Read La Edad de Oro in Spanish
La Edad de Oro by José Martí in the original Spanish, with our English translation beside every sentence and a dictionary on every word.
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The opening lines
How La Edad de Oro begins
ES
Para los niños es este periódico, y para las niñas, por supuesto.
Sin las niñas no se puede vivir, como no puede vivir la tierra sin luz.
El niño ha de trabajar, de andar, de estudiar, de ser fuerte, de ser hermoso: el niño puede hacerse hermoso aunque sea feo; un niño bueno, inteligente y aseado es siempre hermoso.
Pero nunca es un niño más bello que cuando trae en sus manecitas de hombre fuerte una flor para su amiga, o cuando lleva del brazo a su hermana, para que nadie se la ofenda: el niño crece entonces, y parece un gigante: el niño nace para caballero, y la niña nace para madre.
EN
This magazine is for the boys, and for the girls, of course.
Without girls one cannot live, just as the earth cannot live without light.
A boy must work, walk, study, be strong, be handsome: a boy can make himself handsome even if he is ugly; a good, intelligent, and tidy boy is always handsome.
But a boy is never more beautiful than when he brings in his little hands of a strong man a flower for his friend, or when he leads his sister by the arm, so that no one offends her: the boy then grows, and seems like a giant: the boy is born to be a gentleman, and the girl is born to be a mother.
As the reader shows it: the original Spanish and our English translation, sentence by sentence. The translation is ours — made to help you follow the Spanish, not as a literary edition.
Spanish books
What the reader gives you
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English beside every line
A slider shows as much of the English as you need — all of it, a hint, or nothing.
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Every word, explained
Tap a word for its meaning in context, its dictionary form and, for a verb, all of its forms — hablaba, hablé and habló all lead back to hablar.
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Grammar and sound
Grammar is highlighted in the sentence you are reading, and the book is read aloud in the Spanish accent you pick.
About the book
About La Edad de Oro
José Martí wrote this magazine for children himself and published it in New York in 1889: four issues of stories, poems and articles — three heroes of Latin American independence, the Iliad retold, a black doll, the history of the spoon and the fork. The prose is plain and warm, written to make young readers think for themselves.
In the LangOrbit reader, La Edad de Oro opens with the English translation alongside, a dictionary on every word and audio in a Latin American or Spanish voice. The words you save go into your daily Spanish lesson.
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La Edad de Oro
La Edad de Oro by José Martí in the original Spanish, with our English translation beside every sentence and a dictionary on every word.
Read it in the readerNo signup to start. A free plan to keep reading; full access is paid.