LA WEB DE READING COMPREHENSION PREFERIDA POR LOS HISPANOHABLANTES

To get information in Spanish place the arrow of your mouse on the highlighted words without clicking.
Para obtener información en español acerca la flecha de tu ratón a las palabras o frases resaltadas.

THE IMMIGRANTS

Horacio Quiroga

Horacio Quiroga's
short stories are
ranked among the best
in Latin America.

 

Los Inmigrantes
PAGINA 2/2

The Immigrants
PAGE 2/2

Y bruscamente se volvió, mirando enloquecido: ¡Muerta, allí!...

 

Suddenly, he turned around, berserked with grief: “She is dead, there!” He said.

Sentóse de nuevo, y volviendo a colocar la cabeza muerta de su mujer sobre sus muslos, pensó cuatro horas en lo que haría.

 

He sat down again, and put the head of his dead wife on his legs. In the next four hours he thought what to do.

No arribó a pensar nada; pero cuando la tarde caía cargó a su mujer en los hombros y emprendió el camino de vuelta.

 

He remained without knowing what to do; but when the noon was coming he carried his wife on his shoulders and returned the way back.

Bordeaban otra vez el estero. El pajonal se extendía sin fin en la noche plateada, inmóvil y toda zumbante de mosquitos. El hombre, con la nuca doblada, caminó con igual paso, hasta que su mujer cayó bruscamente de su espalda. El quedó un instante de pie, rígido, y se desplomó tras ella.

 

They passed by the border of the estuary again. The pajonal looked endless in the silver and immobile night, where the buzz of mosquitoes could only be heard. The man, with his nape bent, walked steadily until the body of his wife fell sharply. He stood up a moment, he was rigid, and then he fell down after her.

Cuando despertó, el sol quemaba. Comió bananas de filodendro, aunque hubiese deseado algo más nutritivo, puesto que antes de poder depositar en tierra sagrada el cadáver de su esposa, debían pasar días aún.

 

When he woke up the sun was burning. He ate fruits from the tree philodendron though he wished something more nutritive to eat because he had to walk several days until getting the dead body of his wife in holy ground.

Cargó otra vez con el cadáver, pero sus fuerzas disminuían. Rodeándolo entonces con lianas entretejidas, hizo un fardo con el cuerpo y avanzó así con menor fatiga.

 

He took the body again, but his strength was decreasing. He made a bundle with the body by knotting together lianas which made easier to walk.

Durante tres días, descansando, siguiendo de nuevo, bajo el cielo blanco de calor, devorado de noche por los insectos, el hombre caminó y caminó, sonambulizado de hambre, envenenado de miasmas cadavéricas, toda su misión concentrada en una sola y obstinada idea: arrancar al país hostil y salvaje el cuerpo adorado de su mujer.

 

During three days he walked and walked like a sleepwalker poisoned by the cadaverous miasmas. He just rested a little, and kept on walking under the white hot sky and devoured by insects during nights. His mission was only one obstinate idea; take the body of his adored wife from the savage and hostile country.

La mañana del cuarto día viose obligado a detenerse, y apenas de tarde pudo continuar su camino. Pero cuando el sol se hundía, un profundo escalofrío corrió por los nervios agotados del hombre, y tendiendo entonces el cuerpo muerto en tierra, se sentó a su lado.

 

The fourth day he was forced to stop and in the afternoon he could hardly continue. When the sun was sinking he felt a deep shiver on his exhausted nerves; he put the body on the ground and sat down next to it.

La noche había caído ya, y el monótono zumbido de mosquitos llenaba el aire solitario. El hombre pudo haberlos sentido tejer su punzante red sobre su rostro; pero del fondo de su médula helada los escalofríos montaban sin cesar.

 

The night had come, and the monotonous buzz of mosquitoes invaded the air. He could have felt the insects all over his face but the constant shivers on his frozen marrow did not let him.

La luna ocre en su menguante había surgido por fin tras el estero. Las pajas altas y rígidas brillaban hasta el confín en fúnebre mar amarillento. La fiebre perniciosa subía ahora a escape.

 

Finally, the ochre waning moon came up behind the estuary. The high and rigid straws shone until the horizon like a mournful yellowish sea. Now, the pernicious fever rose rapidly.

El hombre echó una ojeada a la horrible masa blanduzca que yacía a su lado, y cruzando sus manos sobre las rodillas quedóse mirando fijamente adelante, al estero venenoso, en cuya lejanía el delirio dibujaba una aldea de Silesia a la cual él y su mujer, Carlota Phoening, regresaban felices y ricos a buscar a su adorado primogénito.

 

The man glanced to the horrible whitish mass that was lying next to him. While he was crossing his hands over the knees he stayed with his eyes fixed ahead, to the poisoned estuary. In the distance, the delirium drew the village of Silesia, where he and his wife, Charlotte Phoening, were returning to -happy and rich- to get their loved first-born child.

Click here to read this short story all over again

Translated by Mariela Alvarez, Chaco, Argentina
Blog:
http://mistraduccionesmsa.blogspot.com/  Email:
OM PERSONAL thanks Mrs. Alvarez for her contribution.

 

MAS "CUENTOS CORTOS LATINOAMERICANOS"   FORO   INICIO