Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (January 17, 1600 – May 25, 1681) was a Spanish dramatist and poet.

Quotes

Absence is the death of love.
- El Jardín de Falerina, Act I (tr. Bergen Evans, 1968)

Que llorar con desconsuelo,
Por imaginada dicha,
O la desdicha, ó la dicha,
Ya es hacer cara en rigor;
Pues no hay desdicha mayor,
Que el esperar la desdicha.
- No unhappiness is equal to that of anticipating unhappiness.
- El Mayor Monstruo los Zelos, Act I, sc. i (tr. Bergen Evans, 1968)

Que cuando amor no es locura,
No es amor.
- Love that is not madness is not love.
- El Mayor Monstruo los Zelos, Act I, sc. v (tr. Bergen Evans, 1968)

Que no es lisonja de un preso
El dorarle el calabozo.
- It is no flattery to a prisoner to gild the jail.
- Fortunas de Andromeda y Perseo, Act II (tr. Bergen Evans, 1968)

Que como es rayo el poder,
Hiere aun antes del aviso.
- Power, like lightning, injures before its warning.
- Gustos y Disgustos son no mas que Imaginacion, Act I, sc. xvii (tr. Bergen Evans, 1968)

La vida es sueño · Life Is a Dream

Pues el delito mayor
del hombre es haber nacido.
- For man's greatest crime is to have been born.
- Segismundo, Act I, sc. ii, l. 111 (tr. J. M. and M. J. Cohen, 1960)
  - Since man's greatest crime on earth
    Is the fatal fact of birth.
    - (tr. Denis MacCarthy, 1873)

¿Qué ley, justicia o razón
negar a los hombres sabe
privilegio tan süave,
excepción tan principal,
que Dios le ha dado a un cristal,
a un pez, a un bruto y a un ave?
- What law, what reason can deny
  That gift so sweet, so natural, that God
  Has giv'n a stream, a fish, a beast, a bird?
- Segismundo, Act I, sc. ii, l. 167 (tr. William E. Colford, 1958)

¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.
¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,
una sombra, una ficción,
y el mayor bien es pequeño;
que toda la vida es sueño,
y los sueños, sueños son.
- What is this life? A frenzy, an illusion,
  A shadow, a delirium, a fiction.
  The greatest good's but little, and this life
  Is but a dream, and dreams are only dreams.
- Segismundo, Act II, sc. xix, l. 1195 (tr. Roy Campbell, 1959)

Mas, sea verdad o sueño,
obrar bien es lo que importa.
Si fuere verdad, por serlo;
si no, por ganar amigos
para cuando despertemos.
- But whether it be dream or truth, to do well is what matters. If it be truth, for truth's sake. If not, then to gain friends for the time when we awaken.
- Segismundo, Act III, sc. i, l. 236 (tr. E. and E. Huberman, 1963)

El traidor no es menester
siendo la traición pasada.
- The treason past, the traitor is no longer needed.
- Segismundo, Act III, sc. iii, l. 1109 (tr. E. and E. Huberman, 1963)

¿Qué os espanta,
si fue mi maestro un sueño,
y estoy temiendo, en mis ansias,
que he de despertar y hallarme
otra vez en mi cerrada
prisión? Y cuando no sea,
el soñarlo sólo basta;
pues así llegué a saber
que toda la dicha humana,
en fin, pasa como sueño.
- What surprises you, if a dream taught me this wisdom, and if I still fear I may wake up and find myself once more confined in prison? And even if this should not happen, merely to dream it is enough. For this I have come to know, that all human happiness finally ceases, like a dream.
- Segismundo, act III, sc. iii, l. 1114 (tr. E. and E. Huberman, 1963)

Que si a la Ley no te ajustas,
quedó en la cuna labrada
la materia de la tumba.
- If you cannot reconcile yourself to the law, remain in the cradle.
- ? (tr. R. and M. Collison, 1980)

El príncipe constante · The Constant Prince

Pues solo un rudo animal
Sin discurso racional
Canta alegre en la prision.
- For it is only a soulless bird without reason that sings joyfully in its cage.
- 1 Captive, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Al peso de los años
Lo eminente se rinde;
Que á lo fácil del tiempo
No hay conquista dificil.
- The noble yields to the weight of years, for conquest is not difficult for time.
- Captives, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

De qué sirve la hermosura,
(Cuando lo fuese la mia)
Si me falta la alegría?
Si me falta la ventura?
- What does loveliness avail (if indeed it is mine), if joy of heart fail me, if good fortune fail me?
- Fénix, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Si yo supiera,
Ay Celima, lo que siento,
De mi mismo sentimiento
Lisonja al dolor hiciera;
Pero de la pena mia
No sé la naturaleza;
Que entonces fuera tristeza
Lo que hoy es melancolía,
Solo que sé sentir no sé,
Que ilusion del alma fue.
- Ah, my Zelima, if I did but know what I feel, that certain knowledge would be a cure of my grief; but I know not the nature of my pain, for now it seemeth tearful sadness, and now it is pensive melancholy; I only know, I know I feel, though I know not what I feel, the illusions of my soul mock me so.
- Fénix, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Pues no me puedo alegrar,
Formando sombras y lejos,
La emulacion, que en reflejos
Tienen la tierra y el mar;
Cuando con grandezas sumas
Compiten entre esplendores
Las espumas á las flores,
Las flores á las espumas;
Porque el jardin, envidioso
De ver las ondas del mar,
Su curso quiere imitar;
Y asi el zéfiro amoroso
Matices rinde, y olores
Que soplando en ellas bebe,
Y hacen las hojas que mueve
Un océano de flores;
Cuando el mar, triste de ver
La natural compostura
Del jardin, tambien procura
Adornar y componer
Su playa, la pompa pierde,
Y á segunda ley sujeto,
Compite con dulce efeto
Campo azul y golfo verde,
Siendo, ya con rizas plumas,
Ya con mezclados colores,
El jardin un mar de flores,
Y el mar un jardin de espumas:
Sin duda mi pena es mucha,
No la pueden lisonjear
Campo, cielo, tierra y mar.
- Certainly, no more am I gladdened by the emulous reflections which the earth and sea with dark shades and distant projections form; when alike in charms and powers the sparkling foam competes with snow-white flowers, for the garden, envious of the curling waves of ocean, loves to imitate their motion, and the amorous zephyr gives back the perfumes which it drinks in by blowing over the shining waters, and makes the waving leaves an ocean of bright flowers; when the sea, sad to view the natural beauties of the garden, while it tries to adorn its own realm, destroys its majestic mien, and subject to second laws, blends with sweet effect fields of blue with waves of green coloured now like heaven's blue dome, now plumed with various hues, the garden seems a sea of flowers, and the sea a garden of bright foam. How deep my pain must be, since nothing delights me, nor earth, nor air, nor sea, nor sky!
- Fénix, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Que en un ánimo constante
Siempre se halla igual semblante
Para el bien y el mal.
- For in a firm mind there is always found an unchanged countenance for good and evil.
- Rey, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Una mañana, á la hora
Que, medio dormido el sol,
Atropellando las sombras
Del ocaso, desmaraña
Sobre jazmines y rosas
Rubios cabellos, que enjuga
Con paños de oro á la aurora
Lagrimas de fuego y nieve,
Que el sol convirtió en aljófar.
- One morning, at the hour when the half-awakened sun, trampling down the lingering shadows of the west, spreads his ruby-tinted tresses over jessamines and roses, drying with cloths of gold Aurora's tears of mingled fire and snow, which the snow's rays converted into pearls.
- Muley, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Porque como en los matices
Sútiles pinceles logran
Unos visos, unos lejos,
Que en perspectiva dudosa
Parecen montes tal vez,
Y tal ciudades famosas
Porque la distancia siempre
Monstruos imposibles forma:
Asi en paises azules
Hicieron luces y sombras,
Confundiendo mar y cielo
Con las nubes y las ondas,
Mil engaños á la vista.
- For as on the canvas subtle pencils blend dark and bright in such proportions, that in dim perspective now appear mountains, now famous cities, for remoteness ever forms monstrous shapes; thus athwart the fields of azure lights and shades alternate fly, intermingling sea and sky with clouds and the waves, mocking the sight with a thousand delusions.
- Muley, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Que el tener en las desdichas
Campañia de tal forma
Consuela, que el enemigo
Suele servir de lisonja.
- For companionship in woes gives alleviation, even though it be that of an enemy.
- Muley, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

El vivir
Eterno es viver con honra.
- Life is but to live with honour.
- Muley, Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Cuando de un parasismo el mismo Apolo,
Amortajado en nubes, la dorada
Faz escondió, y el mar sañudo y fiero
Deshizo con tormentas nuestra armada.
- When in a paroxysm the sun, shrouded in clouds, concealed his golden face, and the fierce and fiery sea wrecked our fleet in foaming madness.
- Enrique, Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

En efecto, mi valor,
Sujetando tus valientes
Brios, de tantos perdidos
Un suelto caballo prende,
Tan monstruo, que siendo hijo
Del viento, adopcion pretende
Del fuego, y entre los dos
Lo desdice y lo desmiente
El color, pues siendo blanco,
Dice el agua: parto es este
De mi esfera, sola yo
Pude cuajarle de nieve.
En fin en lo veloz viento,
Rayo en fin en lo eminente,
Era por lo blanco cisne
Por lo sangriento era sierpe,
Por lo hermoso era soberbio,
Por lo atrevido valiente,
Por los relinchos lozano,
Y por las cernejas fuerte.
- In effect, my arm, subduing your courageous strength, amid the horses loosely flying seizes one, such a prodigy that, though being the son of the wind, it claimed adoption of the fire, but its hue shows it falsely denied its origin, for being white the water said, "It is the offspring of my sphere, I alone could have moulded such a form of curdled snow." Like the wind he flew in swiftness, lightning-like he flashed to and fro; he was a swan in dazzling whiteness, speckled like the snake with blood, proud of his beauty, full of spirit in his neighing, firm and strong in his fetlocks.
- Fernando, Act I, sc. iii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Porque al fin,
Hacer bien nunca se pierde.
- For a good action is never wholly lost.
- Muley, Act I, sc. iii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Lisonjera, libre, ingrata,
Dulce y suave una fuente
Hizo apacible corriente
De cristal y undosa plata;
Lisonjera se desata,
Porque hablaba, y no sentia;
Suave, porque fingia;
Libre, porque claro hablaba;
Dulce, porque murmuraba;
É ingrata, porque corria.
- Flattering, free, ungrateful, glides sweet and smooth a fountain with peaceful waters and crystal waves; flattering, for it uttereth sound enough, and does not feel; soft, because it feigneth; free, for loud it runs; sweet, because it murmureth; and ungrateful, for it flies.
- Fénix, Act II, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Mas pensad,
Que favor del cielo fue
Esta piadosa sentencia;
El mejorará la suerte;
Que á la desdicha mas fuerte
Sabe vencer la prudencia.
Sufrid con ella el rigor
Del tiempo y de la fortuna,
Deidad bárbara importuna,
Hoy cadáver y ayer flor,
No permanece jamas,
Y asi os mudará de estado.
- But think that this hard sentence may be given us as a favour by Heaven; fortune will change it for the better; for prudence knows how to subdue misfortune, however heavy. Bear with patience whatever sorrow time or fortune brings upon you — that barbarous fickle deity — now a corpse, now a flower, ever changing, and thus it may change our lot.
- Fernando, Act II, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Un dia llama á otro dià,
Y asi llama y encadena
Llanto á llanto, y pena á pena.
- One day calls to another, and thus sorrow follows sorrow, and pains with pains intertwine.
- Fernando, Act II, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Estas, que fueron pompa y alegría,
  Despertando al albor de la mañana,
  Á la tarde serán lástima vana,
  Durmiendo en brazos de la noche fria.
Este matiz, que el cielo desafia,
  Iris listado de oro, nieve y grana,
  Será escarmiento de la vida humana,
  Tanto se emprenda en término de un dia
Á florecer las rosas madrugaron,
  Y para envejecerse flore cieron,
  Cuna y sepulcro en un boton hallaron.
Tales los hombres sus fortunas vieron,
  En un dia nacieron y espiraron;
  Que pasados los siglos, horas fueron.
- These flowers, which were beautiful, unfolding at the early dawn, will leave us vainly regretted at eve, locked in the cold embraces of the night. These shades, that shame the rainbow's arch of gold, snow, and purple, will be an example of human life — so much is taught by one brief day; roses bloom and bear flowers but to grow old, finding a cradle and a tomb in one crimson bud. Such are men's fortunes in this world of ours; they are born and die in one day, for ages past seem to us like hours.
- Fernando, Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Esos vasgos de luz, esas centellas,
   Que cobran con amagos superiores
   Alimentos del sol en resplandores.
   Aquello viven, que se duelen dellas,
Flores nocturnas son, aunque tan bellas,
   Efímeras padecen sus ardores;
   Pues si un dia es el siglo de las flores,
   Una noche es la edad de las estrellas,
De esa pues primavera fugitiva
  Ya nuestro mal, ya nuestro bien se infiere,
  Registro es nuestro, ó muera el sol, ó viva.
Qué duracion habrá, qué el hombre espere?
  Ó qué mudanza habrá, que no reciba
  De astro, que cada noche nace y muere?
- These points of light, these sparks of fire, torn boldly from the sun's departing ray, live when the beam has mournfully retired: these are the flowers of night; though beautiful, their brightness passes swiftly away, for if the life of flowers is but one day, in one short night the brightest star expires, but still we ask from this fleeting spring tide of the sky now our good, now our ill; it is the register of our fate, whether the sun die or live. Oh! what duration is there that men should hope? What change can be hoped from a star, that every night is born again and dies?
- Fénix, Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Que hacer bien
Es tesoro, que se guarda
Para cuando es menester.
- For indeed a good action is a treasure guarded for the doer's need.
- Muley, Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Amor y amistad
En grado inferior se ven
Con la lealted y el honor.
- Both love and friendship are inferior to loyalty and honour.
- Fernando, Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Éstas que fueron pompa y alegría
despertando al albor de la mañana,
a la tarde serán lástima vana
durmiendo en brazos de la noche fría.
- These flowers, which were splendid and sprightly,
  Waking in the dawn of the morning,
  In the evening will be a pitiful frivolity,
  Sleeping in the cold night's arms.
- Fernando, Act II, l. 674; A las flores (tr. Robert Andrews, 1984)

Es tan augusta
De los reyes la deidad,
Tan fuerte, y tan absoluta,
Que engendra ánimo piadoso;
Y asi es forzoso que acudas
Á la sangre generosa
Con piedad y con cordura.
- So august is the divinity of monarchs, so strong and absolute, that it must ever engender pitying mind, and force noble blood to display pity and wisdom.
- Fernando, Act III, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

La crueldad
En cualquiera ley es una.
- To be cruel is condemned by every law.
- Fernando, Act III, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Y por eso dió una forma
Con una materia en una
Semejanza la razon
Al ataud y á la cuna.
Accion nuestra es natural,
Cuando recibir procura
Algo un hombre, alzar las manos
En esta manera juntas;
Mas cuando quiere arrojarlo,
De aquella misma accion usa,
Pues las vuelve boca abajo,
Porque asi las desocupa.
El mundo, cuando nacemos,
En señal de que nos busca,
En la cuna nos recibe
Y en ella nos asegura
Boca arriba; pero cuando,
Ó con desden, ó con furia
Quiere arrojarnos de sí,
Vuelve las manos que junta,
Y aquel instrumento mismo
Forma esta materia muda;
Pues fue cuna boca arriba
Lo que boca abajo es tumba
Tan cerca vivimus pues
De nuestra muerte, tan juntas
Tenemos, cuando nacemos,
El lecho, como la cuna.
- And it is doubtless to exhibit life and death's divided power that the cradle and coffin are so like to each other. For it is our natural action when a man receives anything that he raises his hands upwards, joined together in this way; but when he intends refusal, by a similar action, only by turning them down, he makes his intent known. So the world, when we are born, as a proof it seeks us, receives us in a cradle, with our face lying upwards; but should it, whether through disdain or fury, wish to drive us forth, it turns back her hands to show that the coffin's mute material be of that same instrument; for an upturned open cradle becomes a tomb when reversed. Since we live so sure of our death, we hold thus united our last bed and our cradle.
- Fernando, Act III, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)
  - Bishop Hall in his Epistles (dec. iii, ep. 2) says—"Death borders upon our birth, and our cradles stand in the grave."

El médico de su honra · The Physician of his own Honour

Pues no hay virtud
Sin experiencia. Perfecto
Está el oro en el crisol,
El iman en el acero,
El diamante en el diamante,
Los metales en el fuego.
- Since no virtue can be real that has not been tried. The gold in the crucible alone is perfect; the loadstone tests the steel, and the diamond is tried by the diamond, while metals gleam the brighter in the furnace.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Porque el sol no se desdeña,
Despues que ilustró un palacio,
De iluminar el topacio
De algun pajizo arrebol.
- For the sun, though it light a palace, does not disdain to fall with its golden woof on the straw-thatched cottage-roof.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Dicen, que el primer consejo
Ha de ser de la muger.
- They say that the best counsel is that of woman.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Que el dia
Ya en la tumba helada y fria,
Huésped del undoso Dios,
Hace noche.
- As the day sinks cool and fresh into the tomb, to be the guest of the sea-god, good-night to you.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

O qué tales sois los hombres:
Hoy olvido, ayer amor,
Ayer gusto, y hoy rigor.
- Oh! it is thus with men: to-day forgetfulness, to-morrow love; to-morrow desire, and to-day hate.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Poca centella incita mucho fuego,
Poco viento movió mucha tormenta,
Poca nube al principio arroja luego
Mucho diluvio, poca luz alienta
Mucho rayo despues, poco amor ciego
Descubre mucho engaño; y asi intenta,
Siendo centella, viento, nube, ensayo,
Ser tormenta, diluvio, incendio y rayo.
- A little spark kindleth a great flame — a little wind excites a whirlwind's crash-a little cloud produces a great deluge — a little light can feed the lightning's flash —a little love, though blind, finds out many wiles; and thus spark, wind, cloud, delights to be storm, rain, burning, and lightning.
- Act I, sc. iii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Soy cofrade del contento;
El pesar no sé quien es, Ni aun para servirle.
El fin Soy, aqui donde me veis,
Mayordomo de la risa,
Gentilhombre del placer
Y camerero del gusto
Pues que me visto con él.
- I am a brother of contentment; grief, I know not what it is, nor have ever been servant to it. Briefly, I am what you see me: major-domo unto laughter, gentleman-in-waiting to pleasure, and the chamberlain of frolic — which a glance, indeed, might show you.
- Act I, sc. iii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Sabed, Don Arias, que quien
Una vez le quiso bien,
No se vengará en su mal.
- Knows, Don Arias, that who has loved well will never seek the loved one's ill.
- Act II, sc. iv (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Nada; que hombres como yo
No ven, basta que imaginen,
Que sospechen, que prevengan,
Que rezelen, que adivénen,
Que... no sé como lo diga;
Que no hay voz, que signifique
Una cosa, que aun no sea
Un atomo indivisible.
- Nothing — since men formed as I am do not see, enough they fancy, suspect, foreshadow, feel some instinct — some divining — some... I know not what to say; for there is no word that can give the meaning — feelings that resemble atoms that cannot be divided.
- Act III, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

El honor es reservado
Lugar, donde el alma asiste.
- Honour is a sacred place, which the soul alone inhabits.
- Act III, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

El Purgatorio de San Patricio · The Purgatory of St. Patrick

Pues hay cosa á la vista mas suave,
Que ver quebrando vidrios una nave,
Siendo en su azul esfera,
Del viento pez, y de las ondas ave,
Cuando corre veloz, sulca ligera,
Y de los elementos amparada,
Vuela en las ondas, y en los vientos nada?
Aunque ahora no fuera
Su vista á nuestros ojos lisonjera;
Porque el mar alterado,
En piélagos de montes levantado,
Riza la altiva frente,
Y sañudo Neptuno,
Parece que importuno
Turbó la faz, y sacudió el tridente,
Tormenta el marinero se presuma;
Que se atreven al cielo
Montes de sal, pirámides de hielo,
Torres de nieve, alcázares de espuma.
- Is there anything more fair to the sight than to see a ship softly gliding, dividing the azure field, like a fish within the yielding air, or a bird upon the waves, when it runs swiftly, making a slight furrow, and, favourite of sea and sky, flies over the waves and swims through the wind? But now the sight could not be pleasing to our eyes, for the sea is altered, raised in huge billows, all deeply wrinkled in its lordly brow: dreadful Neptune has assumed an angry visage, and shaking his trident, affrights the sailor, even if he is daring; since mountainous waves, pyramids of ice, towers of snow, palaces of foam, all are dashed against the heaven.
- Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Causa primera de todo
Sois, Señor, y en todo estais.
Esos cristalinos velos,
Que constan de luces bellas,
Con el sol, luna y estrellas,
No son cortinas y velos
Del empireo soberano?
Los discordes elementos,
Mares, fuego, tierra y vientos
No son rasgos de esa mano?
No publican vuestros loores
Y el poder, que en vos se encierra,
Todos? No escribe la tierra
Con caractéres de flores
Grandezas vuestras? El viento,
En los ecos repetido,
No publica, que habeis sido
Autor de su movimiento?
El fuego y el agua luego
Alabanzas no os previenen,
Y para este efecto tienen
Lengua el agua, y lengua el fuego?
- Thou art the first cause of old, O Lord, and existest in everything. These crystalline veils, woven of beautiful rays of the sun, moon, and stars, are they not the curtains between the heavenly world and this? The discordant elements, sea, fire, earth, and air, are they not shadows of thy hand? Do they not all proclaim thy praise, and the mighty power that encompasses thee? Does not the earth mark thy grandeur in the beauty of its flowers? Does not the wind, repeated in the echoes, proclaim by its accents that thou didst give it birth? The fire and the water fail not in thy praise; in every flame there is a tongue, in every wave there is a tongue to sound thy praise.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)
  - See the "Sacred Song" of Moore, beginning—
    Thou art, O God, the life and light
    Of all this wondrous world we see.

Polonia desdichada,
Pension de la hermosura celebrada
Fue siempre la desdicha;
Que no se avienen bien belleza y dicha.
- Luckless Polonia, the dower of great beauty has always been misfortune; since happiness and beauty do not agree together.
- Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Ya el sol las doradas trenzas
Estiende desmarañadas
Sobre los montes y selvas,
Para que te informe el dia.
- See, the sun spreads his golden tresses, disentangling them over the mountains and woods that it may warn thee of the day.
- Act II, sc. iii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

No ves ese peñasco, que parece
Que se está sustendando con trabajo,
Y con el ansia misma que padece,
Ha tantos siglos que se viene abajo?
Pues mordaza es, que sella y enmudece
El aliento á una boca, que debajo
Abierta está, por donde con pereza
El monte melancolico bosteza.
- See you not this rock suspended, so that it appears with difficulty kept up? and still it hangs as it has hung for unnumbered ages; for it is a gag which checks and interferes with the breath that escapes from the cave, wherewith the melancholy mountain yawns.
- Act II, sc. iv (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)
  - Shelley in The Cenci has copied this idea:—
    But I remember,
    Two miles on this side of the fort, the road
    Crosses a deep ravine; 'tis rough and narrow,
    And winds with short turns down the precipice;
    And in its depth there is a mighty rock
    Which has from unimaginable years
    Sustained itself with terror and with toil
    Over the gulf, and with the agony
    With which it clings seems slowly coming down;
    Even as a wretched soul, hour after hour,
    Clings to the mass of life; yet clinging, leans,
    And leaning, makes more dark the dread abyss
    In which it fears to fall; beneath this crag,
    Huge as despair, as if in weariness,
    The melancholy mountain yawns.

Apenas en la cueva entrar queria,
Cuando escucho en sus concavos feroces,
Como de quien se queja y desconfia
De su dolor, desesperadas voces;
Blasfemias, maldiciones solo oia,
Y repetir delitos tan atroces,
Que pienso que los cielos, per no oillos,
Quisieron á esa cárcel reducillos.
- Scarcely had I entered into the cavern when I heard in its sad bounds how each complained and lamented in accents of despair; blasphemies, curses, alone I heard, crimes avowed, that I believe Heaven, in order not to hear them, had placed them in this prison.
- Act II, sc. iv (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Una muger no tiene
Valor para el consejo, y la conviene
Casarse.
- A woman needs a stronger head than is her own for counsel — she should marry.
- Act III, sc. iv (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

El secreto a voces · The Secret in Words

Que tal vez
Hacer ocupadas suele,
Si no mas breves las horas,
Que nos parezcan mas breves.
- Since often occupation, if it does not make the hours less short, makes their flight appear the shorter.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

O tú, hermoso jardin bello,
Cuya república verde
Patria es del Abril, pues solo
Al Abril conoce, y tiene
Por Dios de su primavera,
Por rey de sus doce meses.
- O thou fair and beauteous garden, whose green republic is the chosen clime of April; for it alone knows April, and makes it the god of its spring-time — it the king of its twelve months.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Pues quien vence sin contrario,
No puede decir que vence.
- For he, who wins without resistance, can scarcely be said to win.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

No es accion cuerda
Dar á entender al amante
Mas firme, que hay quien le quiera;
Porque el mas humilde cobra
Querido tanta soberbia,
Que la dádiva del gusto
Ya desde alli la hace deuda.
- It is not a prudent act to inform the firmest lover that there is one that loves him well; for the humblest heart has so much vanity, that what it once thought to be a favour soon becomes a thankless debt.
- Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Los cuerdos amigos son
Il libro mas entendido
De la vida, si porque
Deleitan aprovechando.
- Wise friends are the best book of life, because they teach with voice and looks.
- Act III, sc. iii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Amar después de la muerte · Love after Death

Qué bien
Pareja del tiempo llaman
A la fortuna, pues ambos
Sobre una rueda y dos alas
Para el bien ó para el ma
Corren siempre y nunca paran!
- How truly call they Time and Fortune twins, since both, on one wheel and with two wings for good or evil, ever move and never stop!
- Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Pues una herida mejor
Se cura, que una palabra!
- Since a wound is healed more easily than a word!
- Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Porque es tal
De la fortuna el desden,
Que apenas nos hace un bien, Cuando le desquita un mal.
- For such is Fortune, that scarcely has she done a good when an evil follows.
- Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Tal
Es de un vulgo la inconstancia,
Que los designios de hoy
Intentan borrar mañana.
- Such is the fickleness of the crowd, that the designs of to-day they proceed to abandon on the morrow.
- Act III, sc. vi (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

La vanda y la flor · The Scarf and the Flower

No hagais, señora,
Ese desprecio al aurora
Que es dama, y soy muy cortes;
Y no dejaré agraviar
Una hermosura, á quien deben
Todo cuanto aliento beben
El clavel, jazmin y azar.
Su luz, deidad singular,
Es breve imperio del dia,
De los campos alegria,
Pulimento de las flores,
Estacion de los amores
De las aves harmonia.
- Do not such despite to the Aurora, a lady like thyself — be more courteous; thou shouldst not wrong a beauty, in whose every breath we drink the odour of the pink and jessamine. Its brightness, mighty divinity, has a fleeting empire over the day — giving gladness to the fields, colour to the flowers, the season of the loves, harmonious hour of wakening birds.
- Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Y aparte la alegoría,
Permite, que me detenga
En pintarte de Filipo
La gala, el brio y destreza,
Con que iba puesto á caballo;
Que como este afecto sea
Verdad en mi, y no lisonja,
No importa que lo parezca.
Era un alazan tostado
De foroz naturaleza
El monarca irracional,
En cuyo color se muestra
La cólera disculpando
Del sol, que la tez le tuesta,
Que hay estudio en lo voraz,
Y en lo bárbaro hay belleza.
Tan soberbio se miraba,
Que dió con sola soberbia
Á entender, que conocia
Ser, con todo un cielo acuestas,
Monte vivo de los brutos,
Vivo Atlante de las fieras.
Como te sabré decir
Con el desprecio y la fuerza,
Que, sin hacer dellas caso
Iba quebrando las piedras,
Sino con decirte solo
Centro de fuego Madrid?
Que entonces conocí, que era
Pues donde quiera que llega
El pie ó la mano, levanta,
Un abismo de centellas.
Y como quien toca el fuego
Huye la mano, que acerca,
Asi el valiente caballo
Retira con tanto priesa
El pie ó la mano del fuego,
Que la mano ó el pie engendra,
Que hecha gala del temor,
Ni el uno ni el otro asienta,
Deteniéndose en el aire
Con brincas y con corbetas.
Con tanto imperio en lo bruto,
Como en lo racional, vieras
Al Rey regir tanto monstruo
Al arbitrio de la rienda.
- But, all allegory being laid aside, allow me to describe to you Philip, with what skill and noble daring he managed his steed; and as the description springs from truth and not from flattery, it is of no consequence if it seems so. The irrational brute was a bright-brown sorrel, fierce in nature, in whose colour shone the fury of the sun, with smooth skin, so that beauty and wildness were united in the noble beast. With such mettled pride he bounded that he proclaimed he could bear a whole heaven on his shoulders; among brutes a living mountain — Atlas turned to life among beasts. How can I find words to tell thee of the strong proud disregard with which he, unmindful of it, ground to dust the stony highway, but by saying this alone, that I only then discovered what a fire was beneath Madrid? For wherever his hoof descended, there seemed to open an abyss of fiery sparkles; and as he who touches fire suddenly withdraws his hand, so the noble steed drew back, with the same instinctive quickness, his hoof from out the fire which his hoof itself had kindled, making fear itself so graceful that his feet did not uphold him, cleverly upraised in air with his boundings and curvetings. As with man, so in the brute-world must a firm hand guide and manage it; thus the king controlled the monster by the light touch of the reins.
- Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)
  - This may be compared with Shakespeare’s treatment of the same subject (Richard II, act v, sc. 2):—
    Then, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke,
    Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,
    Which his aspiring rider seemed to know,
    With slow but stately pace kept on his course,
    While all tongues cried, God save thee, Bolingbroke!
    You would have thought the very windows spake,
    So many greedy looks of young and old
    Through casements darted their desiring eyes
    Upon his visage; and that all the walls,
    With painted imag'ry, had said at once,
    Jesu preserve thee! welcome, Bolingbroke!
    Whilst he, from one side to the other turning,
    Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed's neck,
    Bespake them thus: I thank you, countrymen;
    And thus still doing, thus he passed along.
  - And Fletcher (The Two Noble Kinsmen, act v, sc. 4):—
    List then! your cousin
    Mounted upon a steed that Emily
    Did first bestow upon him, a black one, owning
    Not a hairworth of white, which some will say
    Weakens his price, and many will not buy
    His goodness with this note; which superstition
    Here finds allowance on this horse is Arcite,
    Trotting the stones of Athens, which the calkias
    Did rather tell than trample, for the horse
    Would make his length a mile if't pleased his rider
    To put pride in him. As thus he went, counting
    The flinty pavement, dancing as 'twere to the music
    His own hoofs made (for as they say, from iron
    Came music's origin), what envious flint,
    Cold as old Saturn, and like him possessed
    With fire malevolent, darted a spark,
    Or what fierce sulphur else to this end made,
    I comment not; the hot horse, hot as fire,
    Took toy at this, and fell to what disorder
    His power could give his will; bounds, comes on end,
    Forgets school-doing, being therein trained,
    And of kind manage; pig-like he whines
    At the sharp rowel, which he frets at rather
    Than any jot obeys; seeks all foul means
    Of boisterous and rough jadery to disseat
    His lord, that kept it bravely. When nought served;
    When neither curb would crack, girth break, nor diff'ring plunges
    Disroot his rider whence he grew, but that
    He kept him 'tween his legs, on his hind hoofs
    On end he stands,
    That Arcite's legs being higher than his head,
    Seemed with strange art to hang; his victor's wreath
    Even then fell off his head, and presently
    Backward the jade comes o'er, and his full poise
    Becomes the rider's load.

Es tan ágil en la caza,
Viva imágen de la guerra.
- He is active in the chase, lively portraiture of warfare.
- Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)
  - Sir Walter Scott speaks of the chase as being "a noble mimicry of war."

En los embates de amante,
Al viento que corre, el pecho
Se descubre en el semblante.
- In the reverses of the lover, by the lightest winds that blow, the breast is often confessed in the face.
- Act I, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

La verde es color primera
Del mundo, y en quien consiste
Su hermosura, pues se viste
De verde la primevera.
Es aquel verde ornamento,
Pues sin voz y con aliento
La vista mas lisonjera
Nacen de varios colores.
En cuna verde las flores,
Que son estrellas del viento.
Al fin es color del suelo,
Que se marchita y se pierde;
Y cuando el suelo de verde
Se vista, de azul el cielo.
Primavera es su azul velo,
Donde son las flores bellas
Vivas luces; mira en ellas,
Qué trofeos son mayores,
Un campo cielo de flores,
O un cielo campo de estrellas.
Ese es color aparente,
Que la vista para objeto
Finge; que el cielo en efeto
Color ninguno consiente.
Con azul fingido miente
La hermosura de su esfera:
Luego en esa parte espera
Ser la tierra preferida,
Pues la una es beldad fingida
Y otra es pompa verdadera.
Confieso, que no es color
Lo azul del cielo, y confieso,
Que es mucho mejor por eso;
Porque, si fuera en rigor
Propio, no fuera favor
La eleccion; y de aqui infiero,
Que, si le eligió primero,
Fue, porque lo azul ha sido
Aun mejor para fingido,
Que otro para verdadero.
Lo verde dice esperanza,
Que es el mas immenso bien
Del amor. Digalo quien
Ni la tiene ni la alcanza.
Lo azul zelos y mudanza
Dice, que es tormento eterno,
Sin paz, quietud ni gobierno.
Qué importa pues, que el amor
Tenga del cielo el color,
Si tiene el mal del infierno?
Quien con esperanza vive,
Poco le debe su dama;
Pero quien con zelos ama,
En bronce su amor escribe;
Luego aquel que se apercibe
Á amar zeloso, hace mas,
En cuya razon verás,
Cuanto alcanzan sus dusvelos;
Pues el infierno de zelos
No espera favor jamas.
- Lisida: Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises; it is the colour of the spring; the fairest sight is that green ornament that sees, voiceless and breathless, the many-tinted flowers take their birth in their green cradle — the trembling stars of every breeze.
  Chloris: In short, it is the colour of the earth, which fades and vanishes; and when the earth is clothed with green, the heaven is azure. Spring hangs her azure veil on high, for the living lights are beauteous flowers; see which is the richest dower of nature-an earthly heaven covered with flowers, or heaven's bright field strewn with stars.
  Lisida: It is a seeming colour, which mocks our eyes: for the sky in reality has no colour; the heaven with this azure fiction tells a falsehood; for this reason the earth should be preferred. One boasts a fictitious beauty, the other is a real verdant hue.
  Chloris: I confess that the azure of the sky is no colour, and I know that it is better for not being so; if it were its actual dress, there would be no difficulty to prove its greater beauty. And hence I infer that if he chose the azure, it was because the azure is even of greater beauty than the other, however true is its green.
  Lisida: The green speaks hope, which we always prize as the most precious offering of love. Let her say so who neither possesses nor can obtain it. Azure speaks of jealousy and change, a never-ending torment, without peace, quiet, or control. What matters it, then, that love wears the hue of heaven, if it must feel the pains of hell?
  Chloris: He who lives on hope, to him his lady owes little; but he who loves with jealousy inscribes his love on bronze: he who loves jealously shows what a faithful heart he has, since in the hell of jealousy he can hope for favour no more.
- Act I, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)
  - Green is the colour God doth fling
    First on the naked world, a dress
    Which doth increase its loveliness —
    It is the colour of the spring.
    The fairest sight the seasons bring
    Is that green ornament that sees.
    Voiceless and breathless 'neath the trees,
    The many-tinted flowers take birth
    On the green cradle of the earth —
    The trembling stars of every breeze.
    - (tr. Denis MacCarthy, 1853)

Del color de la dicha
Se viste siempre el contento.
- The spirit of contentment ever wears the hues of joy.
- Act II, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Desnuda la verdad vive,
Á imitacion del silencio.
- Simple truth should live naked in imitation of honest silence.
- Act II, sc. i (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

Bien el amor hoy del poder se venga,
Dando á entender ufano,
Que es rayo cada flecha de su mano,
Pues como rayo, que violento pasa,
Lo altivo hiere y lo eminente abrasa.
- To-day love shows his vengeful power, making us proudly to understand that his arrows can fall from his hand like heaven's bolts; for, like the lightning passing wildly by, he wounds the proud and lays low the high.
- Act II, sc. ii (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1880)

About Calderón

Like most Spanish dramatists, Calderón wrote too much and too speedily, and he was too often content to recast the productions of his predecessors....It would be easy to add other examples of Calderón's lax methods, but it is simple justice to point out that he committed no offence against the prevailing code of literary morality. Many of his contemporaries plagiarized with equal audacity, but with far less success.
Calderón had the good fortune to be printed in a fairly correct and readable edition, thanks to the enlightened zeal of his admirer, Juan de Vera Tassis y Villaroel, and owing to this happy accident he came to be regarded generally as the first of Spanish dramatists. The publication of the plays of Lope de Vega and of Tirso de Molina has affected the critical estimate of Calderón's work; he is seen to be inferior to Lope de Vega in creative power, and inferior to Tirso de Molina in variety of conception. But, setting aside the extravagances of his admirers, he is admittedly an exquisite poet, an expert in the dramatic form, and a typical representative of the devout, chivalrous, patriotic and artificial society in which he moved.
- James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, "Calderón de la Barca, Pedro", Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911) vol. 4, pp. 984–986

Sources

List of Calderón's plays in English translation

Craufurd Tait Ramage (ed.) Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors, rev. ed. (Liverpool: Edward Howell, 1880)

T. B. Harbottle and Martin Hume (eds.) Dictionary of Quotations — Spanish (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co; New York: The Macmilan Co, 1907)

J. M. and M. J. Cohen (eds.) The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations (Penguin Books, 1960)

Bergen Evans (ed.) Dictionary of Quotations (New York: Delacorte Press, 1968)

Robert and Mary Collison (eds.) The Dictionary of Foreign Quotations (New York: Facts on File, 1980)

Robert Andrews (ed.) The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987)

External links

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article about:

Pedro Calderón de la Barca