TRANSLATED POEM: VERANO, UVAS, RÍO BY JORGE GAITÁN DURÁN

Verano, uvas, río

Jorge Gaitán Durán

El tiempo pasa por el río

Tan dulcemente como fluye

El agua. Lleva al nadador

Adolescente, enjuto, rojo

Que bajo el sol de los venados

Come uvas. Las más doradas

Avispas del día lo aturden

Con zumbidos, destellos, brisas

Rápidas. Cuando siente un aire

De luna, aléjase silbando

Por la orilla.

Se reconoce

El extranjero en ese instante

De demorada luz y fresca

Sombra y vaho entre las frutas.

Mas ya nada es suyo. Verano,

Uvas, río, todo concluye

Con la noche que envuelve y borra

La juvenil cabeza rubia.

Por la ciudad natal en fiesta

Desconocido cruza el hombre. 

Summer, grapes, river

Time crosses through the river

So sweetly as water

Flows. It carries the teenage,

Scrawny, red swimmer

Who eats grapes under the

Sun of the deer. The most golden

Wasps of the day stun him

With buzzes, flashes, fast

Breezes. When a moon

Air is felt, he moves away

Whistling by the edge.

The foreigner

Is identified in that right instant

Of delayed light and fresh

Shadow and the mist among fruits.

But nothing is his anymore. Summer,

Grapes, river, everything concludes

With the night which surrounds and deletes

His youthful blond head.

Through his birth city on parade

A man walks beyond recognition.

CHILDISH BOOK: THE SNOWMAN BY RAYMOND BRIGGS

Raymond Briggs was born on 18 January 1934. He is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children. He is best known in Britain for his story The Snowman, a book without words whose cartoon adaptation is televised and whose musical adaptation is staged every Christmas.
Briggs won the 1966 and 1973 Kate Greenaway Medals from the British Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject.

FAIRY TALE PERFORMING: THE WORN-OUT SHOES - KINDER UND HAUSMARCHEN ANTHOLOGY BY BROTHERS GRIMM

DRAMA PLAY: A CHRISTMAS CAROL BY CHARLES DICKENS

FAIRY TALE: THE GIRL AND THE DEAD MAN

Fairy Tale: The Girl and the Dead Man

John Francis Campbell (Popular Tales of the West Highlands)

A poor woman's oldest daughter said she would go seek her fortune. The mother offered her a big bannock with her curse or a little one with her blessing. She took the big one, and when she ate and birds begged for some, she refused it. She found a place at a house, where it was the body of the housewife’s brother watched over by night and which was under spells, but she quickly fell asleep the first night and the mistress hardly hit her that she died.

The second sister endeavoured (tried) the same way and came to the same end.

The youngest also tried, but asked for the little one with her blessing, and shared it with the birds. She got the same place as her sisters, but stayed awake. In the night, the body propped itself up on its elbow and grinned; she threatened to beat it. It propped itself up twice more, and the third time, she hit it with a stick. The stick stuck to the body, and to her hand, and she had to follow it into the woods, where the nuts and sloes hit her as they went, but they got out of the woods and back to the house. They gave her a peck of gold and a peck of silver, and a cordial, which she used to bring her sisters back to life.

Vladimir Propp’s Functions

1. Absentation: The daughters leave home.

6. Trickery: The use of the bannocks.

8. Villainy: The mother and the housewife.

9. Mediation: The discovery of the trick.

10. Beginning counter-action: The youngest daughter seeks to change fate.

12. First function of the donor: The nuts and sloes.

13. Hero’s reaction: Trying to do everything differently.

14. Receipt of a magical agent: The cordial.

16. Struggle: The fight against the body.

19. Liquidation: The misfortune is resolved.

20. Return: Return to the normal life and subsequently to the house.

 John Francis Campbell
John Francis Campbell, also known as Young John of Islay, was a renowned Scottish author and scholar who specialised in Celtic studies. Campbell was known as an authority on Celtic folklore and of the Gaelic peoples in particular.

His most well-known published works are the bilingual Popular Tales of the West Highlands and The Celtic Dragon Myth, published posthumously in 1911. 

HAMLET

Hamlet Summary

By William Shakespeare

Hamlet dramatizes Prince Hamlet's gradual descent into madness. Early in the play, the Ghost appears to Hamlet and informs him that Hamlet's father, the King of Denmark, was murdered by Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. Hamlet isn't sure that he believes the Ghost and sets about uncovering the truth.

• Hamlet makes himself appear crazy to deflect suspicion. He later rejects his sweetheart Ophelia and convinces players to enact the scene of the murder in front of Claudius, who reacts suspiciously.
  
• Hamlet’s attempt to kill Claudius results in the death of Ophelia’s father Polonius. Claudius sends Hamlet to England, expecting him to be killed upon arrival, but Hamlet cleverly escapes and stumbles upon Ophelia’s funeral.
  
• Claudius arranges a duel between Hamlet and Ophelia’s angry brother Laertes. Gertrude drinks from a poisoned goblet that was intended for Hamlet, and Laertes and Hamlet each deal poisoned blows to the other. In the end, Hamlet kills Claudius, avenging his father.

Further summary