When I hanged the x-ray film on the light-table, my two colleagues could hardly swallow again. I told them it had been the most awful freak of nature ever. That same night, we gathered and made a plan. We consulted a neurosurgeon and explained the situation. He accepted without much ado: his curiosity was as piqued as ours. There was silence; the room in tenterhooks. And afterwards, doctor? How'd it go afterwards? Well, we performed the surgery. There was another, much longer silence. And what did you do with the baby? Well, it died an hour later… But… For God's sake! Don't you realize? This is a supernatural case! His faced flushed. He made fists and shot off his chair, laughing like a loon, loudly. Two policemen came and dragged him outside, past the bemused relatives of the murdered woman. Outside, there were more than a hundred reporters. I remember the scene neatly: it was rather stifling. I never knew afterwards why they were all laughing their ass off, even those colleagues who were still waiting their turn.
Aureliano Babilonia,
Translated by DNAZ Franco
2 comentarios:
thank you, DAN
this was my first experience looking at a translated English text directly next to the original Spanish
I started to reflect upon a few of your EN word choices, but then I read Sr. Babilonia's comment: "Escribí este cuento en cinco minutos, directo al foro. Le dije a palabras que lo haría, sin pensar en hacerlo ..."
and decided that it'd probably be best just to leave it in the EN that first came to your mind, spontaneously.
I wish I could understand all the Spanish comments about the text on Prosafagos. But, alas! I can not.
See ya
Hi, Ira!
I'm so glad you catch my drift so effortlessly. You are right: the important thing in this mini-tale is the sense of urgency, the feeling that all the facts have passed you by and that you'll never catch up with what actually happened. The sense that the story is even beyond the narrator…
A lot of the comments in the forum had to deal with the author's cheeky contributions in the past, and how he tells everyone off for not posting honest writings, but he posts whatever came to mind and took five minutes to write. Apparently, he's not the favorite son of the forum at the moment… :D
D
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