The Storm Prospero Raised

Había una isla out in the sea, and only two people lived on it: un hombre viejo named Prospero, and su hija Miranda, una joven muy hermosa. Había llegado a la isla siendo muy pequeña, and she could not remember ever seeing a human face except her father’s.

Vivían en una cueva cut out of the rock, with several rooms in it. Una de las habitaciones Prospero called su estudio, and there he kept sus libros. Casi todos eran libros de magia, which learned men in those days took very seriously, and what he learned in them turned out to be useful to him.

A strange chance had thrown him onto this island. The place was under un hechizo. Una bruja called Sycorax la había encantado, and había muerto allí a little while before he arrived. Sycorax había encerrado a muchos espíritus buenos inside los troncos de los grandes árboles, because they had refused to carry out sus órdenes malvadas. Con su magia Prospero opened los árboles and let them out, and ever after they were glad to do whatever he asked. El jefe de todos ellos era Ariel.

There was nothing unkind in Ariel, el pequeño espíritu, except for one thing. Disfrutaba atormentando a un monstruo feo called Caliban rather more than he should have. Le tenía rencor, because Caliban was the son of su vieja enemiga Sycorax.

Prospero had found Caliban in el bosque, una criatura extraña y deforme, hardly like a man at all. He took him home to la cueva and le enseñó a hablar, and he would have been very kind to him. But the bad nature Caliban had from su madre Sycorax no le dejaba aprender nada bueno ni útil. Así que Prospero lo puso a trabajar como un esclavo. Caliban carried la madera in from the trees and did los trabajos más duros, and it was Ariel’s task to make him do them.

When Caliban was lazy and left su trabajo undone, Ariel venía por detrás y lo pellizcaba. Nadie podía ver a Ariel, only Prospero. A veces Ariel lo tiraba al barro, and then took the shape of an ape and pulled faces at him. Sometimes he changed again, into un erizo, un animalito cubierto de espinas, and lay rolling about in Caliban’s path. Caliban had no shoes, and he was afraid las espinas would go into sus pies. Con trucos así Ariel would torment him, whenever he neglected the work Prospero had told him to do.

Estos espíritus were his to command. Through them Prospero could order los vientos y las olas del mar. At his word se levantó una tormenta over the water.

En medio de ella he showed a su hija un barco grande y hermoso, fighting las olas salvajes that seemed ready to swallow it at any moment. Estaba lleno de gente viva como ellos, he told her.

“Oh, padre mío,” she said, “si fue tu magia la que levantó esta tormenta, ten piedad de ellos. Look! El barco se hará pedazos. Pobres almas, todos se ahogarán. If I had the power, I would sink the sea under the earth before I let that good ship go down with all those precious lives inside her.”

“No tengas miedo, Miranda,” said Prospero. “No ha pasado nada malo. I arranged it so that not one person on el barco would be hurt. Todo lo que he hecho, lo he hecho por ti, mi niña querida. No sabes quién eres, ni de dónde vienes, and you know nothing about me except that soy tu padre y vivo en esta pobre cueva. ¿Recuerdas algún tiempo antes de venir aquí? I don’t think you remember. You were not yet three years old.”

“Sí que puedo,” said Miranda.

“¿Qué recuerdas?” asked Prospero. “¿Otra casa? ¿Otra persona? Dímelo, niña.”

“Es como recordar un sueño,” said Miranda. “But didn’t I once have cuatro o cinco mujeres que me cuidaban?”

“Sí que las tenías, y más todavía,” Prospero answered. “How does it still live in your mind? ¿Recuerdas cómo llegaste aquí?”

“No, señor,” said Miranda. “No recuerdo nada más.”

“Twelve years ago, Miranda,” her father went on, “yo era el duque of Milan, and you were una princesa, and mi única heredera. Tenía un hermano menor called Antonio, and I trusted him with everything. Me gustaba el silencio y el estudio, so I left the running of the state to tu tío. He turned out to be un hermano falso. Me enterré entre mis libros and gave all my time to improving my own mind, y no me importaba nada más.

“Con mi poder en sus manos, Antonio began to think que él era el duque de verdad. I had given him the chance to make himself popular with my people, y eso despertó una ambición en su mala naturaleza: Antonio quería quitarme mi ducado. He soon managed it, with the help of el rey of Naples, un príncipe poderoso who was mi enemigo.”

“¿Por qué no nos mataron allí mismo?” said Miranda.

“No se atrevieron, mi niña,” her father answered. “Mi gente me quería demasiado. Antonio nos subió a un barco, and when we were a few leagues out at sea nos metió a la fuerza en un bote pequeño, sin cuerda, sin vela y sin mástil. Allí nos dejó, as he thought, to die. But a kind lord of my court, a man called Gonzalo, who loved me, había puesto agua y comida en el bote, and clothes too, and some of mis libros. Those books I value above my dukedom.”

“Oh, father,” said Miranda, “qué problema debí de ser para ti entonces!”

“No, mi amor,” said Prospero. “Eras un angelito, and you were the one who saved me. Tus sonrisas inocentes me daban fuerzas against all my misfortunes. La comida nos duró until we landed on esta isla vacía, and ever since then mi mayor placer has been teaching you, Miranda. Y has aprendido bien.”

“Gracias al cielo, dear father,” said Miranda. “Ahora dime, por favor, por qué levantaste esta tormenta en el mar.”

“Escucha,” said her father. “Por medio de esta tormenta, mis enemigos, el rey of Naples and my cruel brother, have been thrown ashore on this island.”

With that, Prospero touched a su hija gently with su varita mágica, y ella se quedó profundamente dormida. El espíritu Ariel had come to his master at that moment to report on la tempestad, and to say what he had done with everyone aboard el barco. Miranda nunca podía ver a los espíritus, and Prospero did not want her to hear him talking to what would look to her like empty air.

“Bien, mi valiente espíritu,” said Prospero to Ariel, “¿cómo has hecho tu trabajo?”

Ariel described it all, and made it live: la tormenta, el terror de los marineros, and how el hijo del rey, Ferdinand, fue el primero en saltar al agua. His father had watched him go, and believed the waves had swallowed his dear son and lost him.

“Pero él está a salvo,” said Ariel. “Está sentado en un rincón de la isla, with his arms folded, llorando a su padre el rey, whom he is sure is drowned. No le han hecho ni un rasguño, and his princely clothes, soaked as they are in sea water, parecen más frescos que antes.”

“Ese es mi buen Ariel,” said Prospero. “Tráelo aquí. Mi hija tiene que ver a este joven príncipe. ¿Dónde está el rey? ¿Y dónde está mi hermano?”

“Los dejé,” Ariel answered, “buscando a Ferdinand, though they have little hope of finding him. Creen que lo vieron morir. Not one of los marineros is missing, and yet every man believes he is the only one saved. El barco itself is safe in el puerto, though they cannot see it.”

“Ariel,” said Prospero, “has hecho tu trabajo fielmente. Pero todavía queda más trabajo.”

“¿Más trabajo?” said Ariel. “Recuerda, mi amo,” he said to Prospero, “me prometiste mi libertad. Te he servido bien. No te he dicho mentiras, made no mistakes, and never served you with a grudge or a grumble.”

“¿Qué es esto?” said Prospero. “Has olvidado de qué tormento te liberé. Have you forgotten la bruja malvada Sycorax, doblada casi en dos por la edad y la envidia? ¿Dónde nació? Speak. Tell me.”

“In Algiers, sir,” said Ariel.

“¿Ah, sí?” said Prospero. “Entonces tengo que contarte otra vez lo que has sido, since I find you do not remember it. La bruja Sycorax was driven out of Algiers for su magia, demasiado terrible para oídos humanos, and los marineros la dejaron aquí. You were un espíritu too fine to carry out sus órdenes malvadas, así que Sycorax te encerró dentro de un árbol, and that is where I found you, howling. That is the torment I set you free from. Recuérdalo.”

“Perdóname, mi amo,” said Ariel, ashamed to seem ungrateful. “Haré lo que me mandes.”

“Haz eso,” said Prospero, “y te daré tu libertad.” Le dio a Ariel sus órdenes for the rest of el trabajo, and away el espíritu went. Ariel fue primero adonde había dejado a Ferdinand, and found him still sitting on la hierba in the same sad position.

“Oh, mi joven caballero,” said Ariel when he saw him, “pronto te moveré. Parece que tengo que llevarte, so that la señora Miranda can have a look at your handsome self. Ven, señor, sígueme.”

Y empezó a cantar esta canción:

Full fathom five your father lies.

His bones are turned to coral now.

Those are las perlas that were his eyes.

Nothing of him is lost or fades.

The sea only changes him

into something rich and strange.

Las sirenas ring su campana each hour.

¡Escucha! Now I hear them.

Ding-dong, bell.