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II. Las ratas
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A Browning poem retold for A1
The Pied Piper of Hamelin El flautista de Hamelín
Robert Browning
This is a retelling of Robert Browning’s poem in simple Spanish, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who are just starting to read in Spanish. The poem first appeared in Dramatic Lyrics in 1842, and the retelling follows the text of the 1888 edition illustrated by Kate Greenaway. In the catalog it is A1: about 3,500 words told in the present tense, with sentences of 6 words on average. 8 short chapters about a town overrun by rats, a greedy Mayor and a stranger in a red and yellow coat who offers to help for a thousand guilders.
- A1
- 3 477 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
This text
You can manage it at A1: sentences are short, the story stays in the present tense, and words like florines or bigotes translate with a tap.
Check this passageA2
With room to spare
At A2 the story reads almost without translation: good for building speed before longer texts in Spanish.
Start readingThe average sentence has 6 words: the story moves in short present-tense statements, and much of it is the characters’ lines in quotation marks. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 50 words, and 26 of those 71 long words are flautista, the piper himself. The difficulty is even: each of the 8 chapters has 6-7 words per sentence. The Spanish A2 retellings in the catalog, such as Hansel y Gretel, have 9 words per sentence or more, and full texts in Spanish start at B2: Unamuno’s Mist has 13. Hence A1. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 3 477
- words
- 6
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Hamelin is a pretty town on the river Weser until the rats arrive: they fight the dogs, eat the cheese and the soup, build nests in the men’s Sunday hats and squeak so loudly that no one can hear a word. The angry townspeople march into the town hall and threaten to throw out the fat Mayor and his council. Just as the Mayor wishes for a trap, a tall, thin stranger in a long coat of red and yellow knocks at the door. He says his pipe can draw any creature after him, and he asks for a thousand guilders to free the town of its rats. What happens once the music starts is not revealed here.
Compare two places
El flautista de Hamelín
IV. El hombre de rojo y amarillo
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Choose an underlined word.
Hay and the plural -n
Hay means “there is” and “there are” and never changes: hay una rata, hay más ratas que gatos. The verbs end in -an or -en because the subject, las ratas, is plural: pelean, matan, comen, beben, muerden, where morder changes o to ue. Lo comen todo: “they eat it all”, with lo standing for el pescado. Con la cola entre las patas: “with its tail between its legs”, as in English.
Ser, tener and llevar in a portrait
Three verbs build the description. Es alto y delgado: ser says what someone is like. Tiene los ojos azules: tener gives features, literally “he has the eyes blue”, with an article where English has none. Lleva un abrigo largo: llevar is for what someone wears. Adjectives follow the noun and agree with it: la mitad del abrigo es amarilla, because mitad is feminine. Con la boca abierta: “open-mouthed”.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader translates the whole sentence where simple words add up to an unfamiliar phrase, as in Ya no puede más, “they can’t take any more”.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
An adaptation, not the original text. It is MovaReader’s own retelling in simple Spanish of Robert Browning’s poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin, first published in Dramatic Lyrics in 1842 and based on an old German legend. The form and language have changed: Browning’s rhymed verse has become prose in the present tense, with 6 words per sentence on average and many short conversations, about 3,500 words in 8 chapters. The episodes of the poem remain: the rats and the furious townspeople, the Mayor and his council, the stranger in red and yellow with his pipe, the bargain of a thousand guilders and the one rat who lives to tell his own story. A few of Browning’s asides, such as the Mayor’s list of wines, are left out. The full text of the poem is not in the catalog; there is a separate A1 retelling of it in English.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version of this tale on MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears: here that will mostly be words such as florines (guilders) or bigotes (whiskers).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. With 6 words per sentence on average you will seldom need it here: mostly for lines like Ya no puede más or ¡Toca tu flauta hasta reventar!, where every word is simple but the phrase is not. Without the plan you can translate single words until the daily limit runs out.
How many hours does it take?
About an hour for the whole story, at the pace of a reader who still looks up new words rather than a native speaker’s. The 8 chapters run from about 300 to 600 words, so each one fits into a short sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even from start to finish: each of the 8 chapters averages 6-7 words per sentence. The opening chapter, which describes the town, runs slightly longer at about 7; chapters built mostly on dialogue, such as III with the angry townspeople, are closer to 6.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. After you sign in, the reader remembers where you stopped and which words you opened. The contents on this page also open any of the 8 chapters directly, for example chapter IV, “El hombre de rojo y amarillo”.