We read in the ‘Poema del mio Cid’, on this road to Burgos: «There they think of prodding, there they release the[riendas. A la exida de Vivar, ovieron al corneja[diestra, e entrando a Burgos oviéronla siniestra. Meció mio Cid los hombros y engrameó la [tiesta.» ¡Ay, la hermosa palabra ‘engramear’, que significaba sacudir o mover, la hemos perdido ya!; pero de ponerla en movimiento, puede ser el primer eslabón de una sutil cadena que nos lleve a inusitados parajes lingüísticos, desde la región que atañe a los animales hasta a la de los vegetales, y la del hombre. Si nos atenemos a estos cuatro versos —y me pregunto: ¿no habrá preparado el Cid [‘trough the looking glass’] the way for the character of ‘Don Quixote’ ?—, we are left with ‘goad’, whose meaning moves easily in times past: to encourage oxen, mules or horses, or goad, prick, sting, herd, urge, spur, press , push. They are hurtful words, although in the face of man they appease: quicken the step, stimulate… The Cid undoubtedly shook his head, but he must also have turned his heel against the horse’s flanks to sting it, that is, to quicken it with the spur. That is, it would “chop” it, and the chain of words links that “chopping” and injects facets into the mind – like pricking, puncturing, piercing -, which pull a “cut” or divide it into small pieces, crush it, hit it with a beak. , pickaxe or other suitable instrument, such as to carve stones, or plaster walls. Alas, the beautiful word ‘grammar’, which meant to shake or move, we have already lost! Now, Let’s put it next to an animal and it will go to catch it, bite it or wound it with its mouth or stinger (if it is a bird), or take it with its beak (if it is a fish), that is, take the hook. What if our hero thought about the attack and, hungry, the word ‘pella’ struck him, which refers to the white heads or lumps of a cauliflower, and at the same time to that kind of compound ball, which in ancient artillery was thrown to attack? fire? What is undoubtable is that Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar was riding a horse, a male, a voice that collides with “male” and does not stop there, but leads to male, stallion, and at the same time means a pillar of a factory, a column, a Romanesque column. What would the Cid say, if we suddenly united the meaning of his horse, male, with ‘romanesque’, whose etymology, apparently, derives from the French ‘romanesque’, and refers to something “that has the character of romance, and in Italian , since the 16th century, has been translated as romanesco”, which, according to the dictionary of the Spanish language, would correctly mean “characteristic of the novel of pure invention”? Perhaps, seriously, sword raised, he would simply cross himself.
#Cid #sword #raised #high
