VII. La partida y Cruz
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The gaucho epic in prose, adapted for A2
Martín Fierro Martín Fierro
José Hernández
This is a retelling of Martín Fierro in simple Spanish, not the original text: MovaReader wrote this adaptation in prose with dialogue, without the six-line stanzas and the gaucho speech of the 1870s. If you were looking for Martín Fierro in Spanish and the complete B2 poem is still too hard, this is the same story, one you can actually finish at A2, and it covers both parts: El gaucho Martín Fierro (1872) and La vuelta de Martín Fierro (1879). In the catalog it is A2: about 7,800 words, 9 words per sentence on average, 1-2 hours of reading. As in the poem, Fierro sings his own story to the guitar, from service on the frontier to meeting his sons again.
- A2
- 7 823 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses and longer sentences will stop you: Fierro narrates in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (llegué, vivía, me ataron, tenía), at 9 words per sentence on average, against 5-7 in A1 adaptations.
A1A2
This text
Just right for A2: short prose instead of stanzas, the past tenses you know, and every word of the pampa explained by the text as soon as it appears.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it is an easy evening’s read; the natural next step is Hernández’s poem itself at B2 (25 words per sentence, 4.9% long words and gaucho speech) or the B1 shelf, where adaptations run at 11-12 words per sentence.
Start readingThe average sentence has 9 words, a little shorter than in the Spanish A2 adaptations The Song of My Cid and Lazarillo de Tormes (10 each), against 5-7 in A1 adaptations and 11-12 on the B1 shelf. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 37 words (2.7%): less often than in the Cid (3.1%) and a little more often than in Lazarillo (2.2%). The story is told in the first person in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto, with plenty of dialogue in «» quotes and tú in place of the Argentine vos. Words of the pampa (pampa, rancho, pulpería, facón, malón, toldos, chiripá, payada) are kept, but the text explains each one the first time it appears. The original in the catalog is B2: 25 words per sentence, one word in twenty long (4.9%), and above all the gaucho dialect (naides, ansí, dende, juerza) and verse that bends grammar to the rhyme. The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters has 8-10 words per sentence. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 7 823
- words
- 9
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Martín Fierro, a gaucho of the pampa, sits down with his guitar and sings his story. He once had a rancho, a wife, two sons and cattle. Then the justice of the peace rounds him up at a pulpería and sends him to a frontier fort: they promise six months, and it turns into three years without pay, with beatings, Indian raids and a night staked out on the ground. He deserts and finds only ruins at home: his land given to another man, his sons working as hired hands, his wife gone. Fierro becomes an outlaw, fights the rural police, and in that fight sergeant Cruz changes sides to stand with him. Together they cross the frontier to live among the Indians. In the second part Fierro comes back, finds his sons, and each of them sings what he went through without him. How that meeting ends, the book tells.
Compare two places
Martín Fierro
XII. El viejo Vizcacha
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Choose an underlined word.
Me puse, me hice, me quité
The action here runs on verbs with se in the pretérito indefinido: me puse en el suelo (I lay down on the ground), me hice la señal de la cruz (I crossed myself), me quité las espuelas (I took off my spurs). The text explains the words of the pampa itself: a chajá is a bird that cries out when someone comes, a partida is the rural police. Cuanto más triste está uno, más bonitas le parecen reads “the sadder you are, the lovelier they look to you”.
Commands with tú: hazte, no cambies
Old Vizcacha gives his advice in tú commands. The affirmative forms are short: hazte, haz, quédate, ten, aprende. With no, the verb switches to the subjunctive: no cambies, no creas, nunca le lleves la contraria (“never contradict him”). Tener un poste donde rascarse is literally “to have a post to scratch against”, that is, a protector; El diablo sabe por diablo, pero más sabe por viejo means experience counts for more than cunning.
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 helps in chapter XIV, where the Black singer answers a question about the law: La ley se hace para todos, pero solo manda sobre el pobre; translating the whole sentence shows how Spanish sets two halves against each other with pero.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier Martín Fierro Another book by the same author B2 Martín Fierro The complete two-part poem this retelling comes from: B2, about 34,800 words. Its lines are short and only one word in twenty is long, but sentences run across stanzas (25 words) and the gaucho speech needs a gloss every few lines; once you know the story, the verse is easier to follow. B2 Cantar de mio Cid El Cantar de mio Cid Another sung epic poem retold in MovaReader prose at the same A2 level: the medieval Cid, driven from his home by the king, about 5,200 words, 10 words per sentence, 3.1% long words. Shorter and a little denser in vocabulary. A2
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
This is a MovaReader adaptation, not the original text: José Hernández’s poem in both parts, El gaucho Martín Fierro (1872) and La vuelta de Martín Fierro (1879), retold in simple modern Spanish prose with dialogue, without the stanzas or the gaucho spellings (ansí, naides), and with tú in place of vos. As in the poem, Fierro tells it in the first person; the frontier and the stakes, the desertion, Cruz, life among the Indians, the captive woman, the sons, old Vizcacha, Picardía, the singing contest and the advice all remain, along with the lines «Atención pido al silencio...» and «Los hermanos sean unidos...», which the text explains. The descriptions of Indian customs, some of Vizcacha’s and Fierro’s advice and the verses against foreigners are shortened, and the slurs against the Black characters are not repeated. The complete poem is in the catalog as a separate book, at B2.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook of this adaptation in MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word to see its translation, here mostly words like boleadoras, estaca, espuelas or cautiva.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short, 9 words on average, so you will rarely need a whole one translated, except where Fierro looks ahead from the past: Si me quedaba en el fuerte, iba a encontrar allí mi tumba. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About 1-2 hours, reading with translations of new words rather than at a native speaker’s pace. The 14 chapters average about 560 words: the shortest is III, 266 words, the longest XIV, 854, so a chapter takes 3 to 14 minutes.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters averages 8-10 words per sentence. Only the long words vary a little: in chapter XII, about old Vizcacha, one word in 63 is long, and in chapter XIV, with the singing contest, one in 29.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in, the reader remembers your place and the words you opened. Any chapter also opens from the contents on this page, for example IX, where the poem’s second part begins.