Fausto
Fausto (the full title is: Fausto. Impresiones del gaucho Anastasio el Pollo en la representación de esta ópera or in German roughly: Faust. Impressions of the gaucho Anastasio el Pollo (Anastasio the chicken or chick) at the performance of this opera ) is a narration by Estanislao del Campo in 1,278 verses and is considered the main work of the author. The first version of Fausto was published in the Correo del Domingo newspaper in 1866 , and in the La Tribuna newspaper three days later . An expanded version was published as a brochure at the end of the year. The third and last version published during del Campo's lifetime is contained in the anthology Poesías (1870).
shape
The first 200 verses of Fausto consist of decimals with the rhyme scheme[abbaaccddc]. The remaining 1,072 verses consist of quatrains with the rhyme scheme[abba]. Verses 1.101-1.104 with the rhyme scheme are an exception[abad]. The last stanza is a six-liner with the rhyme scheme[abbccb]which, together with the preceding stanza , would result in a decimal with the same rhyme scheme of the first stanzas of Fausto .
content
Fausto is divided into six sections marked with Roman numerals . The title of the story refers to a performance of the opera Faust by Charles Gounod , which took place on the night of August 24, 1866 in the Teatro Colón . The story makes fun of the gauchos and their ignorance, which one of them is supposed to express through the naive description of the opera performance.
I (verses 1-200)
A gaucho, called Laguna, sets off from Bragado (in the province of Buenos Aires). First, the skills of Laguna, the quality of his horse Záfiro and the splendor of the horse harness (adorned with silver) are praised. The description culminates with the mocking remark that Laguna carries half of Potosí with her. At a river, probably the Río Salado, he runs into his old friend Pollo by chance. Since both have not seen each other for a long time and are very close friends, they hug and shed tears. The horses of the two also seem to like each other. Pollo tells Laguna to roll them cigars while he tether the horses. Laguna believes that it is unnecessary to tie your horse, as it is so faithful that it always stands in place, no matter where and for how long you leave it. When Pollo Laguna asks what he's doing in the area, Laguna replies that he has been in town. He had tried to collect debts from an immigrant, but the latter claimed that he was currently insolvent and therefore asked for a delay. Laguna almost whipped him in anger. Both complain about the economic hardship suffered by the population due to the Paraguay War (1864-1870). Pollo rebukes Laguna for his complaint in view of his silver harness, as it is not justified in his case. Laguna replies to Pollo that the silver harness is in no way an indication of wealth. He only won the harness in a card game. The person who had to give him the harness accused him of witchcraft or expressed the suspicion that he had made a pact with the devil and therefore won a card game. The mention of the devil is in turn the occasion for a description of Pollo, who claims to have seen the devil himself. After a short break, Pollo asks Laguna to couple his horse with the other and then to sit down, as his description will be long.
II (verse 201-428)
Pollo begins his description. Everything he describes is rendered using the terms of a gaucho. Four days earlier, one evening in Buenos Aires, he had seen several carriages stop in front of the Teatro Colón. The people would have looked like cattle in front of the counter, i.e. H. pushed to the ticket office. After being able to buy his ticket, he saw an elderly woman faint and wondered why so many sheep were locked in such a small stable. On top of that, the dagger was stolen from him in the crowd. Laguna notes that the thief must have been an immigrant. Pollo continues with his description. He took his place with the people who belong to the lowest class. As soon as he sat down, the orchestra began to play. Finally a linen cloth was pushed aside and a doctor appeared, a certain Faust. Laguna notes that the doctor mentioned could certainly be Fausto Aguilar, a famous Uruguayan military man at the time. Pollo rules out this possibility because Fausto Aguilar has since died. After a short break from juniper schnapps, Pollo continues his description. The doctor complained that the sciences he had studied had brought him nothing and that he loved a blonde, but she did not love him. In desperation, the doctor had therefore expressed his intention to poison himself. In a subsequent tantrum, he conjured the devil. This frightened Pollo very much, because the devil actually appeared. After a brief description of the devil, Pollo continues the description of the plot. The devil offered the doctor his services. At first the doctor had refused the services of the devil, but finally the devil had succeeded in persuading the doctor. The devil had offered the doctor first money, then rule over his country, but the doctor kept refusing. Instead, he asked the devil for the heart of his beloved. The devil then stamped one foot on the ground. The wall had collapsed and the doctor's beloved appeared behind the wall. Laguna can't believe the story, but Pollo assures that half the city was in the theater and witnessed this event. This time there is a brief description of the doctor's adored ones. Pollo compares Margaret with the Blessed Virgin. In his opinion, she is a woman of angelic beauty. The doctor wanted to take possession of his beloved, but the devil held him back and first asked him to make a pact with him. The pact consists in the doctor prescribing his soul and the devil doing everything in return that the doctor demands of him. The doctor agreed and signed the pact. Laguna cannot believe that someone with a PhD could have been carried away by such stupidity. Pollo points out that the doctor was no longer the youngest and was already a bit senile. After the pact was signed, the doctor asked the devil to rejuvenate him. Pollo compares the rejuvenation of the doctor in front of the amazed Laguna with the metamorphosis of a caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly. Likewise, the doctor has turned into a good-looking young man. Finally, the devil had ordered the doctor's beloved to go away and, by magic, have the wall put up again before the curtain fell.
III (verse 429-600)
First, Laguna and Pollo talk about horses, about the beauty of the sunrise on the Atlantic, about high tide and ebb and the other natural spectacles that the sea and its flora and fauna offer. When Laguna Pollo points out that they have strayed from the topic, the latter continues his description: A pub had appeared behind the lifting screen. There were a group of people in the pub, including a certain Don Valentín, a captain who is about to go to the Paraguay war. This Valentín was also the brother of the doctor's beloved and had talked about her with another person, Don Silverio, who had intended to marry her. When Valentin toasted with those present, the devil appeared and asked the company to be allowed to sit with her. The devil ordered absinthe when the absinthe was served and added it to the water. Then a flame rose from the devil's glass. Those present shrank back in shock, but the devil had drunk the glass as if nothing was there. In order not to be considered a coward, Valentín approached the devil and shook his hand. The devil then read his hand and prophesied that he would not live long. Outraged by this prophecy, Valentín drew his saber, but the devil was not unarmed either. With his saber the devil carved a furrow in the ground from which a flame rose and when the saber of the devil and Valentín touched, the saber was Valentín at the point where it was touched by the devil's saber, broken. Valentín then understood that he was dealing with the devil and showed him the cross shape of his saber hilt. The devil fell to the ground on it and wound himself like a snake. The other people present would have taken the opportunity and fled the restaurant. At that moment, Faust entered the bar and again asked the devil for his beloved. The devil, who has since recovered, made them appear again. Fausto asked her to dance, but his beloved refused to dance with him. When he complained to the devil about the behavior of his loved one, he tried to calm him down. If he could not persuade her to dance, there would be another way of making her compliant or inclined. He promised Fausto that he would enjoy her love the next day. Shortly afterwards the curtain fell again.
IV (verse 601-908)
The description is interrupted by taking a few sips of juniper schnapps. Pollo suggests accompanying the gin with a slice of sausage or guava bread . Laguna, however, indicates that he is sober. That morning he wanted to go shopping in an immigrant's inn. Pollo suggests making up for it, but Laguna insists that Pollo continue his description. Pollo complies with Laguna's request: When the linen cloth was lifted again, a splendid country house appeared behind it. In contrast, the country house José Gregorio Lezamas, whose garden is now Parque Lezama in Buenos Aires, is a poor pigsty. The doctor's beloved lived in the house in question. A discussion about love follows, especially since Fausto's love for his beloved was unhappy. Laguna claims he never lets fall miserably in love. He compares his relationship with women to a sieve. If a woman doesn't want to be like him, he'll let her fall through the sieve. Pollo replies that Laguna has probably never been in love. Once you are in love, you cannot escape being in love in any way; you are constantly fixated on your loved one. This is followed by a description of the state of being in love, which is interrupted by Laguna's request that the description please continue. Don Silverio had suddenly appeared in the country house. The doctor and the devil followed him. With a ribbon and the flowers from the garden bed, Silverio made a bouquet and placed it in front of the door of the doctor's adored. Laguna is upset about Silverio's insolence and cowardice. When Silverio removed it, the devil put a box next to the bouquet. Shortly afterwards, the doctor's beloved mended socks on the garden terrace. Only when she subsequently trimmed a rose bush did she notice the box and the bouquet. She ignored the bouquet and opened the box filled with jewelry. The doctor's beloved was hung with the jewelry more silver than the moon. An old woman who had taken care of the doctor's lover appeared and asked her where she got all the jewelry from. Then the devil made himself noticeable. Fausto and the devil had been invited into the house by the two women. The devil had taken care of the old woman so that the doctor could be alone with his beloved. At first, the doctor's beloved resisted being alone with him, but calmed down again when the doctor claimed to her that he had given her the box. Since the doctor wanted to get to the point quickly, she held him off with excuses, finally fled to her house and spent the whole night at the window. The following is a description of the dawn, which, according to Pollo, is said to have been of indescribable beauty. The devil, who had returned without the old woman, had rebuked the doctor for allowing his beloved to lock her house in. The devil then showed the doctor a barred window through which the doctor could enter the house. The doctor took this opportunity and then grabbed his beloved by the hips. She returned his hug and the curtain fell again.
V (verse 909-1124)
When the curtain rose again, the doctor's beloved had spun yarn. She cried so miserably that Pollo cried too. Since Laguna was ashamed of the tears of Pollo, Pollo replied with a dissolute answer: If Laguna were insulted by someone, he would draw a dagger and stab the man safely and if the gendarmerie were to look for him, he would flee seize. If this were the case, nobody would turn their back on him, but would find a friendly welcome everywhere and he would reward them with work. When the matter grew, he would return to his hometown. The longer he would be away from his homeland, the more warm the welcome he would find there. Furthermore, if he were to betray a woman in his homeland, he would subsequently expose her to ridicule all over the place. It would be twice as bad for the betrayed if she had no brother to avenge her. She would then be unable to help but complain about her suffering and wet the hair of the child with whom he had left her with her tears. This is roughly the situation in which the doctor's beloved found herself. Even a die-hard gaucho would get wet eyes at the sight of such a scene. Laguna gives in after Pollo's speech and can't hold back the tears herself. Pollo continues his description: The doctor's beloved then put a shawl around her neck to go to church. The devil then had a church built in no time. This is followed by a long description of the Doctor's adored woman praying in the church, looking at a martyr. The devil appeared in the church and chased her home. The devil and the doctor had appeared at her home. The devil played the guitar. The scenery of the sunset is described. The doctor's beloved was in tears and pleaded with God for help. The doctor asked the devil to play the guitar and started singing himself. Suddenly, however, Valentín, who had a job to do in town, appeared. After seeing the doctor and the devil, he drew the saber and cut the devil's guitar strings. The doctor and the devil, in turn, would have drawn their stabbing weapons. The latter finally struck down Valentín. A crowd gathered around them at the noise. However, both the devil and the doctor escaped. When the doctor's beloved saw her brother lying lifeless and covered in blood on the floor, she raised her eyes pleadingly to heaven. With this scene the curtain fell.
VI (verses 1125-1278)
Because of the hard lot the doctor adored, Pollo compares her to a flower of immeasurable beauty, which, however, knows nothing of its impermanence and vulnerability. And just as the flower did not notice during the day that the glow of the sunlight and the gnawing worm had destroyed it during the day, and was surprised by death in the evening, the doctor's beloved did not suspect that she was such cruel fate will overtake. But, said Pollo, things should get worse because she was still awaiting prison. When the curtain rose again, she appeared behind prison bars. The reason for her arrest is that she killed her child out of desperation. The drum rolls intended for those condemned to death were heard from her cell. Even in prison the devil and the doctor would have visited them. But the doctor's beloved has since gone mad and seen a kind of paradise made of flowers in prison and sang about her past loved ones. In the drum, the drum of which announced her execution, she saw a box with diamonds. Finally she looked the devil in the eye and fell dead. Don Fausto was inconsolable about her death. Suddenly the walls of the prison opened and the doctor's beloved appeared to him and ascended into heaven. The Archangel Michael picked them up. At the sight of the archangel, the devil disappeared like an armadillo in the ground. Thereupon the curtain fell again and thus the description was over. Laguna admires Pollo's courage and bravery in the face of witchcraft. Pollo admits that he had a headache for several days after the performance. At the end Pollo takes one last sip from the liquor bottle, both harness their horses and ride away together. They have dinner in a pub. When they had finished eating, Laguna had asked for the landlord's debt to be paid off to Pollo.
Further information
- The name Anastasio el Pollo (Anastasio the chicken or chick) is an allusion to Anastasio el Chileno, who occurs in some poems ( Isidora la federala y mazorquera ) Hilario Ascasubis and to Aniceto el Gallo (Aniceto the rooster), a pseudonym Hilario Ascasubis .
- The description of Gounod's fist in the terms of a gaucho is reminiscent of the description of the ship and the crossing, which is also made in the terms of a gaucho in Hilario Ascasubi's La Encuhetada (1848).
- Pollo's visit to the Teatro Colón was inspired by Ramón Contrera's visit to the theater for the May festivities in Buenos Aires in Bartolomé Hidalgos Relación (1822).
literature
Text output
Estanislao del Campo: "Fausto. Impresiones del gaucho Anastasio el Pollo en la representación de esta ópera", in: Poesía gauchesca . Biblioteca Ayacucho, Caracas 1977.