# The Seven Madmen, Layers of Darkness

Los siete locos · Roberto Arlt · Part One

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/capas-de-oscuridad. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/capas-de-oscuridad.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/arlt/<line id>.m4a.


Nunca tuvo conciencia de cómo se arrastró hasta su cama.  
He was never aware of how he dragged himself to his bed.
> Pronominal «arrastrarse»: «Arrastrar» means 'to drag'; with the reflexive pronoun «se», «arrastrarse» means 'to drag oneself / to crawl'. The preterite «se arrastró» marks one completed action in the past — the single act of crawling to bed.

El tiempo dejó de existir para Erdosain.  
Time ceased to exist for Erdosain.
> «dejar de» + infinitive: «Dejar de» followed by an infinitive means 'to stop / cease doing something': «dejó de existir» = 'it ceased to exist'. Don't confuse it with bare «dejar» ('to leave / let').
Cerró los ojos obedeciendo a la necesidad de dormir que reclamaban sus entrañas doloridas.  
He closed his eyes, obeying the need for sleep that his aching insides demanded.
De tener fuerzas se hubiera arrojado a un pozo.  
Had he had the strength, he would have thrown himself into a pit.
> «De» + infinitive as a conditional: «De» plus an infinitive can stand in for a whole 'if' clause: «de tener fuerzas» = 'if he had had the strength'. It pairs naturally with «se hubiera arrojado», the pluperfect subjunctive, used here with conditional-perfect force ('he would have thrown himself'). The true conditional perfect would be «se habría arrojado».
Borbotones de desesperación se apelotonaban en su garganta asfixiándolo, y los ojos se le volvieron más sensibles para la oscuridad que una llaga a la sal.  
Gushes of despair crowded together in his throat, suffocating him, and his eyes grew more sensitive to the darkness than an open sore to salt.
> «volverse» = to become: «Volverse» plus an adjective expresses an involuntary change of state: 'to become / turn'. The extra «le» is a dative of interest ('on him'), so «los ojos se le volvieron más sensibles» = 'his eyes turned more sensitive on him'.
A instantes rechinaba los dientes para amortiguar el crujir de los nervios enrigecidos dentro de su carne que se abandonaba, con flojedad de esponja, a las olas de tinieblas que deyectaban su cerebro.  
At moments he ground his teeth to dull the creak of the stiffened nerves inside his flesh, which surrendered, with the slackness of a sponge, to the waves of darkness his brain discharged.
> Imperfect for repeated action: «Rechinaba» is imperfect: it paints a recurring, ongoing past action — 'he would grind / he kept grinding his teeth', reinforced by «a instantes» ('at moments'). The preterite would instead report one finished event.

Tenía la sensación de caer en un agujero sin fondo y apretaba los párpados cerrados.  
He had the sensation of falling into a bottomless hole and pressed his eyelids shut.
No terminaba de descender, ¡quién sabe cuántas leguas de longitud invisible tenía su cuerpo físico, que no acababa de detener el hundimiento de su conciencia amontonada ahora en un erizamiento de desesperación!  
He never finished descending — who knows how many leagues of invisible length his physical body had, for it never managed to halt the sinking of his consciousness, now heaped into a bristling of despair!
> «acabar de» / «terminar de» + infinitive: «Acabar de» + infinitive in its positive form means 'to have just done' (acaba de salir = 'he has just left'). Only in the negated imperfect does it shift meaning: «no acababa de detener» = 'it never quite managed to halt' — a frustrated, incomplete action. Do not confuse this negated-imperfect reading with the standard recent-past meaning.
De sus párpados caían sucesivas capas de oscuridad más densa.  
From his eyelids fell successive layers of ever denser darkness.

Su centro de dolor se debatía inútilmente.  
His core of pain struggled in vain.
No encontraba en su alma una sola hendidura por donde escapar.  
He could find in his soul not a single crack through which to escape.
Erdosain encerraba todo el sufrimiento del mundo, el dolor de la negación del mundo.  
Erdosain contained all the suffering of the world, the pain of the world's negation.

¿En qué parte de la tierra podía encontrarse un hombre que tuviera la piel erizada de más pliegues de amargura?  
In what part of the earth could a man be found whose skin bristled with more folds of bitterness?
> Subjunctive in a relative clause: After an indefinite, hypothetical antecedent («un hombre» that may not exist), the relative clause takes the subjunctive: «que tuviera» ('who might have / whose... was'). The imperfect subjunctive «tuviera» keeps the whole supposition unreal.
Sentía que no era ya un hombre, sino una llaga cubierta de piel, que se pasmaba y gritaba a cada latido de sus venas.  
He felt that he was no longer a man, but a sore covered with skin, that shuddered and screamed with every beat of his veins.
> «sino» = but rather: After a negative, «sino» introduces the corrected alternative: «no era un hombre, sino una llaga» = 'he was not a man, but rather a sore'. Use «sino» (not «pero») when you reject one term and substitute another.
Y sin embargo, vivía.  
And yet, he lived.
> «sin embargo» = nevertheless: «Sin embargo» is a fixed connector meaning 'however / nevertheless / and yet'. It has nothing to do with «embarazo» ('pregnancy / embarrassment'); it marks a contrast with what came before.
Vivía simultáneamente en el alejamiento y en la espantosa proximidad de su cuerpo.  
He lived simultaneously in the remoteness and in the dreadful nearness of his body.
El ya no era ya un organismo envasando sufrimientos, sino algo más inhumano... quizá eso... un monstruo enroscado en sí mismo en el negro vientre de la pieza.  
He was no longer an organism canning up sufferings, but something more inhuman... perhaps that... a monster coiled in on itself in the black belly of the room.
> «pieza» = room (River Plate usage): In Buenos Aires Spanish, «pieza» commonly means 'bedroom / room' rather than the Peninsular 'piece / part'. Here «el negro vientre de la pieza» is 'the black belly of the room'.
Cada capa de oscuridad que descendía de sus párpados era un tejido placentario que lo aislaba más y más del universo de los hombres.  
Each layer of darkness that descended from his eyelids was a placental tissue that isolated him more and more from the universe of men.
Los muros crecían, se elevaban sus hiladas de ladrillos, y nuevas cataratas de tinieblas caían a ese cubo donde él yacía enroscado y palpitante como un caracol en una profundidad oceánica.  
The walls grew, their courses of bricks rose up, and new cataracts of darkness fell into that cube where he lay coiled and throbbing like a snail in an oceanic depth.
> «yacer» = to lie (motionless): «Yacer» is a literary verb for lying outstretched or inert — often used of the sick or the dead. The imperfect «yacía» ('he lay') suits this still, suspended scene.
No podía reconocerse... dudaba que él fuera Augusto Remo Erdosain.  
He could not recognize himself... he doubted that he was Augusto Remo Erdosain.
> «dudar que» triggers the subjunctive: Verbs of doubt take the subjunctive in the subordinate clause. «Dudaba que él fuera» = 'he doubted that he was' — «fuera» is the imperfect subjunctive of «ser», demanded by «dudar que».
Se apretaba la frente entre la yema de los dedos, y la carne de su mano le parecía extraña y no reconocía la carne de su frente, como si estuviera fabricado su cuerpo de dos substancias distintas.  
He pressed his forehead between his fingertips, and the flesh of his hand seemed strange to him and he did not recognize the flesh of his forehead, as if his body were made of two different substances.
> «como si» + imperfect subjunctive: «Como si» ('as if') always takes the past subjunctive for an unreal comparison: «como si estuviera fabricado» = 'as if it were made'. The supposition is contrary to fact.
¿Quién sabe lo que ya había muerto en él?  
Who knows what had already died in him?
> Pluperfect tense: «Había muerto» ('had died') is the pluperfect: «haber» in the imperfect plus a past participle. It marks an action completed before another past reference point — here, before the present moment of reckoning.
Sólo perduraba para su sensibilidad una conciencia forastera a lo que le había ocurrido, un alma que no tendría el largo de la hoja de una espada y que vibraba como una lamprea en el agua de su vida enturbiada.  
There endured for his sensibility only a consciousness foreign to what had happened to him, a soul that could not have been longer than the blade of a sword and that quivered like a lamprey in the water of his clouded life.
> Conditional of conjecture: The conditional «tendría» here does not mean 'would have' but expresses a guess about a past or present state: 'it probably was not / could not have been longer'. Spanish uses the conditional and future tenses this way to hedge an estimate.
Hasta la conciencia de ser, en él no ocupaba más de un centímetro cuadrado de sensibilidad.  
Even the consciousness of being occupied in him no more than a square centimeter of sensibility.
> «hasta» = even: Besides 'until / as far as', «hasta» can mean 'even' when it emphasizes an extreme: «hasta la conciencia de ser» = 'even the consciousness of being'.
Sí, todo su cuerpo sólo vivía, estaba en contacto con la tierra, por un centímetro cuadrado de sensibilidad.  
Yes, his whole body lived, was in contact with the earth, only through a square centimeter of sensibility.
El resto se desvanecía en la oscuridad.  
The rest faded away into the darkness.
Sí, él era un centímetro cuadrado de hombre, un centímetro cuadrado de existencia prolongando con su superficie sensible, la incoherente vida de un fantasma.  
Yes, he was a square centimeter of man, a square centimeter of existence prolonging, with its sensitive surface, the incoherent life of a ghost.
Lo demás había muerto en él, se había confundido con la placenta de tinieblas que blindaba su realidad atroz.  
All the rest had died in him, had merged with the placenta of darkness that armored his atrocious reality.

Cada vez más fuerte se hacía en él la revelación de que estaba en el fondo de un cubo de portland.  
Stronger and stronger grew in him the revelation that he was at the bottom of a cube of Portland cement.
> «cada vez más» = more and more: «Cada vez más» plus an adjective or adverb means 'more and more / increasingly'. Fronted here as «cada vez más fuerte», it intensifies steadily: 'stronger and stronger'.
¡Sensación de otro mundo!  
A sensation from another world!
Un sol invisible iluminaba para siempre los muros, de un anaranjado color de tempestad.  
An invisible sun lit the walls forever, an orange the color of a storm.
El ala de un ave solitaria soslayaba lo celeste sobre el rectángulo de los muros, pero él estaría para siempre en el fondo de aquel cubo taciturno, iluminado por un anaranjado sol de tempestad.  
The wing of a solitary bird slanted across the blue above the rectangle of the walls, but he would be forever at the bottom of that taciturn cube, lit by an orange storm-sun.
> Neuter «lo» + adjective: «Lo» before an adjective forms an abstract noun: «lo celeste» = 'the blue / the sky-blue (part)'. This neuter article turns a quality into a thing without naming a specific noun.

Luego, la capacidad de su vida quedó reducida a aquel centímetro cuadrado de sensibilidad.  
Then the capacity of his life was reduced to that square centimeter of sensibility.

Hasta se le hacía «visible» el latido de su corazón, y era inútil querer rechazar la espantosa figura que lo lastraba en el fondo de aquel abismo, un momento negro y otros anaranjado.  
Even the beating of his heart became "visible" to him, and it was useless to try to reject the dreadful figure that weighted him down at the bottom of that abyss, one moment black and the next orange.
> «hacerse» + adjective: «Hacerse» plus an adjective means 'to become / turn'. With the dative «le», «se le hacía visible» = 'it became visible to him' — the change happens to him without his agency.
Con que aflojara un poquito tan sólo su voluntad, la realidad que contenía hubiera gritado en sus oídos.  
Had he loosened his will just a little, the reality it held back would have screamed in his ears.
> «con que» + subjunctive = if only: «Con que» plus the imperfect subjunctive sets up a minimal condition: 'with only his loosening... / had he merely loosened'. It pairs with the conditional-perfect «hubiera gritado» ('would have screamed').
Erdosain no quería y quería mirar... pero era inútil... su esposa estaba allí, en el fondo de una habitación tapizada de azul.  
Erdosain did not want and did want to look... but it was useless... his wife was there, at the back of a room hung with blue.
El capitán se movía en un rincón.  
The captain was moving in a corner.
El sabía, aunque nadie se lo había dicho, que era un dormitorio diminuto, de forma hexagonal y ocupado casi enteramente por una cama ancha y baja.  
He knew, though no one had told him so, that it was a tiny bedroom, hexagonal in shape and taken up almost entirely by a wide, low bed.
No quería mirarla a Elsa... no... no... quería, pero si le hubieran amenazado de muerte no por eso hubiera dejado de estar con la mirada fija en el hombre que se desnudaba ante ella... ante su legítima esposa que ahora no estaba con él... sino con otro.  
He did not want to look at Elsa... no... no... he did, but had they threatened him with death he would not for that have stopped fixing his gaze on the man undressing before her... before his lawful wife who now was not with him... but with another.
> Redundant object pronoun: River Plate Spanish often doubles a direct object with a pronoun: «mirarla a Elsa» = 'to look at her, at Elsa'. The «la» anticipates the named object «a Elsa» — colloquial but standard in Buenos Aires speech.
Más fuerte que su miedo fue su necesidad de más terror, de más sufrimiento, y de pronto, ella, que se cubría los ojos con los dedos, corría hacia el hombre desnudo, de piernas tiesas, se apretaba contra él y ya no rehuía la cárdena virilidad erguida en el fondo azul.  
Stronger than his fear was his need for more terror, for more suffering, and suddenly she, who was covering her eyes with her fingers, ran toward the naked, stiff-legged man, pressed against him, and no longer shrank from the livid virility risen against the blue background.
> «de pronto» = suddenly: «De pronto» is an adverbial set phrase meaning 'suddenly / all of a sudden'. It frequently launches a sharp narrative turn, as it does here.

Erdosain se sintió aplanado en una perfección de espanto.  
Erdosain felt himself flattened into a perfection of horror.
Si lo hubieran pasado por entre los rodillos de un laminador, más plana no podría ser su vida.  
Had they run him through the rollers of a rolling mill, his life could not be flatter.
> Past contrary-to-fact «si»: An unreal past condition uses «si» plus the pluperfect subjunctive («hubieran pasado», 'had they run'). The result clause takes the conditional, here «no podría ser» ('could not be').
¿No quedaban así los sapos que sobre la huella trincaba la rueda de la carreta, aplastados y ardientes?  
Did not the toads end up like that, the ones the cartwheel pinned on the rut, crushed and burning?
Pero no quería mirar, tan no quería que ahora veía con nitidez cómo Elsa se apoyaba sobre el cuadrado pecho velludo del hombre, mientras que las manos de él recogían las mandíbulas de la mujer para levantar el rostro hacia su boca.  
But he did not want to look, so much did he not want to that now he saw with clarity how Elsa leaned against the man's square hairy chest, while his hands cupped the woman's jaw to lift her face toward his mouth.
> «tan... que» = so... that: «Tan» plus an adjective or verb, followed by «que», expresses degree and result: 'so much... that'. Here the unusual «tan no quería que» = 'so much did he not want to that...', stressing the intensity of his refusal.

Y de pronto Elsa exclamaba: «Yo también, mi querido... yo también».  
And suddenly Elsa exclaimed: "Me too, my darling... me too".
Su semblante había enrojecido de desesperación, los vestidos se atorbellinaban en torno del triángulo de sus muslos blancos como la leche, y con los ojos extasiados en el rígido músculo del hombre que temblaba, ella descubrió la crin de su sexo, sus senos erguidos... ¡ah!... ¿por qué miraba?  
Her face had flushed with desperation, her clothes whirled around the triangle of her milk-white thighs, and with her eyes entranced on the rigid muscle of the trembling man, she uncovered the mane of her sex, her raised breasts... ah!... why was he looking?
Inútilmente Elsa... sí, Elsa, su legítima esposa, trataba con la mano pequeña de abarcar toda la virilidad en una caricia.  
In vain Elsa... yes, Elsa, his lawful wife, tried with her small hand to encompass the whole virility in a caress.
> «tratar de» + infinitive: «Tratar de» plus an infinitive means 'to try to do something': «trataba de abarcar» = 'she was trying to encompass'. Note the «de» — without it, «tratar a alguien» means 'to treat / deal with someone'.
El hombre, bajo el aullido de su deseo, se apretaba las sienes, se cubría los ojos con el antebrazo; pero ella inclinada sobre él, le clavaba este hierro candente en los oídos: «¡Sos más lindo que mi esposo! ¡Qué lindo que sos, Dios mío!».  
The man, under the howl of his desire, pressed his temples, covered his eyes with his forearm; but she, leaning over him, drove this red-hot iron into his ears: "You're more handsome than my husband! How handsome you are, my God!".
Si lentamente le hubieran torcido la cabeza sobre el cuello para tornillar en su alma, profundamente, esa visión atroz, no podría sufrir más.  
Had they slowly twisted his head on his neck to screw that atrocious vision deep into his soul, he could not have suffered more.
> Past contrary-to-fact «si»: An unreal past condition uses «si» plus the pluperfect subjunctive («hubieran torcido», 'had they twisted'). The main clause then takes the conditional, here «no podría sufrir más» ('he could not suffer more').
Padecía tanto que de interrumpirse ese dolor, su espíritu estallaría como un shrapnell.  
He suffered so much that, were that pain to break off, his spirit would burst like shrapnel.
¿Cómo es que el alma puede soportar tanto dolor?  
How is it that the soul can bear so much pain?
Y sin embargo quería sufrir más.  
And yet he wanted to suffer more.
Que encima de un tajo le partieran el dorso con un hacha en varias partes...  
Let them split his back open with an axe into several pieces on top of a gash...
> «Que» + subjunctive for a wish: An independent clause opening with «que» plus the subjunctive expresses a wish — the subjuntivo optativo. «que le partieran el dorso» = 'let them split his back / may they split his back'. A verb of volition or desire (e.g., «quiero/deseo que…») is understood but dropped, not «decir».
Y si en cuatro trozos lo hubieran arrojado a un cajón de basura hubiera continuado sufriendo.  
And had they thrown him in four pieces into a garbage bin, he would have gone on suffering.
No había un centímetro cuadrado en su cuerpo que no soportara esa altísima presión de angustia.  
There was not a square centimeter in his body that did not bear that towering pressure of anguish.
> Absolute superlative «-ísimo»: The suffix «-ísimo/-ísima» forms the absolute superlative: «altísima» = 'extremely high / towering'. It intensifies without comparing to anything — stronger than just «muy alta».

Todas las cuerdas se habían roto bajo la tensión del espantoso torno, y repentinamente una sensación de reposo equilibrio sus miembros.  
All the cords had snapped under the strain of the dreadful winch, and suddenly a sensation of rest steadied his limbs.

Ya no deseaba nada.  
He desired nothing now.
> «ya no» = no longer: «Ya no» means 'no longer / not anymore': «ya no deseaba nada» = 'he desired nothing anymore'. Note the double negative with «nada», which is required in Spanish.
Su vida corría silenciosamente cuesta abajo, como un lago después del quebrantamiento de su dique, y, sin dormir, pero con los párpados cerrados, el desvanecimiento lúcido era más anestésico para su dolor que un sueño de cloroformo.  
His life ran silently downhill, like a lake after the bursting of its dam, and, without sleeping but with his eyelids closed, the lucid swoon was more of an anesthetic for his pain than a chloroform sleep.
> «cuesta abajo» = downhill: «Cuesta» is a slope; «cuesta abajo» means 'downhill / downward', and «cuesta arriba» 'uphill'. Figuratively «cuesta arriba» can also mean 'an uphill struggle'.

Notablemente latía su corazón.  
His heart beat noticeably.
Con dificultad movió la cabeza para separar el cuero cabelludo de la almohada recalentada, y se dejó estar sin otra sensación de vivir que esa frescura en la nuca y el entreabrirse y cerrarse de su corazón, que, como un ojo enorme, abría el soñoliento párpado para reconocer las tinieblas, nada más.  
With difficulty he moved his head to lift his scalp off the overheated pillow, and he let himself be, with no other sensation of living than that coolness on the nape of his neck and the half-opening and closing of his heart, which, like an enormous eye, opened its drowsy lid to make out the darkness, nothing more.
> «dejarse estar»: «Dejarse estar» literally 'to let oneself be' means to remain passive, to let things go, to lie idle. It captures Erdosain's surrender to inertia.
¿Nada más que la tiniebla?  
Nothing more than the darkness?

Elsa estaba tan lejos de su memoria que en esa hipnosis transitoria le parecía mentira haberla conocido.  
Elsa was so far from his memory that in that passing hypnosis it seemed unbelievable to him that he had ever known her.
> «parecer mentira» = to seem unbelievable: «Parecer mentira» literally 'to seem a lie' is an idiom for 'to seem unbelievable / hard to believe'. «Le parecía mentira haberla conocido» = 'it seemed unbelievable to him that he had known her'.
Quién sabe si existía físicamente.  
Who knows whether she existed physically.
Antes podía verla, ahora tenía que hacer un gran esfuerzo para reconocerla... y apenas la reconocía.  
Before he could see her, now he had to make a great effort to recognize her... and he barely recognized her.
> «tener que» + infinitive: «Tener que» plus an infinitive expresses obligation or necessity: «tenía que hacer un gran esfuerzo» = 'he had to make a great effort'. It is stronger and more personal than «deber».
La verdad es que ella no era ella ni él era él.  
The truth is that she was not herself, nor was he himself.
Ahora su vida corría silenciosamente cuesta abajo, se sentía en un retroceso de años, el niño que miraba un árbol verde sombreando el desaparecer continuo de un río entre algunas piedras con manchas rojas.  
Now his life ran silently downhill, he felt himself in a regression of years, the child who watched a green tree shading the continual vanishing of a river among a few red-spotted stones.
El mismo, era una cascada de carne en las oscuridades.  
He himself was a cascade of flesh in the darknesses.
¡Vaya a saber cuándo terminaría de desangrarse!  
Who could tell when he would finish bleeding out!
> «vaya a saber» = who knows: «Vaya a saber» (or «vaya uno a saber») is an idiom meaning 'who knows / there's no telling'. «Vaya» is the subjunctive of «ir», fixed here into an exclamation.
Y sólo era notable el cerrarse y entreabrirse de su corazón que como un ojo enorme abría su párpado soñoliento para reconocer la oscuridad.  
And the only notable thing was the closing and half-opening of his heart, which like an enormous eye opened its drowsy lid to make out the darkness.
> Infinitive as a noun: An infinitive with «el» becomes a noun: «el cerrarse y entreabrirse» = 'the closing and half-opening'. The reflexive «-se» stays attached; Spanish nominalizes verbs this way where English would use a gerund or a noun.
El foco eléctrico de la mitad de cuadra filtraba por una hendidura un ramalazo de plata que caía sobre el tul del mosquitero.  
The electric streetlight in the middle of the block filtered through a crack a lash of silver that fell over the tulle of the mosquito net.
> «cuadra» = city block: In Latin American Spanish a «cuadra» is a 'city block', the stretch of street between two corners. «La mitad de cuadra» = 'the middle of the block'.
Su sensibilidad se recobraba dolorosamente.  
His sensibility was painfully recovering.

El era Erdosain.  
He was Erdosain.
Se reconocía ahora.  
He recognized himself now.
Arqueaba con un gran esfuerzo la espalda.  
He arched his back with great effort.
Por debajo de la puerta que cerraba la entrada al comedor se distinguía una franja amarilla.  
Beneath the door that closed off the entrance to the dining room a yellow strip could be made out.
> Impersonal / passive «se»: «Se» plus a third-person verb forms an impersonal or passive construction: «se distinguía una franja» = 'a strip could be made out / one could distinguish a strip'. The agent goes unnamed.
Se había olvidado de apagar la luz.  
He had forgotten to turn off the light.
> «olvidarse de» + infinitive: The pronominal «olvidarse de» means 'to forget (to do something)': «se había olvidado de apagar la luz» = 'he had forgotten to turn off the light'. The «de» links it to the infinitive.
El debía... ¡ah, no!, no, Elsa se ha ido... él debe seiscientos pesos con siete centavos a la Limited Azucarer Company... pero no, ya no los debe, si tiene un cheque... ¡Ah, la realidad, la realidad!  
He owed... ah, no!, no, Elsa has gone... he owes six hundred pesos and seven cents to the Limited Sugar Company... but no, he no longer owes them, since he has a check... Ah, reality, reality!
> «deber» = to owe (and must): «Deber» means both 'to owe (money)' and 'must / ought to'. Here the financial sense dominates: «debe seiscientos pesos» = 'he owes six hundred pesos'. The shift from imperfect «debía» to present «debe» tracks his thoughts lurching into the present.

El oblicuo paralelogramo de luz que llegaba desde la calle a platear el tul del mosquitero, era la noción de que vivía como antes, como ayer, como hace diez años.  
The oblique parallelogram of light that reached from the street to silver the tulle of the mosquito net was the notion that he was living as before, as yesterday, as ten years ago.
> «hace» + time = ago: «Hace» plus a time expression means 'ago': «hace diez años» = 'ten years ago'. The verb «hacer» is impersonal here and stays in the third person singular.

No quería ver esa raya de luz, como cuando era pequeño, no quería «ver esa claridad que estaba allí, aunque sabía que no había fuerza humana que pudiera espantar esa claridad».  
He did not want to see that streak of light, as when he was small, he did not want "to see that brightness that was there, though he knew there was no human force that could drive that brightness away".
> Subjunctive after a negated antecedent: When the antecedent is denied to exist («no había fuerza humana»), the relative clause takes the subjunctive: «que pudiera espantar» = 'that could / might drive away'. The imperfect subjunctive «pudiera» marks the force as nonexistent.
Sí, semejante a cuando su padre le decía que al otro día le iba a pegar.  
Yes, like when his father would tell him that the next day he was going to beat him.
> «ir a» + infinitive (immediate future in the past): «Ir a» plus an infinitive expresses an intended or imminent action. In the imperfect, «iba a pegar» = 'was going to beat' — a planned future seen from a past vantage point.
No era lo mismo ahora.  
It was not the same now.
Aquella otra claridad era azulada, ésta de plata, mas tan estridente y anunciadora de lo verdadero como la luz antigua.  
That other brightness was bluish, this one silver, but as strident and as announcing of the true as the old light.
> «mas» (no accent) = but: «Mas» without an accent is a literary conjunction meaning 'but', equivalent to «pero». Don't confuse it with «más» (with accent), which means 'more'.
El sudor le humedecía las sienes y el cerco de cabellos.  
Sweat dampened his temples and the rim of his hair.
Elsa se había ido y ¿no vendría más?  
Elsa had gone, and would she not come back?
¿Qué diría Barsut?  
What would Barsut say?
> Conditional «diría»: «Diría» is the conditional of «decir», 'would say'. Here it projects a hypothetical reaction: 'What would Barsut say?' — the conditional voices a worry about an uncertain future event.
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Source text: public domain (Roberto Arlt, d. 1942). English translation: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC — original draft, pending editorial review. NOTE: this is a minimal seed excerpt to make the app target runnable; full verified content is authored through the content pipeline.