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Illustration for The Wild Swans

Spanish · Intermediate

Los cisnes salvajes

Adapted from The Wild Swans

By Hans Christian Andersen

A princess works in silence to free her brothers from an enchantment that turns them into swans.

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Intermediate sample in Spanish

Scene 1

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Illustration for the scene “The wicked stepmother”

Scene 1 · Intermediate

La malvada madrastra

The wicked stepmother

Spanish

Muy lejos, en la tierra adonde vuelan las golondrinas en invierno, vivía un rey con once hijos y una hija llamada Elisa. Los príncipes iban a la escuela con una estrella en el pecho y una espada al costado. Escribían con lápices de diamante sobre pizarras de oro y aprendían con tanta facilidad que cualquiera habría reconocido su origen real.

English translation

Far away, in the land where swallows fly in winter, there lived a king with eleven sons and a daughter named Elisa. The princes went to school with a star on their chests and a sword at their sides. They wrote with diamond pencils on gold slates and learned so easily that anyone would have recognized their royal birth.

Spanish

Elisa se sentaba en un banquito de cristal pulido y miraba un libro de ilustraciones que había costado tanto como medio reino.

English translation

Elisa sat on a stool of polished crystal and looked at a picture book that had cost as much as half a kingdom.

Spanish

Aquellos niños eran felices, pero su dicha no duró. El rey se casó con una mujer malvada que no los quería. Durante los festejos de la boda jugaban a recibir visitas. Normalmente les daban los pasteles y las manzanas que sobraban, pero su nueva madrastra les entregó una taza de té llena de arena.

English translation

Those children were happy, but their joy did not last. The king married a wicked woman who did not love them. During the wedding celebrations, they played at having visitors. Usually, they were given the leftover cakes and apples, but their new stepmother handed them a teacup full of sand.

Spanish

Les dijo que fingieran que era pastel. Desde aquel primer día comprendieron cómo los trataría.

English translation

She told them to pretend it was cake. From that first day, they understood how she would treat them.

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