The Feast and the Orchard

Las dos familias más importantes de Verona were the Capulets and the Montagues, y las dos eran ricas. Entre ellas había una vieja pelea. It had grown so bitter, and el odio ran so deep, that it reached los primos más lejanos on either side, and los criados and followers as well. Un criado of the Montagues could not pass un criado of the Capulets en la calle without hard words, and no Capulet could meet a Montague by accident without the same. A veces terminaba en sangre. Las peleas broke out from these chance meetings una y otra vez, and rompían la paz of Verona’s streets.

El viejo lord Capulet dio una gran cena, and he invited muchas damas and many great invitados. Todas las bellezas of Verona were there, y cualquiera era bienvenido who was not a Montague.

Rosaline estaba en la cena. Romeo, el hijo del viejo lord Montague, was in love with her. Era peligroso para un Montague dejarse ver en esa casa, but Benvolio, Romeo's friend, talked him into going con una máscara. Así él podría ver a su Rosaline. And once he was there, Benvolio said, he could set her beside las mejores bellezas de Verona, who would make him think su cisne was only a crow. Romeo did not believe a word of it. Aun así, por el amor de Rosaline, se dejó convencer.

Romeo amaba de verdad, y amaba fuerte. Perdía el sueño por ello. He kept away from company para estar solo y pensar en Rosaline, who looked down on him and never gave su amor back, not with the smallest sign of kindness or courtesy. Benvolio quería curar a su amigo by putting otras damas y otra compañía in front of him.

So el joven Romeo went to the Capulets’ fiesta con una máscara, with Benvolio and su amigo Mercutio. El viejo Capulet welcomed them in. Cualquier dama whose toes were not troubled by corns, he told them, estaba lista para el baile de esta noche. El viejo estaba muy contento. He had worn una máscara himself when he was young, he said, and he had known how to whisper un cuento into a pretty lady’s ear.

Empezó el baile, and Romeo was struck all at once by la belleza of una dama dancing there. Le pareció que ella enseñaba a las antorchas a arder. Su belleza brillaba contra la noche como una joya, bright against dark skin. Demasiado bella para este mundo. Beauty too rich to use, too precious for the earth. Ella era una paloma blanca entre cuervos, he said, and su belleza shone that far above las damas around her.

Tybalt overheard him saying it. Tybalt was el sobrino of lord Capulet, and he knew la voz for Romeo’s. Su carácter era ardiente y violento, and he could not stand it: a Montague, hidden behind una máscara, coming here to sneer and jeer at su fiesta.

Tybalt se puso furioso, and he would have struck el joven Romeo dead on the spot. But su tío, el viejo lord Capulet, would not let him harm el muchacho just then. Había invitados en la casa. And Romeo had behaved like un caballero, y toda la ciudad called him a decent and well-mannered joven. Tybalt had to be patient against his will, y se contuvo. But he swore that this vile Montague pagaría caro for the insult otro día.

Cuando terminó el baile, Romeo watched el lugar donde estaba la dama. Su máscara excused a little boldness, and so, in the gentlest way he could, he dared to take her by la mano. Llamó santuario a su mano. If he had spoiled it by touching it, he said, then he was un peregrino with a blush on his face, and he would kiss it to make amends.

“Buen peregrino,” contestó la dama, “tu devoción es demasiado fina y demasiado cortés. Los santos tienen manos, y los peregrinos pueden tocarlas. Pero no las besan.”

“¿No tienen labios los santos?” said Romeo. “¿Y los peregrinos?”

“Sí,” dijo la dama, “labios que deben usar para rezar.”

“Entonces escucha mi oración, mi santa,” said Romeo, “y dámela, o me muero de pena.”

They were still busy with these turns and lovers’ riddles when la dama was called away to su madre.

Romeo preguntó quién era su madre, and so he found out. La dama whose beauty had no match in that room was young Juliet, the daughter and heir of lord Capulet, the great enemy of the Montagues. Romeo le había dado su corazón a su propio enemigo without knowing it. Esto lo preocupó, but it could not talk him out of loving her.

Juliet tenía tan poca paz como él. She learned that the gentleman she had been talking with was Romeo, and a Montague, porque la misma pasión, rápida y loca, la había golpeado a ella también. Le pareció un nacimiento extraño y monstruoso, este amor: that she had to love her enemy, and that her heart had settled in the one place where her family gave her every reason to hate.

A medianoche Romeo se fue con sus amigos. Lo perdieron casi enseguida. He could not keep away from la casa where he had left su corazón, so he climbed el muro de un huerto at the back of Juliet’s house.

He had not been there long, turning his new amor over in his mind, cuando Juliet apareció en una ventana encima de él. Su belleza seemed to break through it como la luz del sol in the east. La luna was shining faintly over el huerto, and to Romeo it looked sick and pale with grief at the brighter light of this new sol. She leaned su mejilla on su mano, and he wished with all his heart that he were un guante on that hand, so that he could touch su mejilla.

Todo este tiempo ella se creía sola. Soltó un suspiro hondo y dijo: “¡Ay de mí!”

Romeo se quedó encantado solo de oírla hablar. Softly, and too low for her to hear him, he said, “Habla otra vez, ángel brillante. Eso pareces ahí arriba, encima de mi cabeza: un mensajero del cielo, y los mortales caemos hacia atrás para mirarte.”

She had no idea that she was overheard. She was full of the new amor that la noche had given her, and she called her lover por su nombre, believing him miles away. “¡Romeo, Romeo!” she said. “Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deja a tu padre, deja tu nombre, por mí. O si no quieres, júrame solo que me quieres, y yo dejaré de ser una Capulet.”

Romeo would gladly have spoken then, pero quería oír más. So la dama went on with su discurso apasionado to herself, as she thought it was, todavía riñendo a Romeo por ser Romeo y un Montague, still wishing him otro nombre, still wishing he would throw that hated nombre away. Por un nombre, que no era parte de él, he could have the whole of her.

Con esa palabra de amor Romeo could hold back no longer. Retomó la conversación as if she had been speaking to him and not to la noche, y le dijo que lo llamara Amor, or cualquier otro nombre she liked, because he was Romeo no longer if that nombre displeased her.

Juliet se asustó al oír la voz de un hombre en el jardín. Al principio she did not know who it was who had stumbled on su secreto under cover of la noche. Pero cuando él habló otra vez, ella lo supo. Her ears had not yet taken in cien palabras in that voz, and still el oído de un enamorado is fine enough for that: era el joven Romeo. And she scolded him for el peligro he had put himself in al saltar los muros del huerto. If any of her family found him there, being a Montague, it would be his death.

“Ay,” said Romeo, “hay más peligro en tus ojos que en veinte de sus espadas. Mírame con cariño, señora, y ese odio no puede tocarme. Prefiero que mi vida acabe por su odio, y no arrastrar esta vida odiada sin tu amor.”

“¿Cómo llegaste a este lugar?” said Juliet, “¿y quién te enseñó el camino?”

“Me lo enseñó el amor,” Romeo answered. “No soy marinero. But if you were as far from me as that last shore washed by el mar más lejano, I would put out to sea for such a cargo.”

A Juliet se le puso la cara roja, though Romeo could not see it in the dark, when she thought again about what she had let slip. Ella nunca había querido decirle que lo quería.

Ella habría retirado sus palabras con gusto, but that was impossible. Con gusto she would have stood on ceremony and kept her lover at arm’s length, como hacen las damas de Verona. Fruncen el ceño, se ponen difíciles, they tell their suitors que no flatly at first. They hold off and put on una frialdad exactly where they love most, so that their lovers will not think su amor cheaply or easily won. Cuanto más cuesta una cosa, más vale.

But su caso left no room for refusals, or delays, or any of the usual arts of putting a man off and stretching out un largo cortejo. Romeo had heard the confession of su amor from su propia boca, at a moment when she never dreamed que él estaba cerca.