Don Quixote’s Impossible Dream
To Every Man His Dulcinea, To Every Woman Her Don Quixote
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Proem
Enter into the imagination of Don Quixote, become the country gentleman turned knight errant, and envision you and your love romanced by the “Impossible Dream.” Don Quixote epitomized the ideals of chivalric romance, ever constant in his quest to follow that star of truth, by dedicating his life and love to the only lady who inspired him to great deeds, Dulcinea del Toboso. This open valentine honors that quest as well as those noble-minded expressions of love, sacrifice, and respect, that, when taken together, makes possible; perchance, the impossible dream. Furthermore, this artistic affirmation attempts to encapsulate the rarefied spirit of one of the greatest tales of all time—of course, not without the requisite dosage of poetic license needed to pave over the underlying story with mystic gold. The poem cycle strives to convey both the timeless immediacy and the transcendent durability of the heroic love portrayed in Cervantes’ tale.
Saith I, “Redivivae the immortal Graces of the Elysian Fields;
Conjure the promiscuous Pantheon of the Seven Hills that I may
Barter all for my love. O my heretical frailty! My most grievous fault!”
145 Recanting disgrace: “Woe to those syncretistic and paganistic diets!
—Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, . . . Amen.—
Hear me O’ Lord—pray I the Paternoster founded on the fideistic
Consubstantiality of the one truth; and so I come unto
Thee, by the rood, to approve myself a defender of the faith.
150 Almighty Heaven, I beseech thee for an indulgence
Of a liberty as bold as ‘tis honorable. By my troth, ever in
Your service, my Lord of Hosts, that You may well depend upon
Me, a conversant éminence grise, to conquer; damnatio memoriae,
Thine demiurgical enemy—arrowing I for an eye—for the sake of
155 Thy most eminent glory. Misericordia Dei! That if my life
Needs be rendered for the purpose operose, I fain commit
To Your clemency; for I am a knight valiant, tried and true,
Dubbed by some several sceptered hands, and so I pray
Trisagion and Sanctus unto You, imploringly—cri de coeur,
160 Desiderating devoutly this miserere. Supplicating O’ Lord,
In this my humicubation, I beg this shrift. For thou knowest
Well that in my quest she is the one I seek, the one I call Dulcinea,
My de facto confidante, my immanent lodestar fixing my way.
I wish to commend myself to my Love, accredit my triumphs,
165 Dedicate my devoirs, be her votary, and with sighs of truest
Breath avow to her my very life. O, I ache to be compacted
In bonded knot ending our inexpedient state of solus and sola.”
Though previously acknowledged herein, I cannot overstate my
gratitude to the supplier of the thematic framework through which I
could beget my own dear iteration of humanity’s common experiences.
I quote Cervantes often, indeed, for it was apropos; he is credited with
writing, among other works, the first modern novel and we know it, The
Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, and it is arguably the best
novel ever written, a play within a play. For that and more, I envy him a
due homage and respectfully respond in the manner of a quest within a
quest. In so much as I recognize his alter-ego in Don Quixote, as a then
modern-day Francis of Assisi; who too, could reason through the zeitgeist
hypocrisy of his age, in the manner of a Christ figure.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The adventures of Don Quixote, the famous knight errant, and his lady-love, Dulcinea del Toboso that Miguel de Cervantes portrays in his epic novel, “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”; and made more famous by countless adaptations featured in movies and theatrical musical productions of that singular masterpiece reflective of the human condition has captured the imagination of generations throughout the world. “Don Quixote’s Impossible Dream: To Everyman His Dulcinea”, by David P. Grzan, has elevated the notion of chivalric love, in the fairest terms, which Don Quixote advanced to the honor and esteem of Dulcinea, his true love, the quest of his impossible dream. Love, the most powerful force in the universe, has been the primary inspiration that has propelled all the Don Quixote’s, known and unknown that have ever lived, in their attempt to accomplish great deeds in the name of their particular Dulcinea. This epic poem immortalizes the triumphs, tragedies, obstacles, struggles and courage that can accompany and at other times can thwart the greatest of all prizes, love, in the context of the infinite profoundness and complexity of the human dynamic, which is sublimely represented and exemplified by the relationship between Don Quixote and Dulcinea.
About the Author
David P. Grzan is married, has four lovely children and lives in Orono, Minnesota. He holds two postgraduate degrees and is a devotee of the Humanities. David has a deeply personal affinity for Cervantes epic, which provided the framework for him to write his own project predicated on the ideals espoused by the character of Don Quixote. To the famous adventures of Don Quixote, the eccentric knight errant, is added new scholarship which concentrates on the knight’s relationship with lady love Dulcinea del Toboso in David P. Grzan ’s Don Quixote’s Impossible Dream: To Everyman His Dulcinea, To Every Woman Her Don Quixote. In Miguel Cervantes’ epic, Dulcinea is the constant star that shined over Quixote’s misadventures along the length and breadth of Spain. Love was the truth that kept Don Quixote going in his pursuit of establishing himself as one of the great knights of chivalric love. Conspicuously, Quixote’s honor has been satirically crossed by the literary firmament rendered in Cervantes’ picaresque; whereas Grzan ’s anamorphic recomposition of the epic triumphantly reveals the greatest knight of chivalric love, Don Quixote. In fine, this opus stands as a candid testimony of my especial gratitude for which I recognize upon my parents, while also demonstrating to my children a bevy of adoptable precepts, well-trodden, for a happy life; and, perchance to unite my family and friends, both in practice and spirit, by the notion that we can never overdignify an unqualified charitable respect for one another. Now to the purpose of this metaphrastic interpretation Don Quixote’s Impossible Dream enciphered in an excursive tribute, which is tethered gravitationally to its primary antecedent, like to a celestial system, orbiting about a common center; my life’s dénouement, which expresses the inexpressible love embedded in my soul for the one I love. In full-view of that love I have faithfully set down in uncut words this valentine dedicated to my indescribable Dulcinea, for whom I take a privileged care to describe—that the entire world shall know her now and forever. My Dulcinea has provided me with nothing less than the truest and deepest inspiration for the idiosyncratic impartment of my soul, duly delivered in this love-poem. Had it not been for her, I would, undoubtedly still be tilting at windmills.