# The Seven Madmen, The Abduction Los siete locos · Roberto Arlt · Part Two Source: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/el-secuestro. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/el-secuestro.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/arlt/.m4a. A las nueve de la mañana Erdosain fue a buscarlo a Barsut. At nine in the morning Erdosain went to fetch Barsut. > Doubled direct object: River Plate Spanish often anticipates a person object with a pronoun and then names them: «buscarlo a Barsut» literally stacks «lo» ('him') and «a Barsut» ('Barsut'). The «a» is the 'personal a', required before a human direct object; the redundant «lo» is colloquial, common in Buenos Aires speech. Salieron sin decir palabra. They left without saying a word. Más tarde Erdosain reflexionaba sobre este viaje extraño en el cual el otro hombre fue hacia su destino sin oponer ninguna resistencia. Later Erdosain would reflect on that strange journey in which the other man went toward his fate without putting up any resistance. > Imperfect vs. preterite: «reflexionaba» is imperfect — a habitual, ongoing looking-back ('he would reflect', 'he kept reflecting'). «fue» is preterite — the single completed act of going. Spanish constantly pairs the two: the imperfect frames the mood, the preterite reports what happened. Refiriéndose a esas circunstancias, decía: Referring to those circumstances, he would say: > Gerund of a pronominal verb: «referirse a» ('to refer to') is pronominal — it always carries a reflexive pronoun. In the gerund the pronoun attaches to the end: «refiriéndose» = 'referring (himself) to'. Note the stem change e→i, typical of «-ir» verbs like «referir» in the gerund. –Iba con Barsut como un condenado a muerte marcha hacia el paraje de la ejecución, abandonada toda su fuerza; con una sensación persistente, la del vacío ocupando los intersticios de mis entrañas. —I walked beside Barsut the way a man condemned to death marches toward the place of execution, all his strength gone; with a persistent sensation, that of emptiness filling the gaps inside me. > Absolute participle construction: A past participle plus a noun, with no helping verb, forms an 'absolute clause' that sets a circumstance: «abandonada toda su fuerza» = 'all his strength (having been) abandoned/gone'. The participle «abandonada» agrees in gender and number with «fuerza». «Barsut a su vez estaba ceñudo; yo comprendía que él allí, sentado junto a la ventanilla, con el codo apoyado en el pasamano, acumulaba furores para descargarlos contra el invisible enemigo que su instinto le advertía estaba oculto en la quinta de Temperley». "Barsut, for his part, was scowling; I understood that there, seated by the window, his elbow propped on the handrail, he was storing up rages to unleash against the invisible enemy his instinct warned him lay hidden at the villa in Temperley." > «quinta»: A «quinta» is a country house or estate on the edge of the city, with grounds — the Spanish counterpart of a villa. Temperley is a real suburb south of Buenos Aires; here the «quinta» is the conspirators' hideout. Erdosain continuó: Erdosain went on: –A momentos me decía lo curioso que hubiera resultado para los otros pasajeros el saber que esos dos hombres, hundidos en el acolchado de cuero de los asientos, eran: uno el próximo asesino y el otro su víctima. —Now and then I told myself how curious it would have seemed to the other passengers to learn that those two men, sunk into the leather cushioning of the seats, were: one the soon-to-be murderer and the other his victim. > «lo» + adjective + «que»: «lo» before an adjective makes an abstract noun of degree: «lo curioso que...» = 'how curious...', 'the curious thing about how...'. It is the everyday way to say 'how + adjective' inside a clause, as in «lo difícil que es» ('how hard it is'). «Y sin embargo, todo continuaba lo mismo; el sol luda allá en los campos: habíamos dejado atrás los frigoríficos, las fábricas de estearina y jabón, las fundiciones de vidrio y de hierro, los bretes con el vacuno oliendo los postes, las avenidas a pavimentar con sus llanuras manchadas de yeso y de surcos. "And yet everything went on just the same; the sun blazed out there over the fields: we had left behind the meat-packing plants, the stearin and soap factories, the glass and iron foundries, the cattle pens with the steers nosing the posts, the avenues still to be paved, their flats stained with plaster and furrows. > Pluperfect tense: «habíamos dejado» is the pluperfect: «haber» in the imperfect plus a past participle, 'we had left'. It marks an action completed before another past moment — here, what the train had already passed by the time Erdosain looks out. > «brete»: A «brete» is a narrow cattle chute or pen used to corral and restrain livestock — vocabulary from the Argentine stockyards. The image fixes the train's route through the industrial cattle belt south of the city. Y ahora comenzaba, traspuesto Lanús, el siniestro espectáculo de Remedios de Escalada, monstruosos talleres de ladrillo rojo y sus bocazas negras, bajo cuyos arcos maniobraban las locomotoras, y a lo lejos, en las entrevias, se veían cuadrillas de desdichados apaleando grava o transportando durmientes. And now, with Lanús behind us, began the sinister spectacle of Remedios de Escalada: monstrous red-brick workshops and their black maws, under whose arches the locomotives maneuvered, while far off, between the tracks, gangs of wretches could be seen shoveling gravel or hauling sleepers. > «cuyo» — relative possessive: «cuyo» means 'whose' and agrees with the thing possessed, not the owner: «cuyos arcos» = 'whose arches' (masculine plural, matching «arcos»). It joins two clauses, here linking the workshops to the arches they have. «Más allá, entre una raquítica vegetación de plátanos intoxicados por el hollín y los hedores del petróleo, cruzaba la senda oblicua de los chalets rojos para los empleados de la empresa, con sus jardincitos minúsculos, sus persianas ennegrecidas por el humo y los caminos sembrados de escoria y carbonilla». "Farther on, amid a stunted growth of plane trees poisoned by soot and the reek of petroleum, ran the slanting row of red cottages for the company's employees, with their tiny gardens, their blinds blackened by smoke, and the paths strewn with slag and cinders." > Diminutive «-ito»: «jardincito» is «jardín» ('garden') plus the diminutive «-cito», 'little garden'. Beyond size, the diminutive can color the tone — here it makes the workers' patches sound meager and pitiable rather than merely small. Barsut iba ensimismado. Barsut rode lost in thought. Erdosain, para explicar el exacto término, se dejaba estar. Erdosain, to put it exactly, let himself drift. > «dejarse» + infinitive: «dejarse estar» is an idiom: to let oneself be, to slacken, to go passive. The reflexive «se» on «dejar» ('to let') turns the action back on the subject — he lets himself simply be carried along, doing nothing. Si en aquel momento hubiera visto un convoy avanzando por la línea en sentido contrario, no hubiera pestañeado, tan indiferente le era la vida o la muerte. Had he seen at that moment a train coming up the line from the opposite direction, he would not have blinked, so indifferent to him were life and death. > Past unreal conditional: This is a contrary-to-fact past condition: «si hubiera visto... no hubiera pestañeado» = 'if he had seen... he would not have blinked'. Both clauses use the pluperfect subjunctive (here «hubiera»), a common literary pattern where the result clause also takes «hubiera» rather than the conditional perfect. Así transcurrió el viaje. So the journey passed. Cuando llegaron a Temperley, Barsut se sacudió como si despertara escalofriado de un sueño penoso, y se limitó a decir: When they reached Temperley, Barsut shook himself as if waking with a shiver from a painful dream, and merely said: > «como si» + past subjunctive: «como si» ('as if') always triggers the subjunctive, and for a hypothetical it takes the imperfect subjunctive: «como si despertara» = 'as if he were waking'. The comparison is unreal — he isn't actually waking from sleep. –¿Por dónde es? —Which way is it? Erdosain extendió el brazo, señalando vagamente la distancia que debía caminar, y Barsut siguió el rumbo. Erdosain stretched out his arm, vaguely indicating the distance they had to walk, and Barsut set off in that direction. Ahora cruzaban en silencio las calles hacia la quinta del Astrólogo. Now they crossed the streets in silence toward the Astrologer's villa. Caía el tierno azul de la mañana en los bardales de las calles oblicuas. The tender blue of the morning fell over the hedgerows of the slanting streets. Tallos, pasteles de todos los verdes y árboles, creaban informes edificios vegetales, crestados por penachos flexibles y bifurcados por laberintos de leñosidades rojas. Stalks, pastel washes of every green, and trees built up shapeless vegetal edifices, crested with supple plumes and forked by labyrinths of red woody growth. Esto bajo el aire que ondulaba suavemente, de forma tal, que esas fantásticas construcciones del botánico azar parecían flotar en una atmósfera de oro, que tenía la lucidez vítrea de un cristal cóncavo, reteniendo en su esfericidad el profundo hedor de la tierra. All this beneath the air that rippled softly, in such a way that those fantastic constructions of botanical chance seemed to float in an atmosphere of gold, which had the glassy clarity of a concave lens, holding within its sphere the deep stench of the earth. > «de tal forma que» — result: «de forma tal que» (a variant of «de tal forma que») means 'in such a way that', introducing a result. When the result is presented as a real consequence it takes the indicative, as here with «parecían» ('they seemed'). –Linda la mañana –dijo Barsut. —Lovely morning, said Barsut. > «lindo» in the River Plate: «lindo/linda» means 'pretty, lovely, nice' and is the everyday word for it across Argentina and Uruguay, where Peninsular Spanish would lean on «bonito» or «bello». «Linda la mañana» drops the verb entirely — a clipped, colloquial 'lovely morning'. Y ya no hablaron más hasta llegar al frente de la quinta. And they did not speak again until they reached the front of the villa. > «ya no» — no longer: «ya no» means 'no longer / not anymore'; reinforced with «más» ('no more') it stresses the cutoff: «ya no hablaron más» = 'they spoke no further'. Contrast «ya» alone, which means 'already / now'. –Aquí es –dijo Erdosain. —Here it is, said Erdosain. Barsut dio un salto atrás y mirándolo con una agudeza increíble, exclamó: Barsut sprang back and, eyeing him with an incredible sharpness, exclaimed: > «dar un salto»: Spanish often pairs «dar» ('to give') with a noun where English uses a single verb: «dar un salto» = 'to give a leap', i.e. 'to jump'. Compare «dar un paseo» ('take a walk'), «dar una vuelta» ('go for a turn'). –¿Y cómo sabes que es aquí, si no hay número? —And how do you know it's here, if there's no number? Comentando más tarde esta incidencia, Erdosain decía: Commenting later on this incident, Erdosain would say: «Puede afirmarse que hay un instinto del crimen, un instinto que le permite a uno mentir instantáneamente sin temor a incurrir en contradicciones, un instinto que es como el impulso de conservación y que en el momento más agudo de la lucha le permite encontrar recursos de salvación casi inverosímiles». "One may say there is an instinct for crime, an instinct that lets a man lie instantly without fear of falling into contradictions, an instinct that is like the urge for self-preservation and that, at the sharpest moment of the struggle, lets him find means of escape that are almost beyond belief." > Impersonal/passive «se»: «se» plus a third-person verb makes an impersonal or passive statement with no named agent: «puede afirmarse» = 'it can be asserted', 'one may say'. It is the standard way Spanish states something generally true without saying who is doing it. > «uno» as generic 'one': «uno» (or «una») is the impersonal 'one / a person / you-in-general': «le permite a uno mentir» = 'lets one lie'. The pronoun «le» and the «a uno» double up, as Spanish likes to do with indirect objects. Erdosain levantó la vista y con un aplomo inesperado para él y sorprendente después, le contestó: Erdosain raised his eyes and, with a composure unexpected in him and surprising afterward, answered him: –Porque vine ayer a dar vueltas por acá. —Because I came around here yesterday to look about. > «acá» vs. «aquí»: In the River Plate «acá» ('here, around here') is the everyday word where other regions prefer «aquí». Likewise «allá» tends to replace «allí». «Dar vueltas por acá» = 'to wander around here'. Quería ver si veía a Elsa. I wanted to see if I could spot Elsa. > Imperfect for intention and attempt: Both verbs are imperfect: «quería» softens the want ('I wanted to', less blunt than «quise»), and «veía» frames an open, ongoing trying ('whether I might see'). The imperfect is the tense of unfinished intention here, not of a single completed act. Barsut lo miró dudando. Barsut looked at him doubtfully. Hubiera afirmado que Erdosain mentía, pero el amor propio le impedía retroceder, y Erdosain llamando, golpeó fuertemente con las palmas de las manos. He would have sworn that Erdosain was lying, but his pride kept him from backing down, and Erdosain, to announce them, clapped hard with the palms of his hands. > «amor propio»: «amor propio» is not 'self-love' in a vain sense but 'pride, self-respect, sense of dignity' — the feeling that makes you refuse to back down or admit you were wrong. Here it stops Barsut from retreating even though he suspects a lie. Tapándole hasta la mitad del rostro el ancha ala de un sombrero de paja, y en mangas de camisa, se detuvo frente al portón de alambre pintado de rojo el Hombre que vio a la Partera. The broad brim of a straw hat covering half his face, and in his shirtsleeves, the Man Who Saw the Midwife stopped before the red-painted wire gate. > «en mangas de camisa»: A fixed phrase: 'in shirtsleeves', i.e. with no jacket, the sleeves showing. «manga» is 'sleeve'. The detail marks the man as informal, at home, a worker rather than a visitor. –¿Está la señora? –preguntó Barsut. —Is the lady in? asked Barsut. > «estar» for presence: «estar» (not «ser») is used for being-present or being-located: «¿Está la señora?» = 'Is the lady here / in?'. «ser» would ask about identity or essence instead. Bromberg, sin contestar, corrió el cerrojo y abrió el portón: luego se internó en un sendero que torcía hacia la casa entre el eucaliptal, y los dos hombres lo siguieron. Bromberg, without answering, slid the bolt and opened the gate: then he started up a path that wound toward the house through the eucalyptus grove, and the two men followed him. > Collective «-al»: The suffix «-al» turns a tree name into the place where they grow in a stand: «eucalipto» → «eucaliptal», 'eucalyptus grove'. Compare «naranjo» → «naranjal» ('orange grove'), «caña» → «cañaveral» ('reed bed'). Repentinamente una voz gritó: Suddenly a voice shouted: –¿Dónde van ustedes? —Where are you going? > «ustedes» as plural 'you': Latin American Spanish has no «vosotros»: «ustedes» is the only plural 'you', used for both formal and familiar, and it takes third-person plural verbs («van»). «¿Dónde van ustedes?» = 'Where are you (all) going?'. Barsut movió la cabeza. Barsut turned his head. Bromberg giró sobre los talones, y como si se hubiera roto algún resorte de su brazo, éste se alargó semejante a un rayo. Bromberg spun on his heels, and as if some spring in his arm had snapped, the arm shot out like a lightning bolt. > «como si» + pluperfect subjunctive: For an unreal comparison set in the past, «como si» takes the pluperfect subjunctive: «como si se hubiera roto» = 'as if it had snapped'. The pronominal «se romper» here reads as 'to break / snap (by itself)'. Barsut abrió la boca en un frenesí de aire, doblándose instantáneamente la parte superior de su cuerpo. Barsut opened his mouth in a frenzy for air, the upper part of his body doubling over instantly. Iba a apretarse el estómago con las manos, pero el brazo de Bromberg dilató el ángulo de otro golpe, y bajo el cross de mandíbula entrechocaron los dientes de Barsut. He was about to clutch his stomach with his hands, but Bromberg's arm widened the angle of another blow, and under the cross to the jaw Barsut's teeth clashed together. > «ir a» + infinitive (past): «ir a» plus an infinitive is the 'going to' future; in the imperfect it expresses an action on the verge of happening in the past: «iba a apretarse» = 'he was about to clutch'. The «-se» on «apretar» makes it 'clutch (his own) stomach'. Cayó, y aplastado entre el pasto parecía estar muerto, con sus piernas encogidas y los labios ligeramente entreabiertos. He fell, and crushed into the grass he seemed to be dead, his legs drawn up and his lips slightly parted. > «pasto» — grass: In the River Plate «pasto» is the ordinary word for 'grass / lawn', where Peninsular Spanish would say «hierba» or «césped». «Pasto» elsewhere can mean fodder; here it is simply the ground he falls on. Apareció el Astrólogo, y Bromberg, serio, casi triste, se inclinó sobre el caído. The Astrologer appeared, and Bromberg, grave, almost sad, bent over the fallen man. > Participle as noun: A past participle with an article becomes a noun for the person in that state: «el caído» = 'the fallen one', the man who has fallen. Spanish forms such nouns freely, as with «el herido» ('the wounded man'), «los desaparecidos» ('the disappeared'). El Astrólogo lo tomó por la coyuntura de los brazos, con los dedos en garfio bajo los sobacos, y en esta forma lo condujeron hasta la cochera abandonada. The Astrologer took him by the joint of the arms, his fingers hooked under the armpits, and in this manner they carried him to the abandoned coach house. Erdosain hizo correr sobre los rodillos el portalón pintado de color ocre, olor de pasto seco y un torbellino de insectos escapó de la tarbea negra. Erdosain ran the ochre-painted gate along its rollers, and a smell of dry grass and a whirl of insects escaped from the black gloom within. > Causative «hacer» + infinitive: «hacer» plus an infinitive means 'to make / cause something to happen': «hizo correr el portalón» = 'he made the gate run', i.e. he ran/slid the gate. The subject causes the action rather than performing it directly. Introdujeron al desvanecido hasta un box: una gruesa cadena estaba asegurada a uno de los pilares por un candado. They brought the unconscious man into a stall: a thick chain was fastened to one of the pillars by a padlock. > «desvanecerse» — to faint: «desvanecerse» means 'to faint, to pass out' (also 'to vanish'). The participle made noun, «el desvanecido», is 'the man who has fainted', the unconscious one — another participle-as-noun, like «el caído» earlier. El Astrólogo aseguró con el extremo de ésta por encima del tobillo, el pie de Barsut, hizo varios nudos con los eslabones, luego lo aseguró con un candado, rechinó éste al abrirse, y Erdosain, enderezándose sobre el caído, dijo mirándolo al Astrólogo: With the end of the chain the Astrologer secured Barsut's foot above the ankle, made several knots with the links, then fastened it with a padlock, which screeched as it opened, and Erdosain, straightening up over the fallen man, said, looking at the Astrologer: > «al» + infinitive: «al» plus an infinitive means 'on / upon (doing)': «rechinó éste al abrirse» = 'it screeched on opening'. It packs a clause of time into two words. The reflexive «-se» makes «abrir» intransitive — the padlock opens, rather than someone opening it. –¿Ha visto? —You see? > Present perfect: «ha visto» is the present perfect: «haber» plus a past participle, 'have seen'. As a tag it works like English 'You see?' / 'Did you notice?'. Note the formal «usted» address implied by the third-person «ha». La libreta de cheques no la tiene encima. He doesn't have the checkbook on him. > Fronted object + clitic doubling: The object «la libreta de cheques» is moved to the front for emphasis and then echoed by the pronoun «la»: literally 'The checkbook, he doesn't have it on him.' This clitic doubling of a fronted object is normal Spanish word order, not redundancy. Eran las diez de la mañana. It was ten in the morning. > Telling time with «ser»: Clock time uses «ser» and agrees in number with the hour: «eran las diez» = 'it was ten' (plural, because of «las diez»). The singular «era la una» is used only for one o'clock. El Astrólogo miró el reloj y dijo: The Astrologer looked at his watch and said: –Tengo tiempo de tomar el rápido que llega a Rosario a las seis. —I have time to catch the express that gets into Rosario at six. > «el rápido» — the express: «el rápido» (short for «el tren rápido») is 'the express train', one that skips minor stops. Rosario is the major city upriver from Buenos Aires; the Astrologer is heading there to set the plan's alibi in motion. ¿Quiere acompañarme hasta Retiro? Will you come with me as far as Retiro? –¿Cómo, va a Rosario? —What, you're going to Rosario? –¿Y, si tengo que hacerle el telegrama a la dueña de la pensión? —Well, what if I have to send the telegram to the landlady of the boarding house? > «pensión» and «dueña»: A «pensión» is a boarding house — cheap lodging with rooms let by the month, a fixture of 1920s Buenos Aires. The «dueña» is its female owner/landlady; «dueño/dueña» is 'owner'. The plan needs her telegraphed to cover Barsut's disappearance. ¿Usted tiene el número? Do you have the number? –Sí, todo. —Yes, everything. –Es lo mejor para apoderarse del equipaje de Barsut sin despertar sospechas. —It's the best way to get hold of Barsut's luggage without arousing suspicion. > «apoderarse de»: «apoderarse de» is a pronominal verb meaning 'to seize, to take possession of', always followed by «de» plus its object: «apoderarse del equipaje» = 'to take hold of the luggage'. The reflexive «-se» is fixed and untranslatable here. ¿En la pensión no tiene nada más? Is there nothing else of his at the boarding house? –Sí, el baúl y dos muletas. —Yes, the trunk and two crutches. –Perfectamente. —Perfect. Dejémonos de charlas y vamos al grano. Let's drop the chitchat and get to the point. > «ir al grano»: «ir al grano» is an idiom: literally 'to go to the grain (kernel)', meaning 'to get to the point'. «Dejémonos de charlas» ('let's quit the chatter') is the «nosotros» command of pronominal «dejarse de», 'to cut out, leave off'. A las seis estaré en Rosario, le hago el telegrama a la vieja, usted se da una vuelta mañana a las diez y haciéndose el zonzo pregunta si Barsut no llegó todavía a Rosario, y como yo no he llegado, usted agrega que sabe que me han ofrecido un importante empleo, etc., etc. At six I'll be in Rosario, I send the old woman the telegram, you swing by tomorrow at ten and, playing dumb, ask whether Barsut still hasn't reached Rosario, and since I haven't arrived, you add that you happen to know I've been offered an important job, and so on, and so on. > «hacerse el zonzo»: «zonzo» is River Plate slang for 'silly, dim, dopey'. «Hacerse el zonzo» = 'to play dumb, act the fool' — the «hacerse el + adjective» pattern means 'to pretend to be'. The Astrologer is coaching Erdosain to feign innocence. > «darse una vuelta»: «darse una vuelta» means 'to swing by, drop in, take a stroll over' somewhere. The pronominal «se» colors it as casual and unhurried — exactly the offhand visit the alibi requires. ¿Qué le parece? How does that sound to you? > «parecer» — to seem: «parecer» ('to seem') works like «gustar»: the thing judged is the subject and the person is an indirect object. «¿Qué le parece?» = literally 'What does it seem to you?', i.e. 'What do you think?' / 'How does it sound?' –Muy bien. —Very good. A las doce el Astrólogo subía al tren. At twelve the Astrologer was boarding the train. > Imperfect for a closing scene: «subía» is imperfect — not 'he boarded' as a single fact but 'he was boarding', the action held open as the chapter fades out. «subir a» is 'to get on / board' a vehicle; the «a» is required after «subir». --- Source text: public domain (Roberto Arlt, d. 1942). English translation: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC — original draft, pending editorial review. 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