Originally posted by tiaraprin@Jun 7th, 2004 - 9:12 pm
Muy Bien Dicho Lucys!! Me gustaria ver todo lo que Felipe dijo este dia en el brindis. Me gustan mucho las palabras "entrega mutual"--sencilla pero bien dicho!
Here you go tiaraprin: It actually is much better in Spanish because he uses very formal language which I find difficult to translate. But I did my best. I haven’t captured the elegance of his words, but here are the sentiments at least. I put it in english in case others are also interested. You’ll see he often is speaking for both of them and gives sort of a statement of principles and values that will guide them.
Moderator: If you feel this is too long or in the wrong place just do your stuff...
El brindis del Principe de Asturias
I cannot nor do I wish to hide it, I imagine that it jumps to the sight: I am a happy man. And I have the certainty that this condition arises from feeling the emotion of seeing and protagonizing the accomplishment of a profound desire: I have married the woman I love.
To unite reason with the force of love and emotions has been always an objective in my life. For that reason, we are celebrating today that Letizia and I unite our lives in a communion of love, responsibility, work, respect and mutual devotion. We offer our union to our families and above all else to our destiny, intimately bound to the future of the Spaniards.
We meet our future with very deep optimism and hope. Service to the Spaniards is the great personal and institutional commitment with which Letizia and I now initiate this new stage in our life. In it we seek to find the lasting happiness that all families look for and wish for. We aspire to have a family. And we want to reach the necessary balance between the public and the private, between obligations - that are for life - and the legitimate and necessary family life; knowing that our work requires a serenity, a dedication, a certainty and a moderation such that will allow us to weave human/personal time with political time.
Letizia: a little more than a year ago we took the first steps that, with love and serenity, have brought us here. It is not a long time, nor is it little time; the sufficient to have allowed us to have discovered, with transparency and sincerity, one in the other the person who we wish to have at our side for all our lives. The reciprocal knowledge and respect, our complementariness and complicity have gone day to day consolidating that with which so much force brought us together and moved us to arrive at our marriage.
It is also very important—as you always tell me--that we know how to find one in the other the still pool necessary to reflect, to enjoy and to share everything that makes us grow as people, to be proud of ourselves and to endure the intensity of our lives. And it is even more so inasmuch as there is to be found the source of joy and familial harmony.
That we will achieve it, I am without doubt.
Ladies and Gentlemen: The commitment that Letizia and I have assumed today goes beyond the merely personal. From the time I was very young I have been conscious of my responsibilities and loyalty to the King and to my duty have guided my life. Well then, I am proud of the conviction and responsibility with which from today Letizia joins this project [he always refers to the Crown and his role as “this project”]; And I want all to know how grateful I am to Letizia for her devotion and determination in the face of all this project entails.
In the path that we are to travel we depend upon the invaluable example of Their Majesties the King and Queen. Of His Majesty the King, who along with a generation of great patriots obtained the reconciliation of the Spaniards, carried out the establishment and the consolidation of our democracy and has exerted with impeccable form His constitutional functions. Of Her Majesty the Queen, with Her constant and permanent support to the King, Her sensitivity, Her availability and Her example. Together they have ensured that the Crown is a useful institution in the service of Spain, respected and loved by the Spaniards.
And although the circumstances will be different and also the people, my vocation of continuity with that model and its example is firm and categorical. And it is derived from an intimate conviction and my permanent commitment to ensuring that the Crown continue to contribute to the institutional stability of Spain, the integration and cohesion of the Spaniards and that it continue to be the guarantor of freedom and progress.
Majesty: do not have any doubt that we will always be thinking of Spain and all our life will be dedicated to the well being of the Spaniards.
Today we have sealed our love before God and society; all you are witnesses of it and the authenticity that moves us. For that reason we are especially content for being able to share with you, the Madrilenians and all the Spaniards this crucial moment in our lives. We want to give thanks for the constant gestures of affection and generosity that have arrived from so many points of the Spanish geography, even from outside our country. Also for the affection, the effort and the dedication of the Institutions and the many thousands of people who have contributed to the preparation and good outcome of these days of celebration. It would be desirable, although impossible, to express our gratitude personally to each of them. As it is also impossible to have here with us so many people who are dear to us, but to whom we dedicate an affectionate acknowledgment from here.
In this chapter of gratitude and acknowledgments we want to have a special one for our families. We have arrived here partly through their attentiveness and have received from them during all these months support and understanding that has been vital sustenance, as it will continue to be. Moreover, to have arrived here would not have been possible without the aid of many people, among whom I wish to especially honor my sisters, the Infantas, and their husbands. But, foremost, it would not have been possible without Their Majesties the King and Queen. As a son it is much throughout my life for which I am thankful to them. And today, on the day of my wedding, I want to make public record of my deepest gratitude for Their affection and permanent support. It is not possible for me to understand my happiness without Theirs.
Today I receive two parents and two sisters more, and also four grandparents--which I no longer have. From mine I continue receiving inspiration and their memory accompanies me and fills me with pride. From yours [Letizia’s] I receive a warm proximity and the valuable learning of their lives: receive [the grandparents] my respectful and affectionate gratitude.
M of Madrid, of May and of Memory [Part of the decorations in Madrid were banners that had an M for Madrid and said May 2004]; in our memory will always be the absent [those killed in the terrorist attack in March], those that criminally and brutally were not allowed to continue living their illusions and sleeplessness; and also those that today cannot enjoy with them, freely and civically, the welcome Madrilenian spring that raises our spirits. With their memory present, allow me to raise my glass for my wife Letizia, for Their Majesties the King and Queen, and for Spain.