I. El halcón en el huerto
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A B1 retelling of the 1499 tragicomedy
La Celestina La Celestina
Fernando de Rojas
This is a MovaReader retelling of Fernando de Rojas’s tragicomedy in Spanish, not the original text and not a translation of the full work: it is written for B1 readers who want a dark, fast story in modern Spanish with all the tenses they are learning. In the catalog it is B1: about 12,100 words, 12 words per sentence on average, in 14 chapters. The original is the Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, first printed in Burgos in 1499 and later enlarged to 21 acts. The retelling turns the play into prose and keeps its main line, from a lost falcon in a garden to the last page, and three of its famous lines in their old Spanish.
- B1
- 12 126 words
- 2-3 hours
Will this text hold?
A2
Earlier
At A2 you will follow the plot, but the language will stop you: sentences of 12 words instead of the 9-10 of the A2 shelf, the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive (Si Dios me ofreciera una silla a su lado, no la querría tanto; Ojalá le hubiera dado alguna esperanza), commands with the pronoun attached (llévaselo, disfrútala), and the vocabulary of honour and trickery (honra, alcahueta, hechicera) that A2 stories rarely use.
A2B1
This text
Right for B1: all the tenses you are learning in sentences of 12 words, mostly everyday vocabulary with a few old words (honra, alcahueta), long words that are largely names, and 14 chapters of about 700 to 1,030 words that read one at a time.
Check this passageB2
With room to spare
At B2 this retelling is easy reading for a few evenings. The complete Spanish texts on the B2 shelf come next, such as Unamuno’s Mist, with 13 words per sentence and one long word in fourteen. The late-medieval original of La Celestina is a much harder text and is not on the shelf.
Start readingThe average sentence has 12 words, the same as most of the B1 shelf (Pride and Prejudice has 12, Don Juan Tenorio 11), one or two more than the Spanish A2 adaptations (9-10) and one fewer than Unamuno’s Mist, at B2, with 13. The long words explain why it stays below B2: a word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 23 words (4.3%), against once in 14 in Mist (6.9%), and a good share of them are names such as Celestina and Sempronio. What lifts it above A2 is grammar and vocabulary. The retelling uses the pluperfect (nunca había visto a una mujer tan hermosa), the conditional and the imperfect subjunctive (Si Dios me ofreciera una silla a su lado, no la querría tanto), wishes with ojalá, commands with the pronoun attached (Toma mi cordón y llévaselo), and the vocabulary of honour, trickery and love: honra, alcahueta, hechicera. The difficulty is fairly even: the 14 chapters average 11-14 words per sentence, with the longest sentences in chapters I-III and XIV and the lightest in VIII and X. Hence B1. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 12 126
- words
- 12
- words in an average sentence
- 2-3
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Calisto, a young man who cannot wait for anything, runs after his lost falcon into a garden, sees Melibea, the daughter of the rich Pleberio, and speaks to her as if he were praying. She throws him out. Sick with love, he listens to his servant Sempronio, who knows just the person: Celestina, an old woman with a scar on her face who lives by the river, sells thread and perfume, and has arranged the secret meetings of half the city. With a bag of gold coins in her hand, she wins over Calisto’s other servant, Pármeno, with the promise of a girl named Areúsa, and goes to Pleberio’s house with a skein of thread and a story about a toothache. Melibea first threatens to have her burned, then gives her the cord she wears at her waist to take to Calisto, and Celestina knows very well what comes after a maybe. But the money, the golden chain and the secrets are shared among too many people. Where the love and the greed lead is not revealed here.
Compare two places
La Celestina
IV. Una visita a casa de Pleberio
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Choose an underlined word.
As if he were praying
Habló como si estuviera rezando: como si + imperfect subjunctive, “as if he were praying”, for something he only seems to do. Nunca había visto a una mujer tan hermosa: the pluperfect, “he had never seen”, looks back from the moment he stops still. Me ha dejado verte: dejar + infinitive, “has let me see you”, with te attached to ver. Olvidó el halcón, olvidó la caza: the same verb repeated is how the story builds a list.
Then and now
The old woman contrasts then and now: tuve, the preterite, for what she once had; tengo, the present, for what hurts today. Aunque ahora no lo parezca: aunque + subjunctive, “even if it may not seem so now”. Se entra en ella sin querer: se makes the sentence impersonal, “one enters it”. Mientras tengas juventud, disfrútala: mientras + subjunctive for “while you have”, then a command with the pronoun attached, written with an accent.
Chapters
- IEl halcón en el huerto
- IILa casa junto al río
- IIIHilo con aceite de serpiente
- IVUna visita a casa de Pleberio
- VEl cordón de Melibea
- VILa noche de Pármeno
- VIIUna comida en casa de la vieja
- VIIIEl fuego de Melibea
- IXLa cadena de oro
- XMedianoche en la puerta
- XIMalas noticias y un muro alto
- XIIUna venganza en secreto
- XIIILa escala del huerto
- XIVLa torre de Melibea
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 whole sentences, and here that helps most where a wish folds the grammar back on itself, as in chapter VIII: Ojalá le hubiera dado a Calisto alguna esperanza el día del huerto, en lugar de echarlo como a un perro, which means that Melibea wishes she had been kind to him in the garden instead of throwing him out like a dog.
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
A learner adaptation, not the original and not a translation of the full work: MovaReader retold in modern Spanish prose the Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, known as La Celestina, by Fernando de Rojas, first printed in Burgos in 1499 and later enlarged to 21 acts. The form and the language have changed: the play in dialogue becomes a story of 14 chapters and about 12,100 words, with 12 words per sentence on average, while the late-medieval original is far above B1. The main line remains: Calisto and Melibea in the garden, the go-between Celestina, the servants Sempronio and Pármeno, Areúsa and Elicia, Pleberio and Alisa. Three famous lines are quoted in the old Spanish of the original: “En esto veo, Melibea, la grandeza de Dios”, “Melibeo so e a Melibea adoro e en Melibea creo e a Melibea amo” and “¿Por qué me dexaste triste e solo in hac lachrymarum valle?”. The love scenes are restrained and the long speeches are condensed. The text follows the page on Wikisource.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio version of this adaptation: MovaReader gives you the text, not a recording. The text is read on screen, and tapping an unfamiliar word shows its translation next to it; here that will often be words of honour, trickery and feelings, such as honra, alcahueta or hechicera.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
The Reader plan translates whole sentences. Here they average 12 words, and you will want one translated mostly where the grammar folds back on itself, as in Melibea’s Ojalá le hubiera dado a Calisto alguna esperanza el día del huerto, en lugar de echarlo como a un perro, or in the old line of the original that the retelling keeps, Melibeo so e a Melibea adoro e en Melibea creo e a Melibea amo. The free plan also translates single words, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole adaptation takes 2-3 hours at the pace of someone who still translates new words. A chapter averages about 870 words, or 9-15 minutes of reading, from about 700 words in chapter VII to about 1,030 in chapter XIV, so one evening covers three or four chapters.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is fairly even: the 14 chapters average 11-14 words per sentence. The longest sentences are in chapters I-III and in the last one, XIV (13-14 words), and the lightest in VIII and X (11), where the dialogue is quick. There is no easy stretch to wait for, but no hard wall either.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in: the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so next time you carry on from there. The contents on this page also take you straight to any chapter, say VIII, “El fuego de Melibea”, where Melibea can no longer hide what she feels.