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II. Soledad primera
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A baroque poem in verse for C2
Soledades Soledades
Luis de Góngora, 1921
Luis de Góngora’s poem complete, from Foulché-Delbosc’s 1921 edition with the spelling modernised, not an adaptation: the dedication to the Duke of Béjar, Soledad primera and the unfinished Soledad segunda. In the catalog it is C2: about 11,600 words and 27 words per sentence. A young man, shipwrecked and scorned in love, is cast ashore and taken in by goatherds in the first Soledad and by fishermen in the second.
- C2
- 11 610 words
- 2-3 hours
Will this text hold?
C1
Earlier
At C1 you will know the words around the myths, but the hyperbaton will stop you: the verb often sits many lines from its subject, and Latin-shaped words like ministrar or esotras need a second look.
C1C2
This text
At C2 you can read it with Reader: take a Soledad in short sittings, translate whole sentences where the word order twists, and let the short verse lines, about six words each, set the pace.
Check this passageThe average sentence has 27 words and one word in thirteen has 9 letters or more, numbers that would put a prose book at B2. For verse the catalog also weighs the language itself, and here it decides the level, because this is culteranismo, the hardest Spanish verse of the Golden Age. Góngora bends the word order (hyperbaton), so a verb can arrive ten lines after its subject; he builds Latin-shaped words and constructions (ministrar, fragrante, esotras); and he packs in mythological allusions, from Jupiter and Europa to Ganymede, Aquarius and Phaethon, that you must recognise before a sentence makes sense. The 1921 edition also puts many full stops, so sentences look shorter on the page than the thought that runs on across the lines. Other verse in the catalog, such as Campos de Castilla (17 words per sentence) or Fuenteovejuna, sits at B2 because its syntax is plain; Góngora’s is not. The parts are alike: the dedication averages 22 words per sentence, each Soledad about 27. Hence C2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 11 610
- words
- 27
- words in an average sentence
- 2-3
- hours of reading
- 1921
- Hispanic Society of America
Hispanic Society of America, 1921. Internet Archive
What it is about, without the ending
In the first Soledad a young man, shipwrecked and scorned in love, is cast up on a rocky shore in the spring. Goatherds take him in, give him shelter and food, and he watches a mountain village celebrate a wedding with dances, songs and games. In the second Soledad he crosses to an island of fishermen: an old man with two sons and six daughters welcomes him, and the visit brings fishing, singing across the water and a hunt with falcons. Where the story goes from there is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Soledades
III. Soledad segunda
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Choose an underlined word.
Find the verb behind the myths
The first sentence spends ten lines on the season before its main verb arrives. It is spring: the bull that Jupiter became to carry off Europa, horns like a crescent moon and the Sun’s rays for hair, grazes stars in fields of sapphire. Only then does the real subject appear, the one who could serve Jupiter’s cup better than Ganymede, “el garzón de Ida”, shipwrecked and scorned. His verb is “da al mar”, “gives to the sea”, a few lines later. Look for era, pace and da first, and the myths become decoration.
Put the subject next to its verb
In “De jardín culto así…” the subject is “la imitada peña”, the artificial rock called “urna de Acuario”, and its verb is “le enviste”, “attacks him”, four lines later. Move them together and the simile reads plainly: a garden grotto’s trick fountain soaks an unsuspecting labourer, as the fisherman’s daughters dazzle the guest. Here fontanero is the fountain-maker who turns the llave, the tap, and nubes are the mist and spray he treads on.
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
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In the opening sentence, “Era del año la estación florida”, the verb that carries the story waits several lines behind the myths: translating the whole sentence in Reader shows how the clauses fit together.
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s abridgement: Luis de Góngora’s complete poem, with the dedication to the Duke of Béjar, Soledad primera (1,091 verses) and Soledad segunda (979 verses), which is unfinished. He wrote the Soledades in 1613 and 1614. The reader follows Raymond Foulché-Delbosc’s 1921 edition (Hispanic Society of America, New York), taken from the Internet Archive; the spelling is modernised, the punctuation is the edition’s. The text was recognised from a scan and checked by hand, so a few OCR slips may remain, mostly in missing accents.
Is there an audiobook?
Soledades has no audiobook on MovaReader: the poem is read on screen. The translation appears when you tap a word, and you will need it most for learned or archaic words such as ministrar, querellas or esotras.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Here it helps most where the word order twists, as in the opening sentence, “Era del año la estación florida…”, whose verb comes several lines after the myths. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole poem takes about 2-3 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The two Soledades have about 6,000 and 5,400 words, so each makes an evening, and the dedication is only 37 verses.
Where does the text get easier?
It is even, with no easy stretch to wait for: the dedication averages 22 words per sentence and both Soledades about 27. The best help is to read one Soledad in short sittings, a few dozen verses at a time.
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 you can come back to the poem where you left off. Each of the 3 parts also opens from the contents on this page, for example Soledad primera.