Lo extraordinario del “Quijote” es que es una parodia que interesa al que desconoce lo parodiado, un libro con una circunstancia muy concreta que llega a los más alejados en el tiempo y el espacio, una diatriba para acabar con algo que hace mucho que se acabó, y que cada día nos abre mayores perspectivas y posibilidades de reflexión y de auténtico regocijo, pues el que no se da cuenta que el “Quijote” es un libro divertido lo ha entendido tan poco como el que no ha reparado en su tristeza.

(Martín de Riquer, “Miguel de Cervantes, Obras Completas, I, Don Quijote de la Mancha, seguido del Quijote de Avellaneda, Edición, introducción y notas de Martín de Riquer, Editorial Planeta, Barcelona, 1962)

The extraordinary thing about the “Quixote” is that it’s a parody of interest even to the person who is unfamiliar with what’s parodied, a book with a very concrete circumstance which yet reaches those most removed in time and space, a diatribe devoted to ending something which is ended, and which each day opens up to us greater perspectives and possibilities for reflection and genuine pleasure, for (indeed) the person who doesn’t realize that the “Quixote” is an entertaining book has grasped it as poorly as the person who hasn’t noticed its sadness. (My translation)

[Alba, I misspoke when I told you this would give you a glimpse of Cervantes’s 17th-century Spanish. That quotation is for another day. This is 20th-century scholar Martín de Riquer reflecting on the work in the introduction to his edition. Jaime]

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