Miguel de Cervantes
novelist · Spain · 1547–1616
He lost the use of his left hand at the battle of Lepanto and spent five years a captive in Algiers. He published the first part of Don Quixote at fifty-eight.
Posts
1605
Idle reader: you may believe me without my swearing it that I would wish this book, as the child of my understanding, to be the most beautiful, the most gallant and the most clever that could be imagined.
Desocupado lector: sin juramento me podrás creer que quisiera que este libro, como hijo del entendimiento, fuera el más hermoso, el más gallardo y más discreto que pudiera imaginarse.
Don Quixote, part 1, prologue
1605
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no wish to recall, there lived not long ago one of those gentlemen who keep a lance in the rack, an old shield, a lean nag and a greyhound for coursing.
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
Don Quixote, part 1, chapter 1, the first sentence
1615
Liberty, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that the heavens gave to men.
La libertad, Sancho, es uno de los más preciosos dones que a los hombres dieron los cielos
Don Quixote, part 2, chapter 58, the words of Don Quixote
1615 · Said when his master woke him in the middle of the night. Don Quixote answered that he had never heard Sancho speak so elegantly
Blessings on him who invented sleep, the cloak that covers all human thoughts, the food that takes away hunger, the water that chases off thirst, the fire that warms the cold, the cold that tempers the heat, and, in the end, the common coin with which everything is bought, the scale and weight that makes the shepherd equal to the king and the simple man to the wise.
Bien haya el que inventó el sueño, capa que cubre todos los humanos pensamientos, manjar que quita la hambre, agua que ahuyenta la sed, fuego que calienta el frío, frío que templa el ardor, y, finalmente, moneda general con que todas las cosas se compran, balanza y peso que iguala al pastor con el rey y al simple con el discreto.
Don Quixote, part 2, chapter 68, spoken by Sancho Panza
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us