razón que de su pena se me dé a mí la culpa!
He insisted in betraying5 my disabusal, he despaired without ever being hated; look now, see if the blame for his sorrows should be laid at my feet!
Quéjese el engañado, desespérese aquel a quien le faltaron las prometidas esperanzas, confíese el que yo llamare, ufánese el que yo admitiere;
If you were deceived, lodge your complaint. If promised hopes were not delivered, make known your despair. Let the one I call on confess to it, let the one I admit to boast of it.
pero no me llame cruel ni homicida aquel a quien yo no prometo, engaño, llamo ni admito.
but let not he to whom I neither promised, deceived, called, or admitted, call me cruel nor a mankiller.
El cielo aún hasta ahora no ha querido que yo ame por destino, y el pensar que tengo de amar por elección es escusado.
It has not pleased heaven, up to now, that I love by destiny, and thinking that I must love by choice is put aside.
Este general desengaño sirva a cada uno de los que me solicitan de su particular provecho6;
Let this general disabusal serve each of those who solicit me for the satisfaction of their own particular advantage and appetite;
y entiéndase de aquí adelante que si alguno por mí muriere, no muere de celoso ni desdichado,
and let it be understood that from here on out if anyone die for my sake, he does not die of jealousy or curse,
porque quien a nadie quiere a ninguno debe dar celos, que los desengaños no se han de tomar en cuenta de desdenes.
because whoever loves no one owes none jealousy, that disabusals be not taken for disdain.
El que me llama fiera y basilisco déjeme como cosa perjudicial y mala; el que me llama ingrata no me sirva;
Let the one who calls me a beast and a basilisk leave me, as a harmful and evil thing; may the one who calls me ingrate not serve me;
el que desconocida, no me conozca; quien cruel, no me siga; que esta fiera, este basilisco, esta ingrata, esta cruel y esta desconocida ni los buscará, servirá, conocerá ni seguirá en ninguna manera.
may the one who calls me unknowable never know me; may he who thinks me cruel, not follow me; that this beast, this basilisk, this ingrate, this cruel and unknowable woman, shall neither seek nor serve nor know nor follow by any means.
Que si a Grisóstomo mató su impaciencia y arrojado deseo, ¿por qué se ha de culpar mi honesto proceder y recato?
For if his own flagrant and impatient desire killed Chrysostom, why should my pious dealings and modest bearing be blamed?
Si yo conservo mi limpieza con la compañía de los árboles, ¿por qué ha de querer que la pierda el que quiere que la tenga con los hombres?
If I preserve my cleanness in the company of these trees, why should he who wants me to preserve that cleanness among men ask me now to lose it?
Yo, como sabéis, tengo riquezas propias, y no codicio las ajenas; tengo libre condición, y no gusto de sujetarme; ni quiero ni aborrezco a nadie;
I, as you all know, have my own riches, and I do not covet any others; in my conditions I am free, and have no taste for submitting myself; I neither love nor hate anybody;
no engaño a este ni solicito aquel; ni burlo con uno ni me entretengo con el otro. La conversación honesta de las zagalas destas aldeas y el cuidado de mis cabras me entretiene.
I do not deceive one nor chase after another; I do not mock one and dally with another. The honest conversation of the shepherd boys of these hamlets and my care for my goats entertains me.
Tienen mis deseos por término estas montañas, y si de aquí salen es a contemplar la hermosura del cielo, pasos con que camina el alma a su morada primera.
My desires have as their end these mountains, and if they go out from here it is to contemplate the beauty of the sky, steps by which the soul walks the path to its first home.
Y en diciendo esto, sin querer oír respuesta alguna, volvió las espaldas y se entró por lo más cerrado de un monte que allí cerca estaba, dejando admirados tanto de su discreción como de su hermosura a todos los que allí estaban.
And in saying this, without wanting to hear any kind of response, she turned her back through the narrowest cleft of a mountain that was nearby, leaving all those who were there as much astonished by her discretion as her beauty.
Y algunos dieron muestras (de aquellos que de la poderosa flecha de los rayos de sus bellos ojos estaban heridos) de quererla seguir, sin aprovecharse del manifiesto desengaño que habían oído.
And some (from among those who were wounded by the mighty arrow of the light of her fair eyes) made as if they desired to follow after her, without taking in the enlightening disabusal they had heard.
Lo cual visto por don Quijote, pareciéndole que allí venía bien usar de su caballería, socorriendo a las doncellas menesterosas, puesta la mano en el puño de su espada, en altas e inteligibles voces dijo:
Upon seeing this, it seemed to Don Quixote that here it would become him to use his knighthood well, succoring a damsel in distress, and he put his hand upon the hilt of his sword, saying in a loud and intelligible voice:
— Ninguna persona, de cualquier estado y condición que sea, se atreva a seguir a la hermosa Marcela, so pena de caer en la furiosa indignación mía. Ella ha mostrado con claras y suficientes razones la poca o ninguna culpa que ha tenido en la muerte de Grisóstomo y cuán ajena vive de condescender con los deseos de ninguno de sus amantes; a cuya causa es justo que, en lugar de ser seguida y perseguida, sea honrada y estimada de todos los buenos del mundo, pues muestra que en él ella es sola la que con tan honesta intención vive.
– No person, of whatever estate or condition he be, shall dare to follow the lovely Marcela, under pain of falling under my furious indignation. She has shown with clear and sufficient reasons that little or no fault has she in the death of Chrysostom, and how far from her it be to condescend to the wishes of any of her lovers; for this cause it would be just that, rather than be followed and pursued, she be honored and esteemed by all the good folk of the world, for it is manifest that in this world she is alone in living with such devout and honest intent.
I.e. disabused, made to recognize a mistake, enlightened after error. The word “disabused” will feature heavily below.
Like many words beginning with “h” in Spanish, hermoso used to be led by an “f”. Meaning beautiful, it has to do with form, i.e. shape. If you have Latin, it is descended from fōrmōsus.
Honesto meaning pious or devout. This was a difficult decision, as honestidad is a theme-setting word in the discourse. I chose to emphasize her insistence on truth over her piety and purity, although honestidad would convey both.
literally, “abnegate”
Here I include both meanings of porfiar, to insist and (more anciently) to break faith, as in “perfidy”.
Provecho meaning benefit, profit. The verb aprovechar means “to make the most of”. However, provecho is what is said in Spanish for bon appétit. I took a liberty; perhaps simply “advantage” would have been superior.