Day 126 of 135

Day 126: The Bakery's Secret Recipe Quarrel

At a family bakery in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Elba (A), the manager, warns Eloy (B), a new employee, about the founder's two sons, Don Bonifacio and Don Eustaquio, who run it together (don is a title of respect for an older man).

How to study this lesson 3 steps
  1. Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
  2. Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
  3. Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.

Dialogue

Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.

Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning

  1. A

    Antes de que se ponga el mandil, joven: aquí nadie menciona a don Eustaquio delante de don Bonifacio, ni al revés.

    Before you put your apron on, young man: in here, nobody mentions Don Eustaquio in front of Don Bonifacio, or the other way around.

  2. B

    ¿Pues qué pasó? Son hermanos y socios: algo muy gordo ha de haber sido.

    Why, what happened? They're brothers and partners: it must have been something pretty serious.

  3. A

    La herencia, ¿qué más? Doña Carmen les dejó la panadería a los dos, pero su recetario no se lo dejó a ninguno.

    The inheritance, what else? Doña Carmen left the bakery to both of them, but her recipe book she left to neither.

  4. B

    ¿Por un cuaderno se dejaron de hablar? Si yo tuviese el recetario de mi abuela, sacaría copias para todos, y asunto arreglado.

    They stopped speaking over a notebook? If I had my grandmother's recipe book, I'd make copies for everyone, and that would be that.

  5. A

    Si fuera por las recetas, ya lo habrían resuelto. El pleito es por el original: quien se quede con él se queda con la bendición de su madre.

    If it were about the recipes, they'd have sorted it out by now. The quarrel is over the original: whoever keeps it keeps their mother's blessing.

  6. B

    La verdad, qué terquedad. ¿Y doña Carmen no se imaginó que se iban a pelear?

    Honestly, how stubborn. And didn't Doña Carmen imagine they'd fight over it?

  7. A

    ¡Si ella era peor! Dejó de hablarle a su hermana treinta años por un cazo de cobre. Hijo de tigre, pintito.

    She was worse! She stopped speaking to her sister for thirty years over a copper pan. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

  8. B

    ¿Y cómo le hacen para sacar el pan sin dirigirse la palabra?

    And how do they manage to get the bread out without saying a word to each other?

  9. A

    Uno hornea de madrugada y el otro en la tarde, cada quien de memoria, y las conchas de la mañana no saben como las de la tarde: en casa del herrero, cuchillo de palo.

    One bakes before dawn and the other in the afternoon, each from memory, and the morning conchas, our sugar-topped buns, don't taste like the afternoon ones: the shoemaker's children go barefoot.

  10. B

    ¿Y si el recetario se publicase, con el nombre de los dos en la portada? Si el original se quedase aquí, en una vitrina, ninguno sería el heredero, y los dos lo serían.

    What if the recipe book were published, with both their names on the cover? If the original stayed here, in a display case, neither of them would be the heir, and both of them would.

  11. A

    Mire nada más: dos años de pleito y a nadie se le ocurrió. Pero del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho: ¿quién se lo propone, si no se hablan?

    Well, would you look at that: two years of quarreling and nobody thought of it. But easier said than done: who's going to put it to them, if they don't speak to each other?

  12. B

    Usted, que es con quien los dos hablan. Y si me permitiese otra sugerencia, que el prólogo lo escriba usted, con puros refranes.

    You, since you're the one they both talk to. And if you'd allow me one more suggestion, you should write the foreword yourself, entirely in proverbs.

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