What a hyperbaton is
A hyperbaton (hipérbaton) moves parts of a sentence out of their usual order without changing what it says. English poetry does it too: Whose woods these are I think I know. Poets use it for rhyme, metre and suspense. In prose you find a milder version that gives single words a solemn weight.
Hyperbaton in poetry
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer is one of Spain's most widely read poets. His Rimas rearrange almost every line. The translations give the meaning in plain word order.
Verse and everyday order
In the poem
Volverán las oscuras golondrinas / en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar, / y otra vez con el ala a sus cristales / jugando llamarán.
The dark swallows will return to hang their nests on your balcony and, playing, tap their wings against its panes again.
Bécquer, Rima LIII
Del salón en el ángulo oscuro, / de su dueña tal vez olvidada, / silenciosa y cubierta de polvo, / veíase el arpa.
In the dark corner of the drawing room stood the harp, perhaps forgotten by its owner, silent and covered in dust.
Bécquer, Rima VII
In plain order
Las oscuras golondrinas volverán a colgar sus nidos en tu balcón y otra vez llamarán a sus cristales jugando con el ala.
The dark swallows will hang their nests on your balcony again and tap playfully at its panes with their wings once more.
En el ángulo oscuro del salón se veía el arpa, tal vez olvidada de su dueña, silenciosa y cubierta de polvo.
In the dark corner of the drawing room stood the harp, perhaps forgotten by its owner, silent and covered in dust.
The most common shifts
Almost every hyperbaton comes down to a handful of moves. Once you know them, you can unpick any line.
Shift and undo
| Shift | Literary | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| de-phrase before its noun | del salón en el ángulo | en el ángulo del salón |
| object before the infinitive | sus nidos a colgar | a colgar sus nidos |
| verb at the end | jugando llamarán | llamarán jugando |
| adjective before the noun | las oscuras golondrinas | las golondrinas oscuras |
| complement of ser up front | Grande fue su sorpresa | Su sorpresa fue grande |
With adjectives the position also changes the reading: las oscuras golondrinas names a quality all swallows share, las golondrinas oscuras singles out the dark ones from others.
Writing it yourself
In modern prose, speeches and essays, a single fronted element sounds solemn or reflective. When a complement or a quantity word comes first, the verb follows directly, then the subject. English does something similar in Great was her surprise, but there it sounds far more archaic than in Spanish.
Grande fue su sorpresa cuando abrió la puerta.
Great was her surprise when she opened the door.
The neutral version would be Se sorprendió mucho al abrir la puerta.
Mucho ha llovido desde entonces.
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.
De aquella casa solo quedaban las paredes.
Of that house only the walls remained.
Larga y fría fue aquella noche.
Long and cold was that night.
