Tilter at Windmills

"In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.

The age of this gentleman of ours was bordering on fifty; he was of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser and a great sportsman."

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

2012 sees the 400th anniversary of Thomas Shelton's translation of The Historie of Don Quixote.

The translation apparently took him 40 days and was the first translation of Cervantes novel into any foreign language. It has since been translated 20 times into English.

Shelton must have been impressed with the tale, for as he said:

"It is so conspicuous and void of difficulty that children may handle him, youths may read him, men may understand him, and old men may celebrate him."--from The First Part of the Delightful History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of the Mancha (from Thomas Shelton's 1612 translation)