Don Quixote_ Translation by Edith Grossman (HarperCollins) - Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra [424]
“Señora, I felt that we were flying, like my master said, through the region of fire, and I wanted to uncover my eyes a little, but my master, who I asked for permission to uncover my eyes, did not agree; but since I have some dab of curiosity in me and want to know what people try to stop me and keep me from knowing, very carefully, without anybody seeing me, right at my nose, I pushed aside just a little bit of the handkerchief that was covering my eyes, and I looked down at the earth, and it seemed to me that it was no larger than a mustard seed, and the men walking on it not much bigger than hazel nuts, so you can see how high we must have been flying then.”
To this the duchess said:
“Sancho my friend, think about what you are saying; it seems you did not see the earth but only the men walking on it, for it is clear that if the earth looked to you like a mustard seed and each man like a hazel nut, only one man would have covered the entire earth.”
“That’s true,” responded Sancho, “but even so, I lifted up the blindfold just a little on one side, and I saw all of it.”
“Look, Sancho,” said the duchess, “from just one side you can’t see all of whatever you may be looking at.”
“I don’t know about those lookings,” replied Sancho. “All I know is that it would be nice if your ladyship would understand that since we were flying by enchantment, by enchantment I could see all the earth and all the men no matter how I looked at them; and if you don’t believe me, your grace also won’t believe me when I say that moving the blindfold near my eyebrows, I saw myself so close to the sky that there was less than a span and a half between it and me, and I can swear, Señora, that it’s also very big. And as it happened, we were passing by the seven nanny goats,9 and by God and my immortal soul, since I was a goatherd when I was a boy at home, as soon as I saw them I wanted to spend a little time with them…! And if I couldn’t, I thought I would die. So, quick as you please, what do I do? Without saying anything to anybody, not even my master, very quietly and gently I got down from Clavileño, and I played with the nanny goats, and they’re as sweet as gilly flowers, for almost three-quarters of an hour, and Clavileño didn’t move from the spot or move forward.”
“And while our good Sancho was amusing himself with the goats,” asked the duke, “what was Señor Don Quixote doing?”
To which Don Quixote responded:
“Since all these things and all these occurrences lie outside the natural order, it is no surprise that Sancho says what he says. As for myself, I can say that I did not lift the blindfold at the top or the bottom, nor did I see the sky, the earth, the sea, or the sands. It is certainly true that I felt as if I had passed through the region of air, and even touched the region of fire, but I cannot believe we passed beyond that, for since the region of fire lies between the sphere of the moon and the final region of air, we could not reach the sphere of the seven nanny goats that Sancho has mentioned without being burned; and since we are not burned, either Sancho is lying, or Sancho is dreaming.”
“I’m not lying and I’m not dreaming,” responded Sancho. “And if you don’t believe me, just ask me about what those goats look like, and then you’ll see if I’m telling the truth or not.”
“Tell us, Sancho,” said the duchess.
“Two of them,” responded Sancho, “are green, two are red, two are blue, and one is a mix.”
“That’s a new kind of nanny goat,” said the duke, “and in our region of the ground they don’t have those colors, I mean, goats that are those colors.”
“That’s very clear,” said Sancho. “Yes, that must be the difference between goats in the sky and those on the ground.”
“Tell me, Sancho,” asked the duke. “Up there with all those nanny goats, did you see any males?”10
“No,