Galatea

Galatea is a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes and first published in 1585.

This pastoral novel tells the love story between the beautiful shepherdess Galatea and the shepherd Elicio, set in the Spanish countryside during the Renaissance.

It is very curious the way Cervantes describes the main plot and at the same time tells other stories of different shepherds, intertwining the stories and weaving a complex web of tales of unrequited love, jealousy, nobility of spirit and the search for happiness.

All of this is seasoned with wonderful descriptions of the beauty of the rural world of the time and the landscapes, lives and customs of the shepherds.

In addition, Cervantes delights us with profound and philosophical dialogues, offering us a harmonious point of view in the face of the complexities of urban and court life.

"What time unto my sad and mournful cry,
Unto the ill-tuned music of my lyre,
The hill and mead, the plain and stream reply
In bitter echo of my vain desire,
Then take thou, wind, that heedless hastenest by,
The plaints which from my breast, chilled with love's fire,
Issue in my despite, asking in vain
Succour from stream and hill, from mead and plain.
The stream is swollen by the tears which flow
Forth from my wearied eyes: the flowery mead
Blooms with the brambles and the thorns that grow
Into my soul: the lofty hill doth heed
Nowise my sorrows; and the plain below
Of hearing is awearied: in my need
No solace, e'er so small, to assuage my ill
I find in stream or plain, in mead or hill."

This edition of Galatea is based on Herman Oelsner and A. B. Welford's translation.