Don Quijote y los molinos de viento (Don Quixote and the windmills): free B1 Spanish story
Level B1 (Intermediate) · Classics · about 2 minutes
A knight who has read too many books, a patient squire and thirty or forty “giants”.
Adapted from Don Quijote de la Mancha (Part I, ch. 1, 7 and 8) by Miguel de Cervantes (1605).
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The story in Spanish
La novela empieza así: «En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme…». Allí vivía un hidalgo que pasaba las noches leyendo libros de caballerías, y leyó tanto que perdió el juicio.
Decidió convertirse en caballero andante, se dio el nombre de don Quijote y llamó Rocinante a su viejo caballo. Como todo caballero necesita una dama, eligió a una campesina del pueblo vecino y la llamó Dulcinea del Toboso. También convenció a un vecino, Sancho Panza, para que fuera su escudero, prometiéndole que algún día gobernaría una isla.
Una mañana, en medio del campo, vieron treinta o cuarenta molinos de viento. —¿Ves aquellos gigantes, Sancho? —dijo don Quijote—. Voy a luchar contra ellos. —No son gigantes, señor, son molinos, y lo que parecen brazos son las aspas —respondió Sancho.
Don Quijote no lo escuchó. Atacó con su lanza el primer molino, justo cuando el viento movió las aspas, y caballo y caballero salieron volando por el campo. Sancho corrió a ayudarlo, pero don Quijote, desde el suelo, tenía una explicación: un mago enemigo había convertido a los gigantes en molinos para quitarle la gloria de la victoria.
Sancho lo ayudó a subir otra vez a Rocinante, que también había quedado muy maltrecho. Le dolía todo el cuerpo, pero no se quejaba, porque, según él, los caballeros andantes nunca se quejan de sus heridas. —Pues yo pienso quejarme del más pequeño dolor —respondió Sancho—, a menos que esa regla sea también para los escuderos. Pasaron la noche entre unos árboles: Sancho durmió profundamente, pero don Quijote no pegó ojo pensando en su señora Dulcinea, y con una rama seca se hizo una lanza nueva.
English translation
The novel begins like this: “In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to recall…” There lived a country gentleman who spent his nights reading books of chivalry, and he read so much that he lost his mind.
He decided to become a knight-errant, gave himself the name Don Quixote and called his old horse Rocinante. Since every knight needs a lady, he chose a peasant woman from the next village and called her Dulcinea del Toboso. He also persuaded a neighbor, Sancho Panza, to be his squire, promising him that one day he would govern an island.
One morning, in the middle of the countryside, they saw thirty or forty windmills. “Do you see those giants, Sancho?” said Don Quixote. “I am going to fight them.” “They aren’t giants, sir, they’re windmills, and what look like arms are the sails,” replied Sancho.
Don Quixote did not listen to him. He attacked the first windmill with his lance just as the wind moved the sails, and horse and knight went flying across the field. Sancho ran to help him, but Don Quixote, from the ground, had an explanation: an enemy wizard had turned the giants into windmills to rob him of the glory of victory.
Sancho helped him back up onto Rocinante, who had also come out of it badly battered. His whole body ached, but he didn’t complain, because, according to him, knights-errant never complain about their wounds. “Well, I plan to complain about the smallest pain,” replied Sancho, “unless that rule applies to squires too.” They spent the night among some trees: Sancho slept soundly, but Don Quixote didn’t sleep a wink, thinking of his lady Dulcinea, and he made himself a new lance out of a dry branch.
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