La Sentencia – Group 1 – Fathia, Mishelle, Alex, Daisy, Lucy
The Judgment
That night, during the hour of the rat, the emperor dreamed that he had left his palace and in the darkness he walked through the garden, under the trees in bloom. Something knelt at his feet and begged for protection. The emperor agreed, the supplicant said that he was a dragon and that the stars had revealed to him that the following day, before nightfall, Wei Cheng, the emperors minister, will cut off his head. In the dream, the emperor swore to protect him.
Upon waking, the emperor asked for Wei Cheng. He was told he was not in the palace, so the emperor sent for him and had the minister occupied the whole day so he would not kill the dragon. Towards the evening, he suggested they play chess. The game lasted quite some time and the minister grew tired and fell asleep. A roar shook the earth. Shortly after, two captains stormed in carrying a huge dragon head soaked in blood. They threw it at the emperors feet and shouted:
-It fell from the sky!
Wei Cheng, who had awoken, looked at it with perplexity and observed:
-How strange, I dreamed I killed a dragon just like this.
In English, to speak of the future from within the past tense (“the stars had revealed to him that the following day….”), you use the conditional “would” rather than the simple future “will”. It’s the same in Spanish.
Me dijo que vendría. (NOT: Me dijo que vendrá.)
He told me he would come / or / He told me he’d come. (NOT: He told me he will come.)
The stars had revealed to him that Wei Cheng would cut off his head.
EAllen — September 26, 2013 @ 4:43 pm