1034: I know . . .
Inflating a Dog, the Preface begins
I know what temptations the devil has to offer, one of the greatest of which consists in putting it into a man’s head that he can write a book and have it printed and thereby achieve as much fame as he does money and acquire as much money as he does fame; in confirmation of which I would have you, in your own witty and charming manner, tell him this tale.
There was in Seville a certain madman whose madness assumed one of the drollest forms that ever was seen in this world. Taking a hollow reed sharpened at one end, he would catch a dog in the street or somewhere else; and, holding one of the animal’s legs with his foot and raising the other with his hand, he would fix his reed as best he could in a certain part, after which he would blow the dog up, round as a ball. When he had it in this condition he would give it a couple of slaps on the belly and let it go, remarking to the bystanders, of whom there were always plenty, “Do your Worships think, then, that it is so easy a thing to inflate a dog?”
So you might ask, “Does your Grace think that it is so easy a thing to write a book?”
Miguel de Cervantes
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha,
Part Two, Prologue, “To the Reader”
(translated by Samuel Putnam)
I know what temptations the devil has to offer, one of the greatest of which consists in putting it into a [boy’s] head that he can [help his mother make her dreams come true] and thereby [win the affection of the girl for whom he yearns, or, to put it more accurately if less delicately, win sexual favors from the girl for whom he lusts]; in confirmation of which I would have you, in your own witty and charming manner, tell him this tale.
There was in Seville a certain madman whose madness assumed one of the drollest forms that ever was seen in this world. Taking a hollow reed sharpened at one end, he would catch a dog in the street or somewhere else; and, holding one of the animal’s legs with his foot and raising the other with his hand, he would fix his reed as best he could in a certain part, after which he would blow the dog up, round as a ball. When he had it in this condition he would give it a couple of slaps on the belly and let it go, remarking to the bystanders, of whom there were always plenty, “Do your Worships think, then, that it is so easy a thing to inflate a dog?”
So you might ask, “Does your Grace think that it is so easy a thing to [make a mother’s dreams come true]?”
Miguel de Cervantes
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha,
Part Two, Prologue, “To the Reader”
(translated by Samuel Putnam, adapted by Peter Leroy)
[to be continued]
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