San Manuel Bueno, mártir

European MasterpiecesCervantes & Co. Spanish Classics N° 39

General Editor: Tom Lathrop

Miguel de Unamuno

San Manuel Bueno, mártir

Edited and with notes by

Tom & Connie Lathrop

N EWA R K • D E L AWA R E

Copyright © Herederos de Miguel de Unamuno

Cover and interior illustrations © 2009 by Michael Bolan.Interior illustrations were drawn with sticks and ink on 18” x 24” paper.

Copyright © 2009 by European Masterpieces An imprint of LinguaText, Ltd.

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isbn: 978-1-58977-059-1

Table of Contents

Introduction to Students ..............................................................................9

San Manuel Bueno, mártir ............................................................. 27

Spanish/English Glossary ..........................................................................83

Acknowledgments

We owe thanks to several people. Francisco Aragón Guiller brought the legend of Valverde de Lucerna to our attention, for which we are grateful. We thank Francisco and Michael McGrath for their astute comments on and corrections to the Introduction and the text. Our thanks go out to Michael Bolan, illlustrator and cover artist of this edition. Carlos Otero introduced Tom to this story in 1961, and proved what a great one it was. Tom discussed this story with Don Hartsock, who was visiting him at the ucla hospital in 1963, and instantly saw the Greek origin of the names of the important characters. We also give thanks to Mario Valdés whose good edition (Cát-edra, 1984) provided us with most of the biblical references.

9

Introduction to Students

M iguel de Unamuno was born… But first, here are three anecdotes.

In 1905 Unamuno was given a great honor by the King of Spain himself, Alfonso XIII. It was the Cross of the Order of Alfonso XII, awarded for excellence in education, culture, teaching, or research. Unamuno was active in all of those areas. When Alfonso XIII presented Unamuno with this medal, Unamuno said: “La merezco” 'I deserve it.’ The King was taken aback, and said that usually the recipients of this award said that they didn’t deserve it. Un-amuno quipped back immediately: “¡Y tenían razón!”1

In the 1930s, Unamuno was named the Honorary Provost of the Universidad Menéndez y Pelayo in Santander. It functioned only in the summer. The young José Rubia Barcia was there one summer and one morning dared to approach don Miguel to say that he had read Unamuno’s political column in the newspaper that day and that he disagreed with it. Unamuno was not at all offended, and said right back: “Ni yo tampoco.” (Unamuno wrote over 1500 newspaper col-umns during his career.)

Unamuno, Ramón del Valle-Inclán (the author, 1866-1936), and the President of Mexico, General Álvaro Obregón (1880-1928), hap-pened to at a theatrical performance together one night. Obregón had

1 The first and third of these anecdotes are from the lecture I invited Ramón Sender to give in 1965 at ucla, “Mis recuerdos del Ateneo an Madrid.” The second one was related by José Rubia Barcia himself in class at ucla, also in 1965.

10 Introduction

lost his right arm in an enormous battle against Pancho Villa in 1915. Valle-Inclán had lost the use of his left arm in a café scuffle (more about this incident later). He was seated to Unamuno’s left, and Obregón was to Valle-Inclán’s left. After the perfomance, everyone was applaud-ing wildly except Unamuno’s two neighbors, so Unamuno leaned over to both of them and said (in Spanish): “Why don’t you collaborate and try to applaud?”

Unamuno, as you can tell, was decidedly a larger-than-life person-age. Who else would dare to say the things he said in these three an-ecdotes?

Miguel de Unamuno was born in Bilbao on September 29, 1864, the third of six children. Tumult and hardship shaped the young Miguel’s development from an early age. Two of his sisters died—one when he was three and another when he was five—and then his father died when he was six. He also witnessed the siege and bombardment of Bilbao when he was ten years old. This conflict was the third of the Carlist Wars—dreadful civil wars in which political allegiances were polarized into liberal and conservative, monarchist factions. This war was the defining experience leading up to his first novel, Paz en la guerra (1897).

At age sixteen, the academically-talented young Miguel finished his secondary education in Bilbao and went to pursue literary stud-ies in Madrid. He performed very well and got the equivalent of an American bachelor’s degree (licenciatura) with distinction at the age of nineteen. By the end of the next academic year in 1884, he suc-cessfully defended his doctoral dissertation, titled Crítica sobre el prob-lema del origen y prehistoria de la raza vasca. Unamuno’s dissertation is also particularly fascinating given that it was written during the critical period in which the seeds of what we know today as Basque national-ism were being sown.

After he married his childhood sweetheart, Concha Lizárraga, in 1891, Unamuno began to write profusely in preparation for job search-

Tom & Connie Lathrop 11

es with facultades de filosofía y letras at various universities. He finally was given the chair of Greek Philology at the University of Salamanca, where he spent the rest of his life, with the exception of periods of ex-ile. It was also in Salamanca where Unamuno engaged in Spain’s vola-tile political climate by joining the Socialist party (1894) and fervently contributed articles to newspapers and magazines as far away as La Nación of Buenos Aires. Foreseeing the inevitable crumbling of what remained of the Spanish empire, Unamuno published a volume of es-says in 1895 called En torno al casticismo, which served to highlight the importance of his intellectual role as something more than just a contrarian polemicist; instead, he conveyed a need to grapple head-on with the uncertainty surrounding the destiny of Spain and its people.

In 1896, after his third son, Raimundo, contracted a fatal meningi-tis, Unamuno suffered a profound spiritual crisis—one which affected him for the rest of his life. He renounced his ties with the Socialist par-ty in 1897 and embraced the Catholic faith. But having always dispar-aged ideologies that he considered deficient in addressing humanity’s spiritual needs, Unamuno repudiated what he came to see as senseless, parallel dogma in the orthodox Catholic and the purely materialist, Marxist views of the world. This point of no return is the origin of Unamuno’s attraction to the writings of Søren Kierkegaard. To do this effectively, he had to learn Danish, which wasn’t a major problem for Unamuno, since he already knew twelve or thirteen other languages.

In 1901 Unamuno was named Provost of the University of Sala-manca, but he continued to be a prolific author. The spiritual crisis he began to suffer in the closing years of the 19th century was coupled with the national crisis brought on at the end of the Spanish-American War of 1898, or “el desastre,” in which Spain lost its remaining colonies (Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines). The philosophical and liter-ary ramifications of this event materialized as “The Generation of '98.” Unamuno, Azorín, Valle-Inclán, Anotnio Machado, and others, pro-duced works of intense reflection on the future of the Spanish identity.

From his spiritual and national crises came Unamuno’s most in-

12 Introduction

tense period of creative activity. His ideological novel, Amor y peda-gogía was published in 1902; the 1905 publication of Vida de don Qui-jote y Sancho; Poesías in 1907; Rosario de sonetos líricos in 1911. Una-muno’s Del sentimiento trágico de la vida en los hombres y en los pueblos published in 1913, however, has been widely regarded as his expository masterpiece. Many translations and editions of this volume of essays have been published throughout the years. Scholars consider this work to have the philosophical underpinnings worthy of a precursor to modern European existentialism.

In the 1920s, Unamuno became a political target for writing a se-ries of articles in which he criticized Spain’s dictator Primo de Rivera, Alfonso XIII, and the turn of events that had plunged Europe into World War I. As a result, he was dismissed from his post as Provost of the University of Salamanca and condemned to serve a sixteen-year jail sentence, which became a voluntary six-year exile in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) and France.

While in Paris, Unamuno wrote his ideas concerning the novel—Cómo se hace una novela (1927). Upon Primo de Rivera’s fall from pow-er in 1930, he was finally able to return to an irreconcilably divided, sectarian Spain to spend the last years of his life. Many contemporary intellectuals, such as the poet Antonio Machado, hailed Unamuno’s return to Spain as a victory for the Republic. He was again named Pro-vost of the University of Salamanca in 1931, though he retired soon thereafter, and was named honorary Provost for life. The year 1933 marks the end of his prolific career as an author, with the publication of one of the greatest novellas written in the Spanish language—the one you are holding in your hands—San Manuel Bueno, mártir. In no other work of Unamuno’s literary production is his unrelenting spiri-tual angst more evident—characterized by the inability to let go of reason and belief in the promise of eternal life.

This brief period of success and happiness ended with the death of his beloved wife in 1934, though the moment that sealed Unamuno’s fate arrived on October 12, 1936 as he was presiding over the Univer-

San Manuel Bueno,mártir

De estos libros, los únicos casi que había en toda la aldea,devoré yo ensueños siendo niña. (p. 28)

27

5

10

bishop

belongs

village

“is,” promoting

esta aldea, priest

recorded; by way of

end

man, intimate

soul

1Si sólo en esta vida esperamos en Cristo somos los más mi-serables de los hombres todos.

San Pablo, Cor. 1 15:191

A hora que el obispo° de la diócesis de Renada, a la que pertenece° esta mi querida aldea° de Valverde de Lucerna,

anda,° a lo que se dice, promoviendo° el proceso para la beatificación2 de nuestro don Manuel, o, mejor, san Ma-nuel Bueno, que fue en ésta° párroco,° quiero dejar aquí consignado,° 'a modo de° confesión y sólo Dios sabe, que no yo, con qué destino,° todo lo que sé y recuerdo de aquel varón° matriarcal que llenó toda la más entrañada° vida de mi alma,° que fue mi verdadero padre espiritual, el padre de mi espíritu, del mío, el de Ángela Carballino.

1 This verse—dealing with the resurrection of Christ—is taken quite out of context, which posits: “If there is no resurrection, then Christ was not raised; and if Christ was not raised, then our gospel is null and void, and so is your faith” (I Cor 15:13-14). The translation of the quoted verse from the New English Bible, is: “If it is only an uncertain hope that our life in Christ has given us, we are of all men are most to be pitied.”

2 Beatification is the process within the Catholic Church of making a person, because of heroic virtue (among other things) into a saint. It is a 20-step process, and reserved typically for those who have died long ago. Candidates for beatification must have exhibited Divine charity, hope, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance—qualities possessed by Ma-nuel Bueno.

28 Miguel de Unamuno

5

10

15

20

25

biological and worldly,

hardly; very young

outsider

settled

stories

mixed together, only

ones

what my father did or

said; town; in love

erased

commended,

when she prayed

city with cathedral

thin, erect

comb, depth

he attracted the gazes

piercing

window pane

Al otro, a mi padre 'carnal y temporal,° 'apenas si° le conocí, pues se me murió siendo yo 'muy niña.° Sé que había llegado de forastero° a nuestra Valverde de Lucer-na, que aquí arraigó° al casarse aquí con mi madre. Trajo consigo unos cuantos libros, el Quijote, obras de teatro clásico, algunas novelas, historias,° el Bertoldo,3 todo re-vuelto,° y de estos libros, los únicos° casi que había en toda la aldea, devoré yo ensueños siendo niña.4 Mi buena madre apenas si me contaba 'hechos o dichos de mi pa-dre.° Los de don Manuel, a quien, como todo el pueblo,° adoraba, de quien estaba enamorada°—claro que castí-simamente—le habían borrado° el recuerdo de los de su marido. A quien enco mendaba a Dios, y fervorosamen-te, cada día 'al rezar° el rosario. De nuestro don Manuel me acuerdo como si fuese de cosa de ayer, siendo yo niña, a mis diez años, antes de que me llevaran al Colegio de Religio sas de la 'ciu-dad catedralicia° de Renada. Tendría él, nuestro santo, entonces unos treinta y siete años. Era alto, 'delgado, er-guido,° llevaba la cabeza como nuestra Peña del Buitre lleva su cresta,° y había en sus ojos toda la hondura° azul de nuestro lago. 'Se llevaba las miradas° de todos, y tras ellas los cora zones, y al mirarnos parecía, traspasando° la carne como un cristal,° mirarnos al corazón. Todos le queríamos, pero sobre todo los niños. ¡Qué cosas nos de-cía! Eran cosas, no palabras. Empezaba el pueblo a olerle la santidad; se sentía lleno y em briagado de su aroma. Entonces fue cuando mi hermano Lázaro, que es-

3 El Bertoldo refers to the Spanish translation of a quaint moral no-vel, translated from Italian, about a rustic named Bertoldo. It was popular in the 19th century in Spain.

4 Devoré yo… books from which I devoured dreams, as a girl

¡Qué cosas nos decía! Eran cosas, no palabras. (p. 28)

San Manuel Bueno, mártir 29

5

10

15

20

25

30

respectable comfort

nuns

as far as I know, secular

take

improve herself

coarse village girls,

school; at first, I

couldn’t stand

got close to

up to date

even

I developed

worries, anxieties, due

jumble

increased, dealings

proposed

at the same time;

swearing; sisterhood

incidentally

fate

“when”

taba en América, de donde nos mandaba regu larmente dinero, con que vivíamos en 'decorosa holgura,° hizo que mi madre me mandase al Colegio de Religiosas, a que se completara, fuera de la aldea, mi educación, y esto aun-que a él, a Lázaro, no le hiciesen mucha gracia las mon-jas.° “Pero como ahí” nos escribía, “no hay hasta ahora, 'que yo sepa,° colegios laicos° y progresivos, y menos para señoritas, hay que atenerse° a lo que haya. Lo importante es que Angelita 'se pula° y que no siga entre esas 'zafias aldeanas.”° Y entré en el colegio,° pensando 'en un princi-pio° hacerme en él maestra; pero luego 'se me atragantó° la pedagogía. En el colegio conocí a niñas de la ciudad e intimé° con algunas de. ellas. Pero seguía atenta° a las cosas y a las gentes de nuestra aldea, de la que recibía frecuentes noticias y tal vez alguna visita. Y hasta° al colegio llega-ba la fama de nuestro párroco, de quien empezaba a ha-blarse en la ciu dad episcopal. Las monjas no hacían sino interro garme respecto a él. Desde muy niña alimenté,° no sé bien cómo, curiosi-dades, preocupaciones° e inquietudes,° debi das,° en parte al menos, a aquel revoltijo° de libros de mi padre, y todo ello 'se me medró° en el colegio, en el trato,° sobre todo, con una compañera que se me aficionó desmedidamente y que unas veces me proponía° que entrásemos juntas 'a la vez° en un mismo convento, jurándonos,° y hasta firman-do el juramento con nuestra sangre, hermandad° perpe-tua, y otras veces me hablaba, con los ojos semicerrados, de novios y de aventuras matrimoniales. 'Por cierto que° no he vuelto a saber de ella ni de su suerte.° Y 'eso que cuando° se hablaba de nuestro don Manuel, o cuando mi madre me decía algo el él en sus cartas—y era en casi

30 Miguel de Unamuno

5

rapture

flesh and blood

kiss

todas—que yo leía a mi amiga, ésta exclamaba como en arrobo:° “¡Qué suerte, chica, la de poder vivir cerca de un santo así, de un santo vivo, de 'carne y hueso,° y poder besarle° la mano! Cuando vuelvas a tu pueblo, escríbeme mucho, mucho y cuéntame de él.”

31

5

10

15

20

25

disappear

early morning, dis-

tance, memory

eager

would show, path

priest, with an aim to

recently widowed

acuity

refused, offers

he wanted only to be

jewel

is seen

to fix

at odds

embittered and bored

unfortunate

unmarried and hpe-

less; didn’t stop

boyfriend

little child

2

P asé en el colegio unos cinco años, que ahora 'se me pierden° como un sueño de ma-drugada° en la lejanía° del recuerdo,° y a los

quince volví a mi Valverde de Lucerna. Ya toda ella era Don Manuel; Don Manuel con el lago y con la montaña. Llegué ansiosa° de conocerle, de ponerme bajo su protec-ción, de que él me marcara° el sendero° de mi vida. Decíase que había entrado en el Seminario para ha-cerse cura,° 'con el fin de° atender a los hijos de una su hermana 'recién viuda,° de servirles de padre; que en el Seminario se había distinguido por su agudeza° mental y su talento y que había 'rechazado ofertas° de brillante ca-rrera eclesiástica porque él 'no quería ser sino° de su Val-verde de Lucerna, de su aldea perdida como un broche° entre el lago y la montaña que 'se mira° en él. ¡Y cómo quería a los suyos! Su vida era arreglar° matrimonios desavenidos, reducir a sus padres hijos indómitos°o reducir los padres a sus hijos, y sobre todo consolar a los 'amargados y atedia dos° y ayudar a todos a bien morir. Me acuerdo, entre otras cosas, de que al volver de la ciudad la desgraciada° hija de la tía Rabona, que se había perdido y volvió, 'soltera y desahuciada,° trayendo un hi-jito consigo, Don Manuel 'no paró° hasta que hizo que se casase con ella su antiguo novio° Perote y reconociese como suya a la criaturita,° diciéndole: “Mira, da padre a

32 Miguel de Unamuno

5

10

15

20

25

child

fault

support and comfort

infected, recognized

when he wasn’t

used to and still do

come; possessed,

possessed

took on the job

relieve them

very gentle

miracle, achieved

surprising, grew at-

tracted; area

permission

hole, clothing

este pobre crío° que no le tiene más que en el cielo.” “¡Pero, don Manuel, si no es mía la culpa…!”° “¡Quién lo sabe, hijo, quién lo sabe…! Y sobre todo, no se trata de culpa.” Y hoy el pobre Perote, inválido, paralítico, tiene como 'báculo y consuelo° de su vida al hijo aquel que, contagiado° de la santidad de don Manuel, reconoció° por suyo 'no siéndolo.° En la noche de San Juan, la más breve del año,1 'solían y suelen acudir° a nuestro lago todas las pobres mujeru-cas, y no pocos hombrecillos, que se creen poseídos,° en-demoniados,° y que parece no son sino histéricos y a las veces epilépticos, y don Manuel 'emprendió la tarea° de hacer él de lago, de piscina probática2 y tratar de aliviar-les° y si era posible de curarles. Y era tal la acción de su presencia, de sus miradas, y tal sobre todo la dulcí sima° autoridad de sus palabras y sobre todo de su voz—¡qué milagro° de voz!—que consiguió° cu raciones sorpren-dentes.° Con lo que creció su fama, que atraía° a nuestro lago y a él a todos los enfer mos del contorno.° Y alguna vez llegó una madre pidiéndole que hiciese un milagro en su hijo, a lo que contestó sonriendo tristemente: “No tengo licencia° del señor obispo para hacer milagros.” Le preocupaba, sobre todo, que anduviesen to dos limpios. Si alguno llevaba un roto° en su vesti dura,° le

1 La noche de San Juan ( June 24), celebrating the birth of John the Baptist, corresponds closely to the summer solstice of June 21, and the an-cient magical pagan celebrations associated with “midsummer night” are celebrated on the noche de San Juan. For this reason, the healing activi-ties are held on that night.

2 This “probatic pool,” called “Bethesda,” located near the temple in Jerusalem (according to St. Cyril, a.d. 347), was used to cleanse animals that were destined to be sacrificed; but also sick people would congregate at the pool hoping its waters would be curative.

83

Aabad abbot [4]abadía abbey [4]abroquelado contra protected from

[9]abrumado overwhelmed [9]abuelos ancestors [6]acá to here [5]acabado finished [4]acabamiento end [9]acabar por to end up [6], to wind up

[7]acariciar to cherish [2]acaso perhaps [2], by chance [4]acercarse a to approach [3]acertar a to manage to [4]acometer to assault[10]acompañar to accompany [3]acongojadísimo very distressed [4]acongojarse to become distressed [7]aconsejar to advise [6]acordarse to remember [2]

acostumbrase to be accustomed [9]acudir to come [2]acuitarse por to distress [7]acusador fiscal “district attorney”adelantarse to go forward [4]adelante, de ahora en from now on [6]además besides [6]adivinar to guess [6]adorar to adore [1]adquerir to acquire [6]afamado famous [4]afecto fondness [2]aficionarse to become interested [1]afligirse to get upset [8]agasajar to impress [4]agonía pangs of death [3]agonizando dying [9]agonizante dying [5]agrario agricultural [7]agua bendita holy water [6]agudeza keenness [2]ahogarse to be supressed [4]

Spanish-English Glossary

References in brackets are to sections. Conjugated verbs are listed as their infinitives; adjectives are listed as masculine singular.

84 Spanish-English Glossary

ahogo breath [8]ahorrado saved [5]ajeno another person’s [9]alarde, hacer to make a show [5]aldea village [1]aldeana village girl [1]aldeanerías village life [5]aleccionar to lecture [3]alegrar to make happy [4]alegría joy [4]algo somewhat [6]alimentar to feed (as curiosity) [1], to

concern [5]aliviar to relieve [2]alma soul [1]alumbrar to illuminate [10]amargado embittered [2]amargo bitter [9]amparar to protect [10]anacoreta secluded religious person [4]analfabeto illiterate [7]ancla anchor [3]animar to enliven [7]; —se to cheer

up [4]ansioso anxious [2]ante before [2]anudar to tie together [7]añadir to add [5]apacible peaceful [5]aparecer to appear [2]aparente apparent [7]apegarse to grow attached [5]apenas hardly [8], — si hardly [1]

apóstol apostle [10]apoyar to support [10]árbol tree [7]arcángel archangel [10]archimensajero arch-messenger [10]arder en deseos to burn with desire [5]arraigar to settle [1]arrancar to extract [6]arrasado welling-up [5]arreglar to fix [2]arrepentirse to repent [3], to be sorry

[6]arrimar to move closer [6]arrobo rapture [1]arrogarse to assume [6]asentado situated [10]así so [4], thus [3]asiduo devoted [7]asistir to assist [7]asomarse to come to [8]atediado bored [2]atender to take care of [2], to pay atten-

tion [6]; —se a to stick with [1]atento up-to-date [1]atormentar to torture [9]atraer to attract [2]atragantarse to choke [1]atreverse a to dare [2]aun even [4], still [2]aunque even though [5], although [3]ausencia absence [4]ausente absent [3]autoridades authorities [10]

San Manuel Bueno, mártir 85

Ave María Hail Mary [8]aventar to winnow [3]ayudando helping [3]ayudar to help [3]azul blue [4]

Bbáculo support [2]bailar to dance [3]baile dance [3]bajando going down [7]balbuciendo stammering [4]balbuciente stuttering [6]banda company [4]bandolero bandit [8]bañarse to bathe [7]barbotar to mutter [5]basta that’s enough [4]bastarse to be sufficient [10]bendición blessing [8]bendito blessed [8]besar to kiss [1]bienaventurado blessed [6]bienestar welfare [7]blanco white [6]blanquear to grow grey [10]bobo fool [2]boca de jarro, a point blank [4]boda weddding [4]bordar to embroider [4]borrachera drunkenness [4]borrado erased [1]borrar to erase [10]

brazo arm [3]breve, más shortest [2]breviario breviary [8]broche jewel [2]brotar to spring out [2]bueno O.K. [4]buitre vulture [1]

Ccabecera head of bed [7]cabo, al in the end [5]cabrera goatherd [7]cabrillear to glisten [7]cada vez more and more [7]caja box [8]calentarse to get warm [3]calificativo word [5]callado quiet [4]callarse to remain silent [3]calleja street [2]calmarse to become calm [4]calzonazo wimp [5]cama bed [8]cambiar to change [4]camisa shirt [2]campanada tolling of bell [3]campo countryside [6]cantar to crow [6]canto chant [2]capaz able [6]capilla chapel [2]cara a cara face to face [8]caridad charity [7]