ACTO PRIMERO
7-8. #que … el pie = que te ve colocar el pie orillas (a la orilla) de un precipicio.#
17. #al ser#, on becoming, when he became.
33-34. #para vivir … los tres = para que vivamos los tres con opulencia.#
48. #costara#, an example of the frequent use of the imperfect subjunctive for the conditional in this play.
57. #¿Qué habrá escrito…?# Note use of future to express conjecture. What can he have written…?
87. #Mira … dice#, see whether it says.
90. #en el encierro aquel = en aquel encierro.#
106-107. #ve a buscarme#; literally, go to find me; translate: come to me.
113. #volvió = volvió en sí#, he has come to himself, has regained consciousness.
115-116. #De aquella … hecho = está hecho (acostumbrado) a las tinieblas de aquella horrible mansión.#
135-136. #desde hoy … aflija = desde hoy no permitiré que te aflija ningún afán.#
140. #azorado#. Note that in poetry predicate adjectives or past participles are frequently used instead of adverbs.
147. #Haz … vea = haz que yo vea a mi bienhechora.#
155. #Defienda#, may Heaven protect, etc.
162. #más = es más hermoso.#
179-180. #No es … mora = lo más (importante) no es que la noble princesa mora me redima.#
191 et seq. In the first edition of the play Marsilla begins the account of his adventures thus:
Mi nombre es Diego Marsilla, y cuna Teruel me dió, ciudad que ayer se fundó del Turia en la fresca orilla.
In the interest of accuracy of detail the author changed this to the reading of the present text. The river flowing past Teruel changes its name from Guadalaviar to Turia only after it has left Teruel behind. Moreover, Teruel was, strictly speaking, villa at the time of the supposed action of the play, and not ciudad: the title ciudad was not granted to it by the King of Aragon until the year 1347.
193. #Ayer se fundó.# Destroyed by the Moors, Teruel was rebuilt in 1171, forty-six years earlier. In the life of a city, a generation seems but a day.
195-197. #cuyos muros … pobladores = cuyos muros, levantados entre horrores de lid atroz, fueron amasados con la sangre de sus fuertes pobladores.#
199-226. In these lines the idea of "predestined love" is exemplified.
204. #sus#, their (#del hombre y de la mujer#).
213-214. #antes … vernos = antes de vernos, nos amábamos.#
219-222. A similar idea was expressed in the corresponding four lines of the first edition thus:
Y parecía un querer tan firme en alma de niño, recuerdo de otro cariño tenido antes de nacer.
223-226. These four lines may be translated thus: the love that united Isabel and me (#nuestro querer#) when we came into this sad world was merely the continuance (#seguir#) in the physical world of the love that already existed in the spiritual. Compare idea expressed by "marriages are made in heaven."
246. #aun vivo#; if the time were up, either I should have succeeded or should now be dead.
254. #Navas de Tolosa#, village in the Province of Jaén, in the south of Spain, famous in history because of the decisive victory gained there, July 16, 1212, by the allied kings of Christian Spain over the Moslems. In the first edition, at the mention of this disastrous defeat of the Moors, Zulima interrupts Marsilla's narrative with an outburst of feeling quite appropriate in a Mohammedan:
¡Lugar maldito del cielo, donde la negra fortuna postró de la media luna la pujanza por el suelo!
258 et seq. In the early years of the 13th century a religious sect in the south of France, the Albigenses, rebelled against the authority of the Church of Rome. Pope Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against them in 1208, and a bloody war began in which the crusaders were led by the ruthless Simon de Montfort until his death at the siege of Toulouse (1218). During this Albigensian War (1208-1229) Beziers and other important cities in the south of France were almost destroyed.
267-270. #Y en pena … sepultó = y en pena de que mi mano rompió el hierro de mis cadenas, profundo encierro me sepultó en vida.#
281. #haz por escuchar atento#, try to listen attentively to …
293. #aquí#, in the land of the Moors.
303. #Respuesta … dé = es bien que se le dé a ella respuesta.#
311-312. #Medita … reclama#, consider it well and you will grant to time what it demands as its due. If you take into consideration the length of time that has passed since you have seen Isabel, you will realize that she has probably forgotten you, and will become reconciled to changed conditions because of the lapse of time.
321. #dada … recibida#, having given my love and having received hers; or, having given my heart in exchange for hers.
330. #le = su corazón.#
335-336. #la nueva de ser Isabel esposa#, the news of Isabel's marriage.
340. #cuanto fabrico derrumba = derrumba cuanto (todo lo que) yo fabrico.#
345. #han de traer = traerán.# Note that Isabel is direct object of traer.
346. #para tanto = para hacer tanto.#
356. #Sálvete su diligencia#, let his efforts save you from danger.
361. #perecéis = pereceréis.# Present instead of future for greater vividness.
364-366. #estallo = hubiera estallado; calla = habría callado; llega = habría llegado.#
392. #que venga.# Subject of venga is la rebelión, line 394.
395-396. Note that quien is subject of both lema and dé.
425. #el un capitán = uno de los capitanes.#
444. #Ya no hay perdón que le alcance#, she is beyond the reach of pardon.
445-446. #después de correr … vencido# = after the struggle is over, disposition will be made of the conquered.