# The Seven Madmen, In the Cavern

Los siete locos · Roberto Arlt · Part Two

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/en-la-caverna. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/en-la-caverna.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/arlt/<line id>.m4a.


Ya en la calle, Erdosain observó que orvallaba, pero continuó caminando, empujado por un rencor sordo, malhumor de no poder pensar.  
Out in the street now, Erdosain noticed that it was drizzling, but he kept walking, driven by a dull resentment, the bad mood of not being able to think.
> «orvallar» — to drizzle: «orvallar» is a regional verb meaning 'to drizzle', to rain in a fine mist. The imperfect «orvallaba» sets the weather as an ongoing backdrop rather than a single event. It is a bookish, almost dialectal touch among Arlt's otherwise raw street vocabulary.

Los acontecimientos se complicaban... y él, en tanto, ¿qué era en medio de esos engranajes que lo iban bloqueando, metiéndose cada vez más adentro de la vida, sumergiéndolo en un fangal que le desesperaba?  
Events were growing tangled... and he, meanwhile, what was he in the middle of those gears that kept locking him in, working their way ever deeper into his life, sinking him into a mire that drove him to despair?
> «ir» + gerund = a process underway: «ir» plus a gerund frames an action as gradual and continuing: «lo iban bloqueando» = 'they kept blocking him', 'they were closing in on him bit by bit'. Arlt strings three gerunds together («bloqueando, metiéndose, sumergiéndolo») to make the gears feel relentless.
Además, estaba aquello... esa impotencia de pensar, de pensar con razonamientos de líneas nítidas, como son las jugadas de ajedrez, y una incoherencia mental que lo encocoraba contra todos.  
Besides, there was that... that helplessness to think, to think with reasoning of clean lines, the way chess moves are, and a mental incoherence that set him on edge against everyone.
> «impotencia de» + infinitive: «impotencia de pensar» = 'the powerlessness to think'. Spanish links the noun to the following infinitive with «de» where English uses 'to'. The repeated «de pensar... de pensar» drives home Erdosain's obsessive circling around the same lack.

Entonces su irritación se volvió contra la bestial felicidad de los tenderos, que a las puertas de sus covachas escupían a la oblicuidad de la lluvia.  
Then his irritation turned against the bestial contentment of the shopkeepers, who at the doors of their hovels spat into the slant of the rain.
> «volverse contra» — to turn against: The pronominal «volverse» plus «contra» means 'to turn against'. «Su irritación se volvió contra...» = 'his irritation turned against...'. «Volvió» here is the preterite of «volver», marking the single decisive shift of his anger onto a new target.
Se imaginó que estaban tramando eternos chanchullos, mientras que sus desventradas mujeres se dejaban ver desde las trastiendas, extendiendo manteles en las mesas cojas, arramblando innobles guisotes que al ser descubiertos en las fuentes arrojaban a la calle flatulencias de pimentón y de sebo, y ásperos relentes de milanesas recalentadas.  
He imagined they were hatching endless swindles, while their gutted wives let themselves be seen from the back rooms, spreading tablecloths over wobbly tables, sweeping up vile stews that, when uncovered in their serving dishes, hurled into the street belches of paprika and tallow, and the harsh stale reek of reheated breaded cutlets.
> «al» + passive infinitive: «al» plus an infinitive means 'on / when (doing)'; here the infinitive is the passive «ser descubiertos», so «al ser descubiertos» = 'when they were uncovered'. Spanish packs an entire time-and-passive clause into three words.
> «chanchullo» — a shady deal: «chanchullo» is a colloquial word for a swindle, a fiddle, a shady piece of business. The plural «eternos chanchullos» = 'endless little swindles', exactly the petty crookedness Erdosain projects onto the shopkeepers.

Caminaba ceñudo, investigando con furor lento las ideas que se incubarían bajo esas frentes estrechas, mirando descaradamente las lívidas caras de los comerciantes, que desde el cuévano de los ojos espiaban con una chispa de ferocidad los compradores que se movían en los negocios fronteros; y Erdosain sentía a momentos ímpetus de insultarlos, antojo de tratarlos de cornudos, de ladrones y de hijos de mala madre, diciéndoles que tenían la falsa gordura de los leprosos y que si algunos estaban flacos era de celar los éxitos de sus prójimos.  
He walked along scowling, probing with a slow fury the ideas that must be incubating beneath those narrow brows, staring brazenly at the livid faces of the merchants, who from the hollows of their eyes spied with a spark of ferocity on the buyers moving about the shops across the way; and at moments Erdosain felt surges to insult them, the urge to call them cuckolds, thieves and sons of a bad mother, to tell them they had the false fatness of lepers and that if some were thin it was from envying their neighbors' successes.
> Conditional of conjecture: The conditional «se incubarían» here does not mean 'would incubate' but expresses a guess about the present/past: 'must be incubating', 'were probably incubating'. Spanish uses the conditional (and the future) to speculate about what is likely true.
> «tratar de» + insult: «tratar a alguien de» plus a noun means 'to call someone (a name)': «tratarlos de cornudos» = 'to call them cuckolds'. «Cornudo» (literally 'horned') is a deceived husband, one of the gravest porteño insults.
Y en su fuero interno los iba injuriando atrozmente, imaginándose que los negociantes aquellos estaban atornillados a próximas quiebras por espantosos pagarés, y que la desdicha que le arrojaba a él al fondo de la desesperación se cerniría también sobre sus mugrientas mujeres, que, con los mismos dedos con que momentos antes habían retirado los trapos en que menstruaban, cortarían ahora el pan que ellos devorarían entre maldiciones dirigidas a sus competidores.  
And in his innermost self he went on insulting them atrociously, imagining that those tradesmen were bolted to imminent bankruptcies by dreadful promissory notes, and that the misery flinging him to the depths of despair would also hang over their filthy wives, who, with the same fingers with which moments before they had taken away the rags they bled into, would now cut the bread the men would devour amid curses aimed at their competitors.
> «en su fuero interno»: «el fuero interno» is the set phrase for one's private conscience, the inner forum where you judge things silently. «En su fuero interno los iba injuriando» = 'in his own mind / inwardly he went on insulting them'.
> Conditional as 'future-in-the-past': Inside a past narrative, the conditional reports what was still to come: «se cerniría también sobre sus mujeres» = 'would also hang over their wives'. The same form drives the chained conditionals «cortarían» and «devorarían» that finish the sentence.

Y sin podérselo explicar se decía que el más educado de esos bribones era de una grosería solapada y profunda, todos envidiosos hasta el tuétano y más desalmados e implacables que cartagineses.  
And without being able to explain it to himself, he told himself that the most polished of those scoundrels was of a sly, deep coarseness, all of them envious to the marrow and more heartless and implacable than Carthaginians.
> Two pronouns on an infinitive: When pronouns attach to an infinitive they pile up and an accent is added: «podér-se-lo» = «poder» + «se» (to himself) + «lo» (it). «Sin podérselo explicar» = 'without being able to explain it to himself'.

A media que iba pasando frente a colchonerías y almacenes y tiendas, pensaba que esos hombres no tenían ningún objeto noble en la existencia, que se pasaban la vida escudriñando con goces malvados la intimidad de sus vecinos, tan canallas como ellos, regocijándose con palabras de falsa compasión de las desgracias que les ocurrían a éstos, chismorreando a diestra y siniestra de aburridos que estaban, y esto le produjo súbitamente tanto encono que de pronto aceptó que lo mejor que podría hacer era irse, pues si no tendría un incidente con esos brutos, bajo cuyas cataduras enfáticas veía alzarse el alma de la ciudad, encanallada, implacable y feroz como ellos.  
As he went on passing in front of mattress shops and grocery stores and dry-goods shops, he thought that those men had no noble purpose in existence, that they spent their lives scrutinizing with wicked relish the private affairs of their neighbors, as scoundrelly as themselves, gloating with words of false compassion over the misfortunes that befell them, gossiping right and left out of sheer boredom, and this suddenly filled him with such rancor that he abruptly accepted that the best thing he could do was leave, for otherwise he would have an incident with those brutes, beneath whose emphatic mugs he saw the soul of the city rise up, debased, implacable and ferocious like them.
> «a diestra y siniestra»: «a diestra y siniestra» (literally 'to right and left') is the idiom for 'every which way', 'all over the place', 'right and left'. Here it paints the shopkeepers gossiping indiscriminately about everyone.
> Causal «de ... que»: «de aburridos que estaban» = 'out of how bored they were', 'so bored were they'. This «de» + adjective + «que» construction gives the cause of an action through an intensified state — a very colloquial turn.

No tenía un propósito determinado, reconocía que tenía el espíritu sucio de asco a la vida, y de pronto al ver que pasaba un tranvía hacia Plaza Once, a grandes saltos trepó a la plataforma.  
He had no fixed purpose; he recognized that his spirit was filthy with disgust at life, and suddenly, seeing a streetcar pass heading toward Plaza Once, in great bounds he scrambled up onto the platform.
> «al» + infinitive of time: «al ver que pasaba un tranvía» = 'on seeing a streetcar passing'. «Al» plus the infinitive compresses a whole 'when / as' clause; the embedded «pasaba» is imperfect because the streetcar was in mid-motion.
Ya en la boletería sacó pasaje de ida y vuelta a Ramos Mejía.  
At the ticket window he bought a round-trip ticket to Ramos Mejía.
> «de ida y vuelta» — round trip: «ida y vuelta» literally means 'going and returning', so «pasaje de ida y vuelta» is a round-trip / return ticket. Ramos Mejía is a western suburb of Buenos Aires on the rail line Erdosain is riding.
Iba para allá como hubiera podido ir en otra dirección.  
He was going there as he might have gone in any other direction.
Cansado, desconcertado con la certeza de que había arrojado su alma a un foso del cual ya no podría salir nunca más.  
Tired, disconcerted by the certainty that he had hurled his soul into a pit from which he could now never climb out again.
> Pluperfect for a prior act: «había arrojado» is the pluperfect ('had hurled'): a past action completed before the moment of the narrative. It frames the soul already thrown into the pit as a done thing he can only now contemplate.
Y esperándolo, la Coja.  
And waiting for him, the lame woman.
¿No hubiera sido preferible ser capitán de navío y comandar un superdreadnought?  
Wouldn't it have been preferable to be a ship's captain and command a super-dreadnought?
> Pluperfect subjunctive for a hypothetical past: «hubiera sido preferible» = 'would it have been preferable'. The pluperfect subjunctive («hubiera» + participle) expresses a counterfactual about the past; Spanish often uses it where English uses 'would have been'.
Las chimeneas vomitarían torrentes de humo y en el puente de mando conversaría con el comandante de torre, mientras que en el corazón se le pintaría la imagen de una mujer que acaso no fuera su esposa.  
The funnels would vomit torrents of smoke and on the bridge he would talk with the turret commander, while in his heart there would take shape the image of a woman who perhaps was not his wife.
> Subjunctive after «acaso»: «acaso» ('perhaps') introduces doubt, so the verb shifts to the subjunctive: «una mujer que acaso no fuera su esposa» = 'a woman who perhaps was not his wife'. The imperfect subjunctive «fuera» keeps the whole daydream tentative.
Mas, ¿por qué su vida era así?  
But why was his life like this?
> «mas» vs. «más»: «mas» without an accent is a literary conjunction meaning 'but' (= «pero»). It is not «más» ('more'), which carries the accent. Arlt uses the unaccented «mas» for a slightly elevated, written 'but'.
Y la de los otros también, también «así» como si el «así» fuera un cuño de desgracia que visto en otro era de relieve más borroso.  
And the lives of others too, also "like this," as if the "like this" were a stamp of misfortune that, seen in someone else, stood out in fainter relief.
> «como si» + imperfect subjunctive: «como si» ('as if') always takes the imperfect (or pluperfect) subjunctive for an unreal comparison: «como si el así fuera un cuño» = 'as if the "like this" were a stamp'. The subjunctive «fuera» marks it as hypothetical, not fact.

¿Qué se había hecho de la vida fuerte, que ciertos hombres contienen en su envase como la sangre de un león?  
What had become of the strong life, the life certain men hold within their vessel like the blood of a lion?
> «hacerse de» — to become of: «¿Qué se ha hecho de...?» is the idiom 'what has become of...?'. In the pluperfect, «¿Qué se había hecho de la vida fuerte?» = 'what had become of the strong life?'. The impersonal «se» carries the whole 'become of' sense.
La vida fuerte que hace de pronto que una existencia se nos aparezca sin los tiempos previos de preparación y que tiene la perfecta soltura de las composiciones cinematográficas.  
The strong life that suddenly makes an existence appear to us without the prior stages of preparation and that has the perfect fluency of cinematic compositions.
> «hacer que» + subjunctive: «hacer que» ('to make / cause that') triggers the subjunctive in the following clause: «hace que una existencia se nos aparezca» = 'makes an existence appear to us'. The subjunctive «aparezca» is required because the main verb imposes the result.

¿No eran acaso así las fotografías de los héroes?  
Weren't the photographs of heroes perhaps like this?
¿Quién conservaba una fotografía de los héroes?  
Who kept a photograph of the heroes?

¿Quién conservaba una fotografía de Lenin discutiendo en un cuartujo de Londres, o de Mussolini vagabundo por los caminos de Italia?  
Who kept a photograph of Lenin arguing in some grubby little room in London, or of Mussolini tramping the roads of Italy?
> «cuartujo» — a wretched little room: «cuartujo» is «cuarto» ('room') plus the pejorative suffix «-ujo», giving 'a mean, shabby little room'. Spanish builds such loaded diminutives/augmentatives freely; the suffix does the work of a whole disparaging adjective.
Y, sin embargo, eran de pronto revelados en un balcón arengando a la multitud barbuda, o entre las columnas truncas de unas ruinas recientes, con zapatos de sport, y un sombrero jipi–japa que no desdecía la fiereza del semblante de conquistador.  
And yet they were suddenly revealed on a balcony haranguing the bearded crowd, or among the broken columns of some recent ruins, in sports shoes and a panama hat that did not belie the fierceness of their conqueror's faces.
> «jipijapa» — a panama hat: A «sombrero jipijapa» is a panama hat, named for Jipijapa, the Ecuadorian town famous for weaving them. The clash of the woven straw hat with the 'conqueror's face' is exactly the incongruity Arlt wants.
En cambio, él sentía allí, localizada en su vida, las pequeñas imágenes de la Coja, del capitán, de su esposa, de Barsut, todas existencias que en cuanto se apartaban de sus ojos quedaban restituidas a la minúscula dimensión que le confiere la distancia a los cuerpos físicos.  
He, by contrast, felt there, lodged in his life, the small images of the lame woman, the captain, his wife, Barsut, all of them lives that, the moment they left his sight, were restored to the tiny dimension that distance confers on physical bodies.
> «en cuanto» — as soon as: «en cuanto» means 'as soon as / the moment that'. With a habitual past it takes the imperfect: «en cuanto se apartaban de sus ojos» = 'the moment they left his sight'. The pronominal «se apartaban» = 'moved away / withdrew'.

Apoyó la cabeza en el cristal de la ventanilla.  
He rested his head against the glass of the little window.
El vagón se deslizó y luego se detuvo, al segundo silbido del guardatren, arrancó el convoy, y éste entró rechinando fieramente en los entrerrieles que chocaban férreamente al ser apartados por el filo de las ruedas.  
The car slid forward and then stopped; at the guard's second whistle the train pulled away, and it entered, screeching fiercely, the points and crossings that clanged like iron as they were forced apart by the edge of the wheels.
> Preterite of motion: «arrancó» is the preterite of «arrancar», here 'pulled away / started off' (of a vehicle). The chain of preterites — «se deslizó», «se detuvo», «arrancó», «entró» — gives the train's departure as a sequence of sharp, completed actions.

Las luces verdes y rojas del subterráneo le encandilaron los ojos por un instante, luego volvió a cerrarlos.  
The green and red lights of the underground dazzled his eyes for an instant; then he closed them again.
> «volver a» + infinitive = to do again: «volver a» plus an infinitive means 'to do something again': «volvió a cerrarlos» = 'he closed them again'. The pronoun «los» (his eyes) attaches to the infinitive «cerrar». Spanish prefers this to a separate word for 'again'.
En la noche, el tren comunicaba su trepidación a los rieles, y la masa multiplicada por la velocidad, imprimía a sus pensamientos el vértigo de una marcha igualmente implacable y vertiginosa.  
In the night the train communicated its shuddering to the rails, and the mass multiplied by speed imprinted on his thoughts the vertigo of a course equally implacable and dizzying.

Cracc... cracc... cracc... arrancaban las ruedas en cada junta de riel, y ese monorritmo sordo y formidable le alivianaba de su rencor, tornaba más ligero su espíritu, mientras que la carne se dejaba estar en la somnolencia que comunica a los sentidos la velocidad.  
Crack... crack... crack... the wheels tore at every rail joint, and that dull, tremendous monorhythm relieved him of his resentment, made his spirit lighter, while the flesh let itself settle into the drowsiness that speed conveys to the senses.
> «dejarse estar» — to let oneself be: «dejarse estar» is a River Plate idiom meaning 'to let oneself go / settle / drift'. «La carne se dejaba estar en la somnolencia» = 'the flesh let itself sink into drowsiness' — a passive, surrendering posture Arlt loves for Erdosain.

Luego pensó que Ergueta ya estaba loco.  
Then he thought that Ergueta was already mad.
Recordó las palabras del otro cuando estaba a la orilla de la desgracia: «rajá, turrito, rajá», y afirmando la cabeza en el ángulo acolchado del respaldar, pensó en tiempos idos, cerrando los ojos para distinguir con claridad las imágenes de un recuerdo.  
He recalled the other man's words when he stood at the edge of ruin: "beat it, you little crook, beat it," and steadying his head against the padded corner of the seatback, he thought of times gone by, closing his eyes to make out clearly the images of a memory.
> Lunfardo: «rajar» and «turro»: Porteño slang (lunfardo): «rajá» is the voseo command of «rajar», 'beat it / clear off'. «Turrito» is the diminutive of «turro», 'a no-good, a low-life crook'. Together, an affectionately contemptuous 'scram, you little scoundrel'.
> «ido» — past participle of «ir»: «idos» is the regular past participle of «ir» ('to go'), following the standard -ir verb -ido pattern, used as an adjective: «tiempos idos» = 'times gone by, bygone days'. It belongs to the regular «-ado/-ido» participle class. Genuine irregular past participles are hecho, dicho, visto, puesto, abierto, roto, muerto, escrito, vuelto.
Este le causaba cierta extrañeza, pues era la primera vez que observaba que en un recuerdo ciertas figuras tienen la dimensión normal con que se las ha conocido en la realidad, mientras que otras figuras o cosas son pequeñitas como soldados de plomo o tan sólo presentan un perfil, careciendo de profundidad.  
This produced in him a certain strangeness, for it was the first time he had noticed that in a memory certain figures keep the normal dimension in which one has known them in reality, while other figures or things are tiny like lead soldiers or present only a profile, lacking depth.
> Impersonal «se» + object pronoun: «se las ha conocido» uses impersonal «se» ('one has known them') with the object pronoun «las» (the figures). Spanish uses «se» + verb where English reaches for 'one' or the passive: 'in which one has known them'.
Así, junto a la corpulencia de un negro, cuya mano perdíase en el trasero de un pequeño, veía una mesita minúscula, como para muñecas, sobre la que estaban aplastadas las pequeñas cabezas de unos hombres ladrones, mientras que el techo, de altura real, daba un aspecto de desolación más extraordinaria al gris paraje del recuerdo.  
Thus, beside the bulk of a black man whose hand was lost in the backside of a small boy, he saw a minuscule little table, as if for dolls, on which the small heads of some thieving men were flattened, while the ceiling, at its real height, gave an aspect of even more extraordinary desolation to the gray scene of the memory.
> Enclitic pronoun on a finite verb: In older/literary Spanish the reflexive pronoun could attach to the end of a conjugated verb: «perdíase» = «se perdía», 'was lost / disappeared'. Modern prose places it before («se perdía»); Arlt's enclitic gives a literary, slightly archaic cadence.

Una muchedumbre oscura se movía allí, en el interior de su alma; luego la sombra, como una nube, cubría de cansancio su pena, y junto a la mesita donde dormían los pequeñitos ladrones adultos, se erguían gigantescos y morrudos como un cráneo de buey, el relieve del patrón de la fonda, con los dedos engrampados en las musculosas bolas de sus brazos.  
A dark multitude stirred there, inside his soul; then the shadow, like a cloud, covered his grief with weariness, and beside the little table where the tiny grown-up thieves slept, there rose up, gigantic and brawny as an ox's skull, the looming shape of the eating-house owner, his fingers clamped into the muscular balls of his arms.
> «fonda» — a cheap eating house: A «fonda» is a humble, cheap eatery / tavern serving working-class food, often with rooms. It is the 'cavern' of the chapter's title — the den of thieves and newspaper-sellers Erdosain is remembering. «El patrón de la fonda» = 'the owner of the eating house'.
Y otro recuerdo le demostraba cuán exacto era su presentimiento de inminente caída, cuando aún no había ni pensado defraudar a la Azucarera, pero ya buscaba en los parajes siniestros una imagen de su posible personalidad.  
And another memory showed him how exact his presentiment of imminent ruin had been, when he had not even thought yet of defrauding the Sugar Company, but already sought, in sinister haunts, an image of his possible self.
> «cuán» — how (+ adjective): «cuán» is the literary short form of «cuánto» before an adjective or adverb, meaning 'how': «cuán exacto era» = 'how exact it was'. In everyday speech people say «qué exacto era»; «cuán» belongs to a more elevated register.

¡Cuántos senderos había en su cerebro!  
How many paths there were in his brain!
Pero ahora iba hacia el que conducía a la fonda, la fonda enorme que hundía su cubo taciturno como una carnicería hasta los últimos repliegues de su cerebelo, y aunque el relieve de ese cubo que nacía en su frente y terminaba en la nuca, era de veinte grados, las minúsculas mesitas con los ladroncitos adultos no resbalaban por el piso como hubiera sido lógico, sino que el cubo se enderezaba bajo el contrapeso de una costumbre instantánea, la de pensar en él, y su carne acostumbrada ya a la velocidad multiplicada por la masa del tren eléctrico, se dejaba estar en una inercia vertiginosa; y ahora que el recuerdo había vencido la inercia de todas las células, aparecía ante sus ojos la fonda, como un cuadrilátero exactamente recortado.  
But now he was heading toward the one that led to the eating house, the enormous eating house that sank its taciturn cube like a butcher's shop into the very last folds of his cerebellum, and although the slope of that cube, which began at his forehead and ended at the nape of his neck, was twenty degrees, the minuscule little tables with the grown-up little thieves did not slide across the floor as would have been logical, but rather the cube righted itself under the counterweight of an instantaneous habit, that of thinking about it, and his flesh, already used to speed multiplied by the mass of the electric train, let itself settle into a dizzying inertia; and now that the memory had overcome the inertia of every cell, the eating house appeared before his eyes, like a precisely cut-out quadrilateral.
> Pluperfect subjunctive in a comparison: «como hubiera sido lógico» = 'as would have been logical'. After «como» introducing a counterfactual, Spanish uses the pluperfect subjunctive «hubiera sido» to mark what did not in fact happen — the tables did not slide off.
El cual parecía que ahondaba sus rectas al interior de su pecho, de modo que casi podía admitir que si se mirara a un espejo, el frente de su cuerpo presentara un salón estrecho, ahondado hacia la perspectiva del espejo.  
And it seemed to deepen its straight lines into the interior of his chest, so that he could almost grant that, if he looked at himself in a mirror, the front of his body would present a narrow hall, hollowed toward the perspective of the mirror.
> Imperfect subjunctive in an «if» clause: A hypothetical condition takes the imperfect subjunctive in the «si» clause: «si se mirara a un espejo» = 'if he looked at himself in a mirror'. Arlt then keeps the result clause in the subjunctive «presentara» too (literary usage; modern Spanish would use the conditional «presentaría»).
Y él caminaba en el interior de sí mismo, sobre un pavimento enfangado de salivazos y aserrín, y cuyo marco perfecto se biselaba hacia lo infinito de las sensaciones adyacentes.  
And he walked about inside himself, over a pavement muddied with gobs of spit and sawdust, whose perfect frame beveled away toward the infinite of the adjacent sensations.
> «lo» + adjective = the abstract quality: «lo» before an adjective forms an abstract noun: «lo infinito» = 'the infinite, what is infinite'. Spanish uses «lo» (not «el/la») to turn any adjective into an idea: «lo bueno», 'what is good'; «lo peor», 'the worst part'.

Y pensaba que si la Coja hubiera estado a su lado, él le diría refiriéndose a un recuerdo:  
And he was thinking that if the lame woman had been at his side, he would say to her, referring to a memory:
> Mixed conditional: Arlt mixes tenses: the «si» clause is pluperfect subjunctive «hubiera estado» ('had she been'), but the main clause uses the simple conditional «diría» ('he would say'). The blend keeps the imagined speech vivid and present rather than locked in the past.

–Aún yo no era ladrón.  
"I was not yet a thief."
> «aún no» + imperfect: «aún no» means 'not yet'. With the imperfect «era», «aún no era ladrón» = 'I was not yet a thief' — a continuing state up to a point in the past. The imperfect (not preterite) marks the open, ongoing condition.

Erdosain se imaginó que la Coja lo miraba, y él, con un tono aburrido, continuó:  
Erdosain imagined that the lame woman was looking at him, and he, in a bored tone, went on:

–Al lado del viejo edificio de «Crítica», en la calle Sarmiento, había una fonda.  
"Beside the old building of Crítica, on Sarmiento Street, there was an eating house."

Hipólita levantó los ojos como interrogándolo, de pronto, entre el traqueteo infernal de los coches al cruzar las entrevias de Caballito, Erdosain se imaginó que era un personaje que había vivido como un bandido, pero que ya se había regenerado, y entonces continuó diciéndole a su interlocutora invisible:  
Hipólita raised her eyes as if questioning him; suddenly, amid the infernal rattle of the cars as they crossed the track-crossings of Caballito, Erdosain imagined he was a character who had lived like a bandit but had already reformed, and so he went on saying to his invisible listener:
> Pronominal pluperfect: «regenerarse» (pronominal) = 'to reform / turn one's life around'. The pluperfect «se había regenerado» = 'had already reformed', an act completed before the moment he is imagining — the fantasy self he tries on for Hipólita.

–Y allí se reunían vendedores de diarios y ladrones.  
"And there newspaper sellers and thieves gathered."
> «reunirse» — to gather (pronominal): «reunirse» (pronominal) means 'to gather, meet up'. The imperfect «se reunían» = 'they would gather / used to gather', a habitual past action — this was the regular crowd of the fonda, not a one-time event.

–¿Ah, sí?  
"Oh, really?"

El patrón, para evitar que los tumultos formados por esta canalla terminaran de romperles los cristales de los escaparates, tenía bajadas continuamente las cortinas metálicas.  
The owner, to keep the brawls these scoundrels stirred up from finishing off the breaking of his shop windows, kept the metal shutters continuously lowered.
> «evitar que» + subjunctive: «evitar que» ('to prevent that / keep from') requires the subjunctive: «evitar que ... terminaran de romper» = 'to keep them from finishing off the breaking'. The imperfect subjunctive «terminaran» follows because the main clause is in the past.
> «canalla» — rabble / scoundrel: «canalla» is both a count noun ('a scoundrel, a swine') and, as here with «esta», a collective: «esta canalla» = 'this rabble, this riffraff'. Arlt uses it repeatedly for the underworld crowd of the cavern.

La luz entraba al salón por los vidrios de la banderola teñidos de azul, de forma que en esa leonera de muros pintados de gris como los de una carnicería turca, flotaba una oscuridad que tornaba lechosa la humareda de los cigarros.  
The light entered the hall through the blue-tinted panes of the transom, so that in that den of walls painted gray like those of a Turkish butcher shop there floated a darkness that turned the cigar smoke milky.
> «leonera» — a den: Literally a «leonera» is a 'lion's cage'; figuratively it means a squalid, chaotic den or hole. It rhymes with the chapter's «caverna» imagery, casting the fonda's clientele as caged beasts.

En aquel cubo sombrío, de techo cruzado por enormes vigas, y que la cocina de la fonda inundaba de neblinas de menestra y de sebo, se movía el tumulto oscuro, una «merza» de ladrones, sujetos de frentes sombreadas por las viseras de las gorras y pañuelos flojamente anudados en el escote de las camisetas.  
In that gloomy cube, its ceiling crossed by enormous beams, and which the eating house's kitchen flooded with mists of stewed vegetables and tallow, the dark tumult stirred, a "merza" of thieves, fellows with brows shaded by the visors of their caps and kerchiefs loosely knotted at the open necks of their undershirts.
> Lunfardo: «merza»: «merza» is lunfardo (porteño slang) for a low, vulgar crowd — riffraff, a rabble of the cheapest sort. As an adjective it also means 'tacky / cheap'. Arlt flags it with guillemets to mark it as street vocabulary.

De once a dos de la tarde se apeñuscaban en torno de las grasientas mesas de marmol, para chupar conchas de almejas podridas o jugar a los naipes entre vasos de vino.  
From eleven to two in the afternoon they crowded around the greasy marble tables to suck on rotten clamshells or play cards among glasses of wine.
> «jugar a» + game: With games and sports Spanish uses «jugar a» + the definite article: «jugar a los naipes» = 'to play cards', «jugar al fútbol» = 'to play soccer'. The «a» is obligatory; dropping it ('jugar fútbol') is a regional shortcut, not standard here.

En aquella bruma hedionda los semblantes afirmaban gestos canallescos, se veían jetas como alargadas por la violencia de una estrangulación, las mandíbulas caídas y los labios aflojados en forma de embudo; negros de ojos de porcelana y brillantes dentaduras entre la almorrana de sus belfos, que le tocaban el trasero a los menores haciendo rechinar los dientes; rateros y «batidores» con perfil de tigre, la frente hundida y la pupila tiesa.  
In that stinking haze the faces fixed scoundrelly expressions; one saw mugs as if stretched out by the violence of a strangling, jaws fallen and lips slackened into a funnel shape; black men with porcelain eyes and gleaming teeth between the hemorrhoidal swell of their thick lips, who pawed at the backsides of the boys while grinding their teeth; petty thieves and "batidores" with the profile of a tiger, the forehead sunken and the pupil rigid.
> Lunfardo: «batidor»: In lunfardo, «batir» is 'to squeal / inform', so a «batidor» is a snitch, a police informer. The marked spelling and guillemets flag it as underworld jargon — among the thieves, the lowest, most despised type.
> «jeta» — mug, ugly face: «jeta» is coarse slang for a face, especially a thick-lipped or ugly one — 'mug, kisser'. It belongs to Arlt's deliberately brutal register for the den; «belfos» (next) are an animal's flews, applied here contemptuously to human lips.

Un vocerío ronco vomitaba estos racimos espatarrados en los bancos y acodados a los mármoles, entre los que se deslizaban los «lanceros», de traje adecentado, cuello flojo, chaleco gris y hongos de siete pesos.  
A hoarse clamor poured from these clusters sprawled across the benches and propped on their elbows against the marble, among whom slipped the "lanceros," in tidied-up suits, loose collars, gray waistcoats, and seven-peso bowler hats.
> Lunfardo: «lancero» / «hongo»: A «lancero» in lunfardo is a pickpocket (one who 'lances' a pocket). A «hongo» (literally 'mushroom') is a bowler hat. So these are sharply dressed pickpockets in cheap bowlers — the cleaner-cut grade of the den's thieves.
Algunos acababan de salir de Azcuénaga y daban noticias de los nuevos presos transmitiendo mensajes, otros para inspirar confianza, gastaban anteojos de carey, y todos al entrar soslayaban el antro con rapidísimas miradas.  
Some had just gotten out of Azcuénaga and were giving news of the new prisoners, passing along messages; others, to inspire confidence, wore tortoiseshell glasses; and all of them, on entering, scanned the dive sidelong with very rapid glances.
> «acabar de» + infinitive = to have just: «acabar de» plus an infinitive means 'to have just (done)': «acababan de salir de Azcuénaga» = 'they had just gotten out of Azcuénaga' (a police-precinct / jail). The imperfect «acababan» fits the habitual scene.
Hablaban en voz baja, sonriendo convulsivamente, pagando botellas de cerveza a extraños compinches y salían y entraban varias veces en un cuarto de hora, llamados por misteriosas diligencias.  
They spoke in low voices, smiling convulsively, buying bottles of beer for odd cronies, and they came and went several times in a quarter of an hour, summoned by mysterious errands.
> «compinche» — crony, pal: «compinche» is a colloquial word for a buddy, mate, partner-in-crime. «Extraños compinches» = 'odd / strange cronies'. It carries a faint whiff of complicity — exactly right among these conspiratorial thieves.
El amo de esta caverna era un hombre enorme, cara de buey, ojos verdes, nariz de trompeta y apretadísimos labios finos.  
The master of this cavern was an enormous man, with the face of an ox, green eyes, a trumpet of a nose, and very tightly pressed thin lips.
> The «-ísimo» superlative: «-ísimo» is the absolute superlative, intensifying an adjective to 'extremely / very': «apretadísimos» = 'extremely tight / very tightly pressed'. It expresses a high degree without comparing to anything — just 'tight in the extreme'.

Cuando se encolerizaba sus rugidos sobresaltaban a la canalla, que le temía.  
When he flew into a rage his roars startled the rabble, who feared him.
> «cuando» + imperfect for a recurring scene: «cuando se encolerizaba» = 'whenever he flew into a rage'. With the imperfect, «cuando» describes a repeated, habitual situation rather than one specific time. «Encolerizarse» (pronominal) = 'to get furious'.
Se manejaba con ésta utilizando una violencia sorda.  
He handled them by means of a muffled violence.
Un perdulario hacía más escándalo del tácitamente tolerado, y de pronto el fondero se acercaba, el bullanguero sabía que el otro le pegaría, pero aguardaba en silencio, y entonces el gigante descargaba con el filo del puño terribles golpes cortos en el borde del cráneo del culpable.  
Some good-for-nothing would make more of a scene than was tacitly tolerated, and suddenly the eating-house keeper would come over; the rowdy knew the other man would hit him, but he waited in silence, and then the giant would bring down, with the edge of his fist, terrible short blows on the rim of the culprit's skull.
> Conditional as future-in-the-past: «le pegaría» = 'would hit him'. After a past verb of knowing («sabía»), the conditional reports what was still to come from that past vantage point — the same future-in-the-past use English makes with 'would'.
> «perdulario» — a reprobate: «perdulario» means a dissolute, good-for-nothing wretch, a reprobate. Paired with «bullanguero» ('rowdy, troublemaker'), it names the type who pushes the owner's tolerance past its limit.

Un enmudecimiento gozoso acompañaba al castigo, el desgraciado era lanzado a la calle a puntapiés, y el vocerío se renovaba más injurioso y resonante, desplazando nubes de humo hacia el vidriado cuadrilátero de la puerta.  
A gleeful hush accompanied the punishment, the wretch was flung into the street with kicks, and the clamor renewed itself, more abusive and resounding, driving clouds of smoke toward the glazed quadrilateral of the door.
> The passive with «ser»: «era lanzado» is a true passive: «ser» + past participle, agreeing with the subject. «El desgraciado era lanzado a la calle» = 'the wretch was flung into the street'. Spanish uses this full passive less than English, so it stands out as deliberate here.
> «a puntapiés» — with kicks: A «puntapié» is a kick (with the «punta del pie», the toe of the foot). The phrase «a puntapiés» = 'with kicks, by kicking'. The «a» of manner shows how the wretch is ejected.
A veces a esta leonera entraban músicos ambulantes, frecuentemente un bandoneón y una guitarra.  
Sometimes wandering musicians entered this den, often a bandoneón and a guitar.

Afinaban los instrumentos y un silencio de expectativa acurrucaba a cada fiera en su rincón, mientras que una tristeza movía su oleaje invisible en esa atmósfera de acuario.  
They tuned the instruments, and a silence of expectation huddled each beast in its corner, while a sadness moved its invisible swell through that aquarium atmosphere.

El tango carcelario surgía plañidero de las cajas, y entonces los miserables acompasaban inconscientemente sus rencores y sus desdichas.  
The prison tango rose mournful from the sound boxes, and then the wretches unconsciously kept time with their resentments and their woes.
> «carcelario» — of the prison: «carcelario» is the adjective from «cárcel» ('jail, prison'). «Tango carcelario» = 'prison tango', the genre of laments about jail, lost loves, and betrayal — the underworld's own music, which lets these men 'keep time with' their grief.
El silencio parecía un monstruo de muchas manos que levantara una cúpula de sonidos sobre las cabezas derribadas en los mármoles.  
The silence seemed a monster of many hands raising a dome of sounds over the heads slumped on the marble.
> Subjunctive in a comparison of appearance: After «parecía un monstruo ... que», the relative clause goes into the imperfect subjunctive «levantara» because the monster is hypothetical, a simile, not a real thing: 'a monster ... that (would) raise a dome'. The subjunctive marks the as-if quality.
¡Quizás en lo que pensaban!  
Perhaps in what they were thinking!
Y esa cúpula terrible y alta adentrada en todos los pechos multiplicaba el langor de la guitarra y del bandoneón, divinizando el sufrimiento de la puta y el horrible aburrimiento de la cárcel que pincha el corazón cuando se piensa en los amigos que están afuera «escorzándose» hasta la vida.  
And that terrible, high dome, driven into every chest, multiplied the languor of the guitar and the bandoneón, divinizing the suffering of the whore and the horrible boredom of jail that stabs at the heart when one thinks of the friends who are outside "slogging it out" right to the end of life.
> Marked colloquial verb: Arlt flags «escorzándose» with guillemets to mark it as raw street speech — roughly 'wearing themselves out / busting themselves' at life. The guillemets are his habitual signal that a word belongs to lunfardo or vulgar usage, not the literary norm.
> Impersonal «se» + verb: «se piensa» is impersonal 'one thinks / when you think'. Spanish uses «se» + a third-person singular verb to make a statement with no specific subject: «cuando se piensa en los amigos» = 'when one thinks of one's friends'.

Entonces en las almas más letrinosas, bajo las jetas más puercas, estallaba un temblor ignorado; luego todo pasaba y no había mano que se extendiera para dejar caer una moneda en la gorra de los músicos.  
Then in the most latrine-like souls, beneath the filthiest mugs, an unknown tremor would burst out; then everything passed and there was no hand that reached out to drop a coin into the musicians' cap.
> Subjunctive after a negative antecedent: When the thing described does not exist, the relative clause takes the subjunctive: «no había mano que se extendiera» = 'there was no hand that reached out'. The imperfect subjunctive «extendiera» follows the negated, nonexistent «mano».

–Allí iba yo –le decía Erdosain a su interlocutora hipotética–.  
"There I would go," Erdosain was saying to his hypothetical listener.
> Fronted adverb + imperfect of habit: Spanish freely fronts an adverb for emphasis: «Allí iba yo» = 'There I would go / that's where I used to go'. The imperfect «iba» signals a habitual past action — repeated visits to the den, not one occasion.
En busca de más angustia, de la afirmación de saberme perdido y a pensar en mi esposa que sola en mi casa sufriría de haberse casado con un inútil como yo.  
"In search of more anguish, of the affirmation of knowing myself lost, and to think of my wife who, alone at home, would be suffering for having married a good-for-nothing like me."
> «de» + perfect infinitive = cause: The perfect infinitive «haberse casado» ('to have married') after «de» gives a cause: «sufriría de haberse casado» = 'would suffer for having married'. The attached «se» makes «casarse» reflexive, 'to get married'.
Cuántas veces, arrinconado en esa fonda, me la imaginé a Elsa fugitiva con otro hombre.  
"How many times, cornered in that eating house, did I picture Elsa to myself, run off with another man."
> Redundant object pronoun: River Plate Spanish often doubles a direct object with a pronoun: «me la imaginé ... a Elsa» = 'I imagined Elsa' — «la» anticipates «a Elsa». The «me» of «imaginarse» adds the sense of picturing to oneself. Standard but very porteño.
Y yo caía siempre más abajo, y ese antro no era nada más que el anticipo de lo peor que había de ocurrirme más adelante.  
"And I kept falling lower and lower, and that den was nothing but the foretaste of the worst that was to happen to me later on."
> «haber de» + infinitive: «haber de» plus an infinitive expresses something destined or expected: «lo que había de ocurrirme» = 'what was to happen to me'. It is more fateful than «iba a»; in Arlt's mouth it sounds like inescapable destiny.
Y muchas veces, mirando a esos miserables, me decía: ¿No llegaré a ser como uno de éstos?  
"And many times, looking at those wretches, I would say to myself: Won't I end up becoming like one of these?"
> «llegar a ser» — to become: «llegar a ser» means 'to come to be, to end up becoming', stressing the process of arriving at a state. The future «llegaré» here is half prediction, half dread: 'won't I end up becoming...?'.
Ah, yo no sé cómo, pero siempre he tenido el presentimiento de lo que más adelante ocurriría.  
"Ah, I don't know how, but I have always had the presentiment of what would happen later on."
No me he equivocado nunca.  
"I have never been wrong."
> «equivocarse» — to be wrong: «equivocarse» (pronominal) means 'to be mistaken / get it wrong'. «No me he equivocado nunca» = 'I have never been wrong'. The double negative («no... nunca») is standard and obligatory in Spanish.
¿Se da cuenta usted?  
"Do you realize?"
> «darse cuenta» — to realize: «darse cuenta (de)» is the set phrase 'to realize, to notice'. «¿Se da cuenta usted?» = 'Do you realize?' Note the formal «usted» with «se da» — Erdosain addresses his imagined Hipólita politely.
Y allí, en la caverna, lo encontré un día meditando a Ergueta.  
"And there, in the cavern, I found Ergueta one day, brooding."
Sí, a él mismo.  
"Yes, him, the very man."
Estaba solo en una mesa, y algunos diarieros lo miraban con asombro, aunque otros debían creer que era un ladrón bien vestido, nada más.  
"He was alone at a table, and some newspaper boys looked at him in astonishment, though others must have believed he was a well-dressed thief, nothing more."
> «diariero» — newspaper seller: «diariero» is the River Plate word for a newspaper vendor / newsboy (from «diario», 'newspaper'). These were the fonda's regulars alongside the thieves — the world of «Crítica» next door spilling into the den.
> «deber» (without «de») for probability: «deber» + infinitive can express probability: «otros debían creer» = 'others must have believed'. Strict grammar prefers «deber de» for conjecture, but everyday speech (and Arlt) drops the «de», as here.

Erdosain se imaginó que la Coja le preguntaba ahora:  
Erdosain imagined that the lame woman was now asking him:

–¿Cómo, mi marido estaba allí?  
"What, my husband was there?"

–Sí, y con su cara de «perrero» roía el puño de su bastón, mientras que un negro le soliviantaba el trasero a un menor.  
"Yes, and with his \"dogcatcher\" face he gnawed the handle of his cane, while a black man fondled a boy's backside."
> «perrero» — dogcatcher / a hard look: A «perrero» is literally a dogcatcher. Used of a face, «cara de perrero» suggests a hard, surly, brutal look. Arlt's guillemets flag it as a colloquial idiom rather than the literal trade.
Pero él no hacía caso de nada.  
"But he paid no attention to anything."
> «hacer caso de» — to pay attention to: «hacer caso (de / a)» means 'to pay attention to, to take notice of'. «No hacía caso de nada» = 'he paid no attention to anything'. The set phrase uses «caso» ('case, notice') idiomatically — you don't translate it word for word.
Parecía que estaba clavado en el piso de la caverna.  
"He seemed nailed to the floor of the cavern."
Cierto es que me dijo que había ido a esperar a un vareador que tenía que pasarle unos «datos» para la próxima carrera, mas la verdad es que estaba allí, como si de pronto se hubiera sentido perdido y entró a ese paraje para buscarle un sentido a la vida.  
"True, he told me he had gone to wait for an exercise rider who was to pass him some \"tips\" for the next race, but the truth is he was there as if he had suddenly felt himself lost and gone into that place to find a meaning for life."
> «vareador» — exercise rider: A «vareador» is a stable hand who exercises racehorses (from «varear», to work a horse). With «datos» ('tips') for «la próxima carrera» ('the next race'), this is the racetrack-betting underworld Ergueta moves in.
> «como si» + pluperfect subjunctive: «como si» plus the pluperfect subjunctive describes an unreal prior cause: «como si ... se hubiera sentido perdido» = 'as if he had suddenly felt lost'. The pluperfect subjunctive «hubiera sentido» sets the imagined event before the moment described.
Esa quizá sea la verdad exacta.  
"That perhaps is the exact truth."
> «quizá» + subjunctive: «quizá / quizás» ('perhaps') commonly takes the subjunctive to mark genuine uncertainty: «esa quizá sea la verdad» = 'that may perhaps be the truth'. Using the indicative «es» would sound more confident; the subjunctive «sea» keeps it tentative.

Buscarle sentido a la vida entre los acontecimientos que vive la canalla.  
"To find meaning for life among the goings-on the rabble lives through."
Allí supe por primera vez su determinación de casarse con una prostituta, y cuando le pregunté de su farmacia, me contestó que había dejado al idóneo en Pico a cargo de ella, porque de primera intención supuse que había venido a jugar.  
"There I learned for the first time of his determination to marry a prostitute, and when I asked him about his pharmacy, he answered that he had left the licensed assistant in Pico in charge of it, because at first I had supposed he had come to gamble."
> «saber» in the preterite = to find out: In the preterite, «saber» shifts meaning from 'to know' to 'to find out, learn': «allí supe» = 'there I found out / learned'. The imperfect «sabía» would mean 'I knew'; the preterite marks the single moment of discovery.
> «idóneo» — licensed pharmacy hand: Beyond its ordinary sense 'suitable/competent', «idóneo» was the legal term for a person licensed to run a pharmacy without a full degree. «Dejó al idóneo a cargo» = 'he left the licensed assistant in charge'. Pico is a town in La Pampa.
No sé si usted sabrá que lo expulsaron de un club por hacer trampas.  
"I don't know whether you may know that they threw him out of a club for cheating."
> «hacer trampa(s)» — to cheat: «hacer trampa(s)» is the idiom 'to cheat' (at cards, games). «Por hacer trampas» = 'for cheating'. A «trampa» is a trick or trap; in games it is cheating. Note «por» + infinitive giving the reason for the expulsion.
Hasta se dijo que había falsificado fichas, pero ese asunto nunca se puso en claro.  
"It was even said that he had forged chips, but that matter was never cleared up."
> Passive/impersonal «se»: «se dijo» = 'it was said / people said'; «se puso en claro» = 'it was cleared up'. The «se» passive lets Spanish state what happened without naming who did it — ideal for rumor («it was said»).
Sólo me habló de usted cuando le pregunté por la novia, una muchacha millonaria de Cacharí, y que estaba muy enamorada de él.  
"He only spoke to me of you when I asked him about the fiancée, a millionaire girl from Cacharí, who was very much in love with him."
> «estar enamorado de»: «estar enamorado/a de» = 'to be in love with'. Spanish uses «de» where English uses 'with'. «Estaba muy enamorada de él» = 'she was very much in love with him'. Cacharí is a rural town in Buenos Aires province.

–Corté hace rato –me contestó.  
"I broke it off a while ago," he answered me.
> «cortar» — to break up: Colloquially «cortar (con alguien)» means 'to break up, end a relationship'. «Corté hace rato» = 'I broke it off a while ago'. «Hace rato» = 'a while ago' («rato» = a short while).

–¿Por qué?  
"Why?"

–No sé... me «esgunfiaba»... estaba aburrido.  
"I don't know... it bored me stiff... I was fed up."
> Lunfardo: «esgunfiar»: «esgunfiar» (also «esfunyar») is lunfardo, from Italian dialect, meaning 'to bore, to annoy, to fed up'. «Me esgunfiaba» = 'it bored me / got on my nerves'. Arlt's guillemets mark it as slang.

–¿Pero por qué la dejaste? –insistí.  
"But why did you leave her?" I insisted.
> Voseo preterite in Arlt's dialogue: River Plate Spanish uses «vos», but its preterite endings match standard «tú» here: «dejaste» = 'you left'. The pronoun «la» = 'her'. Throughout this dialogue Erdosain and Ergueta address each other as «vos» (note «sabés», «crees», «acordás» elsewhere).

Una luz agria convulsionaba su pupila.  
A sour light convulsed his pupil.
Malhumorado insistió apartando de un manotón las moscas que hacían círculo en su chop de cerveza:  
Ill-humored, he insisted, brushing away with a swipe of his hand the flies circling in his mug of beer:
> «de un manotón» — with a swipe: A «manotón» (or «manotazo») is a swat / swipe of the hand. The phrase «de un manotón» = 'with one swipe of the hand'. «Chop» is the River Plate word for a glass mug of draft beer (from German Schoppen).

–¡Qué se yo!... De aburrido... de turro que soy.  
"What do I know!... Out of boredom... because I'm a no-good."
> Causal «de ... que»: «de turro que soy» = 'because I'm such a no-good', literally 'out of the lowlife that I am'. This «de» + noun/adjective + «que» gives the cause through an intensified quality. «Turro» is lunfardo for a worthless, treacherous person.
Y me quería la pobrecita.  
"And the poor girl loved me."
> Affectionate diminutive «-ito/-ita»: «pobrecita» = «pobre» + the diminutive «-cita», softening it to 'poor little thing'. Spanish diminutives carry tenderness or pity as much as small size. The fronted object «me quería la pobrecita» = 'the poor girl loved me'.
Pero qué iba a hacer conmigo.  
"But what was she going to do with me."
> «ir a» + infinitive = near future / intention: «ir a» + infinitive is the going-to future. In the imperfect, «iba a hacer» = 'was going to do'. Here it is a resigned rhetorical question: 'what was she going to do with me?' — meaning, there was no hope for it.
Además, ya no tiene remedio...  
"Besides, there's no helping it now..."
> «no tener remedio»: «no tener remedio» is the idiom 'to be beyond help / hopeless'. «Ya no tiene remedio» = 'there's no helping it now, it can't be fixed'. «Remedio» is literally 'remedy/cure', here used figuratively.

–¿Le dijo Ergueta que eso ya no tenía remedio?...  
"Did Ergueta tell you that there was no helping it now?..."

–Sí, señora; dijo así: «Eso ya no tiene remedio, porque mañana me caso».  
"Yes, ma'am; he put it like this: 'There's no helping it now, because tomorrow I'm getting married.'"
> Present for a scheduled future: Spanish often uses the present for a planned future, especially with a time word: «mañana me caso» = 'tomorrow I'm getting married'. «Casarse» is pronominal; «me caso» = 'I get married'.

El tren eléctrico dejó atrás Flores.  
The electric train left Flores behind.
> «dejar atrás» — to leave behind: «dejar atrás» = 'to leave behind'. The station names (Once, Caballito, Flores, Liniers, Villa Luro) chart the real westbound line of Erdosain's ride, threading the present-time journey through his remembered scene.
Erdosain, apoltronado en el sillón, recordó que lo miró seriamente al farmacéutico, en cuyo rostro se difundía ese acechador movimiento de los músculos que le da al semblante una expresión malévola.  
Erdosain, slumped in the seat, recalled that he had looked at the pharmacist gravely, the pharmacist on whose face there spread that lurking movement of the muscles which gives the countenance a malevolent expression.
> Clitic doubling of the object: «lo miró ... al farmacéutico» doubles the object: «lo» (him) anticipates «al farmacéutico» (the pharmacist). The 'personal a' marks the human object. This doubling is normal, even preferred, in River Plate Spanish.

–¿Y con quién te casas?  
"And who are you marrying?"
> «casarse con» — to marry someone: «casarse con» = 'to get married to / marry (someone)'. Spanish uses «con» where English uses no preposition: «¿con quién te casas?» = 'who are you marrying?'. «Te casas» is the present of «casarse» (vos/tú coincide here).

El semblante de Ergueta empalideció hasta las orejas.  
Ergueta's face went pale to the ears.
> Inchoative preterite: «empalidecer» means 'to turn pale'; the «em-...-ecer» pattern marks a change of state. The preterite «empalideció» = 'he went pale', a single completed shift of color, the moment his composure cracked.
A medida que inclinaba su cabeza hacia Erdosain, guiñaba un párpado, mientras que el otro ojo inmóvil trataba de recoger toda la sorpresa que lo demudaría dentro de un segundo a Erdosain:  
As he tilted his head toward Erdosain, he winked one eyelid, while the other, motionless eye tried to gather up all the shock that within a second would alter Erdosain's face:
> «a medida que» — as / in proportion as: «a medida que» means 'as / while / in proportion as', linking two simultaneous developments: «a medida que inclinaba su cabeza ... guiñaba» = 'as he tilted his head ... he winked'. Both verbs stay in the imperfect for the parallel ongoing motions.

–Me caso con la Ramera.  
"I'm marrying the Harlot."
> «ramera» — harlot: «ramera» is an old, harsh word for a prostitute — 'harlot, whore'. Capitalized and with the article, «la Ramera» becomes almost a title. In Revelation, the Whore of Babylon (Rev. 17–18) is condemned and destroyed — she is not redeemed. The redeemed figure is the Bride of the Lamb / New Jerusalem (Rev. 21), a contrasting character. The identification of the harlot with a redeemed woman reflects Ergueta's own syncretic, delusional theology, not the biblical text.
–Después levantó la cabeza y sólo se le veía el blanco de los ojos.  
Then he raised his head and only the whites of his eyes could be seen.
> Impersonal «se» + «le» of involvement: «se le veía el blanco de los ojos» = 'the whites of his eyes could be seen'. Impersonal «se» ('one saw / was seen') combines with «le» (the person it belongs to). Spanish prefers «el blanco de los ojos» to a possessive — the «le» already shows whose.
Yo no me moví.  
I did not move.

El farmacéutico tenía en el semblante una expresión de arrobamiento como la que se ve en las tricromías populares, en las que aparece un santo arrodillado con el canto de las manos apoyado en el pecho.  
The pharmacist had on his face an expression of rapture like the one seen in cheap color prints, in which a saint appears kneeling with the edge of his joined hands pressed to his chest.
> «tricromía» — three-color print: A «tricromía» is a cheap three-color printing process; «tricromías populares» are the gaudy mass-produced holy pictures sold to the poor. The simile mocks Ergueta's 'rapture' as the look of a tacky devotional print.

Y Erdosain recordaba que en esas circunstancias, el negro que le tocaba el trasero al menor, ahora llevaba las manos de éste a sus partes pudendas, mientras un círculo de diarieros armaba un vocerío infernal y el patrón gigantesco cruzaba el salón con un plato de sopa en una mano y otro de guiso rojo, para una comandita de dos rateros que devoraban en un rincón.  
And Erdosain recalled that in those circumstances the black man who had been fondling the boy's backside was now bringing the boy's hands to his own private parts, while a ring of newspaper boys raised an infernal clamor and the gigantic owner crossed the hall with a plate of soup in one hand and another of red stew, for a partnership of two petty thieves devouring their food in a corner.
> «armar» — to kick up (a fuss): Colloquial «armar» means 'to kick up, stir up, make' a commotion: «armaba un vocerío infernal» = 'was raising an infernal racket'. «Armar un lío / escándalo» works the same way — 'to make a scene'.

Sin embargo, su resolución no le extrañó.  
And yet his decision did not surprise him.
> «extrañar» — to surprise (reverse subject): «extrañar» here works like «gustar»: the thing is the subject and the person an indirect object. «Su resolución no le extrañó» = 'his decision did not surprise him' (literally 'his decision was not surprising to him').
Ergueta tenía esas desesperadas resoluciones de las naturalezas frenéticas que obedecen al imperio de las obsesiones con furor lento, una explosión profunda de la que ellos no escucharon el estampido, pero cuyo crecimiento de volumen centuplica el instinto.  
Ergueta had those desperate resolves of frenzied natures that obey the rule of their obsessions with a slow fury, a deep explosion whose report they did not hear, but whose growing volume multiplies instinct a hundredfold.
> Relative pronouns «de la que» and «cuyo»: «de la que no escucharon el estampido» = 'whose report they did not hear' («de la que» = 'of which'); «cuyo crecimiento» = 'whose growth' («cuyo» = the possessive relative 'whose', agreeing with «crecimiento»). Two ways Spanish links a noun back to «explosión».
Sin embargo, aparentando una gran serenidad:  
Nevertheless, feigning great serenity:

–¿La Ramera?.... ¿Quién es la Ramera? –le pregunté.  
"The Harlot?... Who is the Harlot?" I asked him.

Una oleada de sangre le enrojecía el semblante.  
A surge of blood reddened his face.
Hasta sus ojos sonreían.  
Even his eyes were smiling.
> «hasta» = even: Besides 'until', «hasta» can mean 'even', adding an extreme case: «hasta sus ojos sonreían» = 'even his eyes were smiling'. Context (and no time reference) tells you it is 'even', not 'until'.

–¿Quién es, che?... Un ángel, Erdosain.  
"Who is she, man?... An angel, Erdosain."
> «che» — hey, man, pal: «che» is the quintessential River Plate interjection used to hail or address someone informally — 'hey, mate, man'. It famously gave Ernesto 'Che' Guevara his nickname. Ergueta sprinkles it through his speech.
En mi cara, en mi propia cara, rompió un cheque de mil pesos que le dejó un querido.  
"To my face, to my very face, she tore up a thousand-peso check a lover had left her."
> «un querido» — a lover/kept man: As a noun, «un querido / una querida» means a lover, especially a kept or illicit one. Here «un querido» is one of the Harlot's lovers. The phrase «en mi cara» = 'to my face', stressing the brazen gesture.
A la sirvienta le regaló un collar de perlas que valía cinco mil pesos.  
"To the maid she gave a pearl necklace worth five thousand pesos."
> Doubled indirect object: «A la sirvienta le regaló» doubles the indirect object: «le» restates «a la sirvienta» ('to the maid'). This pairing of a full phrase with its pronoun is normal and usually obligatory in Spanish when the indirect object is fronted.
A los porteros del departamento toda la vajilla de plata.  
"To the doormen of the building, all the silver tableware."
«Entraré en tu casa desnuda», me dijo ella.  
"'I'll come into your house naked,' she told me."
> Simple future + «entrar en»: «entraré» is the simple future of «entrar», 'I will come/go in'. Note «entrar en» (peninsular/literary) where River Plate speech usually says «entrar a». The future tense here is a vow: 'I'll come into your house naked'.

–¡Pero si todo eso es mentira! –sentía ahora que le decía Hipólita en su recuerdo.  
"But all of that is a lie!" he now felt Hipólita saying to him in his memory.
> Exclamatory «pero si»: «pero si» at the head of an exclamation is not a conditional 'if'; it expresses protest or surprise — 'but...!, why, but...!'. «¡Pero si todo eso es mentira!» = 'But all that's a lie!'. The «si» just intensifies the objection.

–Yo le creí en esas circunstancias.  
"I believed him under those circumstances."
> «creer a alguien» — to believe someone: «creer a alguien» (with the indirect object «le») means 'to believe someone, to trust what they say', distinct from «creer en algo» ('to believe in something'). «Le creí» = 'I believed him'.
Y él continuó contándome:  
And he went on telling me:
> «continuar» + gerund: «continuar» (like «seguir») takes a gerund, not an infinitive, for 'to keep on doing': «continuó contándome» = 'he went on telling me'. The pronoun «me» attaches to the gerund «contando».

–Si vos supieras lo que ha sufrido esa mujer.  
"If you only knew what that woman has suffered."
> Voseo with the imperfect subjunctive: «vos» here takes the standard imperfect subjunctive: «si vos supieras» = 'if you only knew'. This «si» clause with imperfect subjunctive opens a wish/exclamation about an unreal present: 'if you knew (which you don't)...'.
Una vez, era el séptimo aborto que le hacían, tan desesperada estaba que fue a tirarse desde el cuarto piso por la ventana.  
"Once, it was the seventh abortion they performed on her, she was so desperate that she went to throw herself out the window from the fourth floor."
> «tan ... que» — so ... that: «tan» + adjective + «que» = 'so ... that': «tan desesperada estaba que...» = 'she was so desperate that...'. Arlt fronts the adjective for emphasis. «Tirarse» (pronominal) = 'to throw oneself'.
De pronto, qué maravilla, che... en el balcón se le apareció Jesús.  
"Suddenly, what a marvel, man... Jesus appeared to her on the balcony."
> «aparecerse a» — to appear to: «aparecerse a alguien» = 'to appear to someone' (of a vision/apparition). «Se le apareció Jesús» = 'Jesus appeared to her' — «se» marks the apparition, «le» the person to whom. The verb follows its subject «Jesús», common in Spanish.
Estiró el brazo y no la dejó pasar.  
"He stretched out his arm and would not let her pass."
> «dejar» + infinitive = to let: «dejar» + infinitive means 'to let / allow (someone) to do': «no la dejó pasar» = 'he did not let her pass through'. The object pronoun «la» (her) precedes the conjugated «dejó»; the bare infinitive «pasar» follows.

Aún sonreía Ergueta.  
Ergueta was still smiling.
Súbitamente echó mano al bolsillo y le extendió un retrato a Erdosain.  
Suddenly he reached into his pocket and held out a photograph to Erdosain.
> «echar mano a» — to reach for: «echar mano a / de» is the idiom 'to reach for, grab, resort to': «echó mano al bolsillo» = 'he reached into his pocket'. Literally 'he threw a hand to the pocket'. «Retrato» here = a photograph (portrait).
La deliciosa criatura lo sugestionó.  
The delightful creature mesmerized him.
> «sugestionar» — to mesmerize: «sugestionar» means 'to influence, sway, put under a spell' — stronger than English 'to suggest'. «Lo sugestionó» = 'it/she captivated him, took hold of his mind'. «Criatura» here means a young woman, a 'creature' in the tender sense.

Ella no sonreía.  
She was not smiling.
A sus espaldas los espacios estaban abigarrados de palmas y helechos.  
Behind her the spaces were crowded with palms and ferns.
> «a sus espaldas» — behind one's back: «a espaldas de» / «a sus espaldas» = 'behind (one's) back', here literally 'behind her'. «Abigarrado» = 'motley, crowded with a jumble', so «abigarrados de palmas y helechos» = 'crammed with palms and ferns'.
Sentada en un banco con la cabeza ligeramente inclinada, miraba una revista que su rodilla sostenía, pues cruzaba una pierna sobre otra.  
Seated on a bench with her head slightly bowed, she was looking at a magazine her knee held up, for she had one leg crossed over the other.
De esta forma, a poca distancia del césped, el vuelo de su vestido suspendía una campana.  
In this way, a little above the grass, the flare of her dress hung like a bell.
El alto peinado y los cabellos huidos de sus sienes hacían más clara y ancha la luna de su frente.  
The high coiffure and the hair drawn back from her temples made the moon of her forehead clearer and broader.
> «hacer» + adjective = to make (something) ...: «hacer» plus an adjective means 'to make (something) be (more) ...': «hacían más clara y ancha la luna de su frente» = 'made the moon of her forehead clearer and broader'. The adjectives agree with «la luna» (feminine singular).
A los lados de la fina nariz, el arco de las cejas era delgado como conviene a los ojos que son ligeramente oblicuos en un rostro delicadamente ovalado.  
On either side of the fine nose, the arch of the brows was thin, as suits eyes that are slightly slanted in a delicately oval face.
> «convenir a» — to suit / befit: «convenir a» means 'to suit, be fitting for'. «Como conviene a los ojos...» = 'as suits eyes...'. «Convenir» behaves like «gustar» — what suits is the subject, the thing suited is an indirect object.

Y mirándola, Erdosain supo de pronto que junto a Hipólita él no experimentaría jamás ningún deseo, y esa certidumbre lo alegró de tal forma que pensó en la delicia de acariciar con los dedos en horqueta la barbilla de la extraña joven y escuchar el crujido de la arena bajo la suela de sus zapatitos.  
And looking at her, Erdosain suddenly knew that beside Hipólita he would never feel any desire, and that certainty gladdened him so much that he thought of the delight of stroking the strange young woman's chin with forked fingers and hearing the crunch of the sand beneath the soles of her little shoes.
> «de tal forma que» — in such a way that: «de tal forma / manera que» = 'in such a way that, so much that', introducing a result: «lo alegró de tal forma que pensó...» = 'gladdened him so much that he thought...'. «Experimentaría» is the conditional, 'he would feel'.

Luego murmuró:  
Then he murmured:

–¡Qué linda que es!... ¡Debe tener una gran sensibilidad!...  
"How pretty she is!... She must have great sensitivity!..."
> Colloquial «qué ... que»: River Plate speech inserts an extra «que»: «¡Qué linda que es!» = 'How pretty she is!'. Standard Spanish would say «¡Qué linda es!»; the added «que» is a regional intensifier. «Debe tener» = 'she must have' (probability).

¡Qué distinta era en la realidad!  
How different she was in reality!

El tren eléctrico cruzaba ahora por Villa Luro.  
The electric train was now crossing through Villa Luro.
Entre montes de carbón y los gasómetros velados por la neblina relucían tristemente los arcos voltaicos.  
Among heaps of coal and the gasometers veiled by the mist, the arc lamps gleamed sadly.
> Verb-before-subject word order: Spanish freely puts the verb before its subject, especially after a fronted phrase: «relucían ... los arcos voltaicos» = 'the arc lamps gleamed'. The subject «los arcos voltaicos» (arc lights) comes after the verb «relucían».
Grandes huecos negros se abrían en los galpones de las locomotoras, y las luces rojas y verdes, suspendidas irregularmente en la distancia, hacían más tétrica la llamada de las locomotoras.  
Great black gaps opened in the engine sheds, and the red and green lights, hung irregularly in the distance, made the call of the locomotives more dismal.
> «galpón» — shed: «galpón» is the River Plate word for a large shed, warehouse, or hangar. «Los galpones de las locomotoras» = 'the engine sheds'. «Tétrico» = 'gloomy, dismal, ghastly' — Arlt's recurring industrial-twilight mood.

¡Qué distinta era la Coja en la realidad!  
How different the lame woman was in reality!
Sin embargo, recordaba que le había dicho a Ergueta:  
Nevertheless, he recalled that he had said to Ergueta:

–¡Qué linda es!... ¡Debe tener una gran sensibilidad!...  
"How pretty she is!... She must have great sensitivity!..."

–Sí, es así; además es muy delicada en sus modales.  
"Yes, that's how she is; and besides she's very refined in her manners."
> «ser así» — to be that way: «es así» = 'that's how she is, she is like that'. «Así» ('thus, like that') after «ser» describes someone's nature. The chapter has played on «así» before (paragraph 13) as a 'stamp' of character.
Me gusta la aventura.  
"I like adventure."
> «gustar» — to please: «gustar» works backwards from English 'to like': the thing liked is the subject and the person an indirect object. «Me gusta la aventura» = literally 'adventure pleases me', i.e. 'I like adventure'.
Mirá la cara que pondrán los que dudaban de mi comunismo.  
"Just look at the faces the ones who doubted my communism will make."
> Voseo imperative «mirá»: «mirá» is the voseo (River Plate) command form of «mirar», 'look' — standard «tú» Spanish would be «mira» (stress on a different syllable). The voseo imperative drops the «-d» and stresses the final vowel: «mirá», «pensá», «fijate».
> «poner cara» — to make a face: «poner una cara» = 'to make / pull a face, to have an expression'. «La cara que pondrán» = 'the face they'll make / the look that'll come over them'. The future «pondrán» relishes their coming shock.
He plantado a una cogotuda, a una virgen, para casarme con una prostituta.  
"I've ditched a snob, a virgin, to marry a prostitute."
> «plantar» — to dump / stand up: Colloquial «plantar a alguien» = 'to dump, jilt, walk out on someone'. «He plantado a una cogotuda» = 'I've ditched a snob'. «Cogotuda» (from «cogote», nape/neck) is lunfardo for a stuck-up rich woman, a snob.
Pero el alma de Hipólita está por encima de todo.  
"But Hipólita's soul is above everything."
> «por encima de» — above: «por encima de» means 'above, over, beyond'. «Por encima de todo» = 'above everything, above all else'. Here it claims Hipólita's soul transcends all worldly considerations.
A ella también le gusta la aventura y los corazones nobles.  
"She too likes adventure and noble hearts."
Juntos haremos grandes cosas, porque los tiempos han llegado...  
"Together we'll do great things, because the times have come..."
> Present perfect for a just-completed state: «han llegado» is the present perfect, 'have arrived/come'. «Los tiempos han llegado» = 'the times have come', echoing the apocalyptic Biblical register that runs through Ergueta's speech — the end-times are now upon us.

Erdosain recogió la frase del farmacéutico:  
Erdosain picked up the pharmacist's phrase:

–¿Así que vos crees que los tiempos han llegado?...  
"So you believe the times have come?..."
> «así que» — so / therefore: «así que» introduces a conclusion: 'so, therefore'. «¿Así que vos crees...?» = 'So you believe...?'. The voseo present of «creer» is «creés», stressed on the last syllable like «tenés» and «comés»; the «crees» Arlt prints is the «tú» form, and period typography often left the voseo accent off. It is not a verb where the two forms coincide.

–Sí, tienen que ocurrir cosas terribles.  
"Yes, terrible things are bound to happen."
> «tener que» + infinitive = must / be bound to: «tener que» + infinitive expresses necessity or inevitability: «tienen que ocurrir cosas terribles» = 'terrible things must / are bound to happen'. Here it is prophetic certainty rather than obligation.
¿No te acordás que vos una vez me dijiste que el presidente Roosevelt había hecho un gran elogio de la Biblia?  
"Don't you remember that you once told me President Roosevelt had paid a great tribute to the Bible?"
> Voseo + «acordarse de»: «acordarse (de)» means 'to remember'. The voseo form is «te acordás» (standard «te acuerdas»). «¿No te acordás que...?» = 'Don't you remember that...?'. In speech the «de» before «que» is often dropped, as here.

–Sí... pero hace mucho.  
"Yes... but that was a long time ago."
> «hace» + time = ago: «hace» + a time expression means 'ago': «hace mucho» = 'a long time ago, long ago'. The verb «hacer» used impersonally measures elapsed time — «hace mucho (tiempo)».

Erdosain respondió con tales palabras porque en realidad no recordaba jamás haberle hecho una cita de esa naturaleza al farmacéutico.  
Erdosain answered with such words because in truth he did not at all remember ever having made the pharmacist a quotation of that nature.
> Perfect infinitive after «recordar»: After «recordar», Spanish uses a perfect infinitive for a remembered prior act: «no recordaba ... haberle hecho una cita» = 'he did not remember ever having made him a quotation'. The pronoun «le» (to him) attaches to «haber».
Este continuó:  
The latter went on:

–Afuera he leído bastante la Biblia...  
"On the outside I've read the Bible quite a bit..."
> «afuera» — outside (of jail): Literally «afuera» = 'outside, outdoors'; in this underworld context it means 'outside of jail, on the outside'. «Afuera he leído bastante la Biblia» = 'out here / when I was out, I've read the Bible a good deal'.

–Lo cual no te impide «escolazar».  
"Which doesn't stop you from gambling."
> Lunfardo: «escolazar»: «escolazar» is lunfardo for 'to gamble' (from «escolaso», a gambling den). «No te impide escolazar» = 'doesn't stop you from gambling'. «Lo cual» = 'which', a relative referring back to the whole previous statement.

–Eso no te importa –interrumpió Ergueta adusto.  
"That's none of your business," Ergueta interrupted, grim.
> «importar» — to matter to: «importar» follows the «gustar» pattern: «eso no te importa» = literally 'that does not matter to you', idiomatically 'that's none of your business'. «Adusto» = 'stern, grim, surly'.

Erdosain lo miró fastidiado, el farmacéutico sonrió con su sonrisa pueril y mientras el patrón depositaba otro medio litro de cerveza en el mármol, dijo:  
Erdosain looked at him, annoyed; the pharmacist smiled his childish smile, and while the owner set down another half-liter of beer on the marble, he said:

–Fijate qué palabras misteriosas están escritas en la Biblia: «Y salvaré la coja, y recogeré la descarriada y pondrélas por alabanza y por renombre en todo país de confusión».  
"Just look at what mysterious words are written in the Bible: 'And I will save her that is lame, and gather her that was driven astray, and I will set them for a praise and a renown in every land of their confusion.'"
> Voseo imperative + «fijarse»: «fijate» is the voseo command of «fijarse» ('to notice, pay attention'): 'look, notice, get this'. Standard «tú» would be «fíjate» (with the accent shifted). The «-te» is the attached reflexive pronoun.

Un silencio extraordinario se produjo en la fonda.  
An extraordinary silence settled over the eating house.
> «producirse» — to occur: «producirse» (pronominal) means 'to come about, occur, take place'. «Un silencio extraordinario se produjo» = 'an extraordinary silence fell / arose'. «Produjo» is the irregular preterite of «producir».
Sólo se veían cabezas inclinadas o grupos que miraban pensativamente el ir y venir de las moscas en la pringue de las mesas.  
Only bowed heads were to be seen, or groups that gazed pensively at the coming and going of the flies in the grease of the tables.
> Infinitive as a noun: An infinitive with «el» becomes a noun: «el ir y venir» = 'the coming and going, the comings and goings'. Spanish nominalizes infinitives this way where English uses a gerund or noun. «Pringue» = greasy filth, grime.
Un ladrón enseñaba a un consocio un anillo de brillantes y las dos cabezas permanecían conjuntamente inclinadas en la observación de las piedras.  
A thief was showing an associate a diamond ring, and the two heads remained bowed together in contemplation of the stones.
> «consocio» — fellow associate: «consocio» = a fellow member or business partner (the prefix «con-» = 'with' + «socio» = 'partner'). Among thieves, an accomplice or partner-in-crime. «Brillantes» (literally 'brilliants') = diamonds.

Por la entreabierta puerta de vidrios opacos penetraba un rayo de sol que como una barra de azufre cercenaba en dos la atmósfera azulosa.  
Through the half-open door of opaque glass a ray of sun came in, which like a bar of sulfur sliced the bluish atmosphere in two.
> «entre-» — half / partly: The prefix «entre-» here means 'half, partly': «entreabierta» = 'half-open, ajar' (from «entreabrir»). Spanish uses «entre-» to soften a state to its middle degree, like «entrecerrado» ('half-closed').

El otro repitió: «y salvaré la coja, y recogeré la descarriada», insistiendo y guiñando maliciosamente un párpado al repetir esto: «y pondrélas por alabanza y por renombre en todo país de confusión...»  
The other repeated: 'and I will save her that is lame, and gather her that was driven astray,' insisting and maliciously winking an eyelid as he repeated this: 'and I will set them for a praise and a renown in every land of their confusion...'
> «al» + infinitive = as / on: «al repetir esto» = 'as / on repeating this, as he repeated this'. «Al» + infinitive again compresses a 'when/as' clause. The parallel gerunds «insistiendo y guiñando» describe the manner of his repeating.

–Pero si Hipólita no es coja...  
"But Hipólita isn't lame..."

–No, pero ella es la descarriada y yo el fraudulento, el «hijo de perdición».  
"No, but she is the one driven astray and I am the fraudulent one, the 'son of perdition.'"
> «descarriado» — gone astray: «descarriarse» = 'to go astray, lose one's way' (morally). «La descarriada» = 'the strayed / lost woman', the Biblical sheep-gone-astray. «Hijo de perdición» ('son of perdition') is a New Testament phrase Ergueta claims for himself.
He ido de burdel en burdel, y de angustia buscando el amor.  
"I've gone from brothel to brothel, and from anguish, searching for love."
> «de ... en ...» — from one to the next: The pattern «de X en X» means 'from one X to another': «de burdel en burdel» = 'from brothel to brothel'. No articles are used — the bare nouns convey the wandering, repetitive movement.
Yo creía que era el amor físico y después leyendo ese libro que me iluminó comprendí que mi corazón buscaba el amor divino.  
"I thought it was physical love, and then, reading that book that enlightened me, I understood that my heart was seeking divine love."
> Imperfect vs. preterite: «creía» (imperfect) = 'I used to think / believed', an ongoing past belief; «comprendí» (preterite) = 'I understood', the single moment of realization. The contrast captures a long mistaken state broken by one flash of insight.
¿Te das cuenta?  
"Do you realize?"
El corazón se orienta por su cuenta.  
"The heart finds its own way."
> «por su cuenta» — on its own: «por su cuenta» = 'on one's own, by oneself, independently'. «El corazón se orienta por su cuenta» = 'the heart orients / steers itself on its own'. «Orientarse» = 'to get one's bearings, find one's direction'.
Vos estás engrupido, querés hacer tu voluntad, y fallas... por qué fallas... es misterio...  
"You're full of yourself, you want to do your own will, and you fail... why you fail... it's a mystery..."
> Lunfardo: «engrupido»: «engrupido» is lunfardo for 'conceited, full of oneself, taken in by one's own illusions' (from «grupo», a lie/con in lunfardo). «Estás engrupido» = 'you're deluded / full of yourself'. «Querés» is the voseo of «querer».

Luego un día, de golpe, sin saber cómo, se aparece la verdad.  
"Then one day, all at once, without knowing how, the truth appears."
> «de golpe» — suddenly: «de golpe» = 'suddenly, all at once' (literally 'with a blow'). It joins «de pronto» and «de repente» as a common way to say 'abruptly'. «Se aparece la verdad» = 'the truth appears / reveals itself'.
Y mirá que yo he vivido.  
"And believe me, I've lived."
> «mirá que» — emphatic 'mind you': «mirá que» (voseo of «mira que») is an emphatic discourse marker: 'mind you, believe me, and let me tell you'. «Y mirá que yo he vivido» = 'and believe me, I've really lived / been around'.
«Hijo de perdición», ésa es mi vida.  
"'Son of perdition' — that's my life."
Papá antes de morir en Cosquín me escribió una carta terrible, entre vómitos de sangre y recriminándome, ¿sabes?  
"Papa, before he died in Cosquín, wrote me a terrible letter, between mouthfuls of vomited blood and reproaching me, you know?"
> «antes de» + infinitive: «antes de» takes an infinitive, not a conjugated verb: «antes de morir» = 'before dying / before he died'. Cosquín, in Córdoba, was a town with sanatoriums for tuberculosis — hence the «vómitos de sangre» ('vomiting of blood').
Y la carta no la firmaba con su nombre, sino que ponía: «Tu padre El Maldito».  
"And he didn't sign the letter with his name, but instead put: 'Your father The Damned.'"
> Fronted object with doubling «la»: «la carta no la firmaba» fronts the object «la carta» for emphasis and resumes it with «la»: 'the letter — he didn't sign it'. «Sino que» = 'but rather' (correcting a negative), used before a clause with its own verb.
¿Te das cuenta? –y otra vez guiñó el párpado levantando de tal forma las cejas que Erdosain se preguntó:  
"Do you realize?" And again he winked his eyelid, raising his eyebrows in such a way that Erdosain asked himself:

–¿No estará loco éste?  
"Could this one be mad?"
> Future of conjecture: The future tense can express a guess about the present: «¿No estará loco éste?» = 'Could this fellow be mad? / I wonder if he's mad'. «Estará» is not 'will be' but 'might / must be' — speculation, not prediction.

Luego salieron de la fonda.  
Then they left the eating house.
Los automóviles se deslizaban por la calle Corrientes centelleando bajo el sol, pasaba mucha gente que se dirigía a su trabajo, y bajo los toldos amarillos el rostro de las mujeres aparecía sonrosado.  
The automobiles glided along Corrientes Street, glittering under the sun; many people passed on their way to work, and beneath the yellow awnings the women's faces looked rosy.
Entraron al café Ambos Mundos.  
They went into the Ambos Mundos café.
Ruedas de «canfinfleros» rodeaban las mesas.  
Rings of "pimps" surrounded the tables.
> Lunfardo: «canfinflero»: «canfinflero» is lunfardo for a pimp who lives off a single prostitute (a softer, more domestic figure than the «cafishio» of the next paragraph). «Rueda» here = a ring/circle of people around a table.
Jugaban al naipe, a los dados o al billar.  
They played cards, dice, or billiards.
Ergueta miró en redor, luego, escupiendo, dijo en voz alta:  
Ergueta looked around; then, spitting, he said aloud:
> «en redor» — around: «en redor (de)» is a literary equivalent of «alrededor» = 'around, round about'. «Miró en redor» = 'he looked around'. «En voz alta» = 'aloud, out loud' (contrast «en voz baja», 'in a low voice').

–Todos cafishios.  
"All of them pimps."
> Lunfardo: «cafishio»: «cafishio» (also «cafisho», «cafiolo») is the classic lunfardo word for a pimp, a man who lives off prostitutes. It is one of the most loaded terms of the porteño underworld Arlt portrays throughout the novel.
Habrá que ahorcarlos sin mirarles las caras.  
"They'll have to be hanged without looking at their faces."
> «haber que» + infinitive = one must: «hay que» + infinitive expresses impersonal obligation ('one must / it is necessary to'). In the future: «habrá que ahorcarlos» = 'they will have to be hanged / one will have to hang them'. The pronoun «los» (them) attaches to the infinitive.

Nadie se dio por aludido.  
No one took it as referring to himself.
> «darse por aludido»: «darse por aludido» is the idiom 'to take something personally, to assume a remark refers to oneself'. «Nadie se dio por aludido» = 'no one took it as aimed at him', no one rose to the insult.

Erdosain, sin quererlo, se quedó cavilando en algunas palabras del otro.  
Erdosain, without meaning to, was left brooding over some of the other man's words.
> «quedarse» + gerund: «quedarse» + gerund means 'to be left / remain (doing something)': «se quedó cavilando» = 'he was left brooding, he kept brooding'. «Sin quererlo» = 'without meaning to, involuntarily'.

«Buscaba el amor divino».  
"He was searching for divine love."
Entonces Ergueta llevaba una vida frenética, sensual.  
Back then Ergueta led a frenzied, sensual life.
> «llevar una vida» — to lead a life: «llevar una vida (+ adjective)» = 'to lead a ... life': «llevaba una vida frenética» = 'he led a frenzied life'. The imperfect «llevaba» frames it as his habitual way of living at that time.
Pasaba las noches y los días en los garitos y en los prostíbulos, bailando, embriagándose, trabándose en espantosas peleas con malevos y macrós.  
He spent his nights and days in the gambling dens and the brothels, dancing, getting drunk, getting tangled in dreadful brawls with hoodlums and pimps.
> «malevo» and «macró»: A «malevo» is a tough, a knife-carrying hoodlum of the old porteño suburbs. A «macró» (from French maquereau) is a pimp. «Garito» = a gambling den. These nouns sketch the whole gambling-and-vice world Ergueta haunted.
Un ímpetu sordo lo llevaba a realizar las más brutales hazañas.  
A dull impulse drove him to carry out the most brutal exploits.
> «llevar a» + infinitive = to drive to: «llevar a alguien a (hacer algo)» means 'to lead / drive someone to (do something)': «lo llevaba a realizar ... hazañas» = 'drove him to carry out ... exploits'. Note «hazaña», normally 'a feat / heroic deed', used ironically here for brutal acts.

Una noche, Ergueta se encontraba en la plaza de Flores, frente a la confitería de Niers.  
One night Ergueta was in the Flores square, across from Niers's tea shop.
> «confitería» — café/tea shop: A «confitería» is a café-cum-pastry-shop, a fixture of Argentine social life where one has coffee, cakes, and drinks. «Frente a» = 'across from, opposite'. Flores is a Buenos Aires neighborhood with its own central plaza.
Estaba allí el borracho Delavene que se había recibido de abogado hacía un mes y otros muchos patoteros del Club de Flores.  
There was the drunkard Delavene, who had qualified as a lawyer a month before, and many other gang toughs from the Flores Club.
> «recibirse de» — to graduate as: In the River Plate, «recibirse de» means 'to graduate / qualify as': «se había recibido de abogado» = 'had qualified as a lawyer'. «Patotero» = a member of a «patota», a street gang of rowdy young men.
Molestaban a los que pasaban.  
They harassed the passersby.
> «los que» — those who: «los que» = 'those who, the ones who'. «Molestaban a los que pasaban» = 'they bothered those who were passing'. The 'personal a' precedes the human object. «Molestar» = 'to bother, harass, pester'.
De pronto, Ergueta, al ver aproximarse a un gallego se desprendió la bragueta y cuando el otro llegó hasta él, lo mojó con un chorro de orín.  
Suddenly Ergueta, on seeing a Spaniard approach, undid his fly, and when the man reached him, he soaked him with a stream of urine.
> «gallego» — a Spaniard: In the River Plate, «gallego» (strictly 'Galician') is the everyday word for any Spanish immigrant, often slightly mocking. «Al ver aproximarse a un gallego» = 'on seeing a Spaniard approach'. «Desprenderse la bragueta» = 'to undo one's fly'.
El hombre fue prudente, y desapareció rezongando.  
The man was prudent, and went off grumbling.
Entonces el farmacéutico dijo mirando a Delavene que fanfarroneaba con exceso:  
Then the pharmacist said, looking at Delavene, who was bragging excessively:
> «fanfarronear» — to brag: «fanfarronear» = 'to brag, swagger, show off'. A «fanfarrón» is a braggart. «Que fanfarroneaba con exceso» = 'who was bragging too much'. The imperfect frames the bragging as going on while Ergueta spoke.

–Bueno... ¿a que no lo meás al primero que pase?  
"All right... I bet you won't piss on the first one who passes by?"
> «¿a que...?» — I bet that...: «¿A que...?» is a colloquial challenge: 'I bet that..., I dare you to...'. «¿A que no lo meás?» = 'I bet you won't piss on him / I dare you to piss on him'. «Meás» is the voseo of «mear» ('to piss').

–¿A que sí?  
"I bet I will?"

Todos se regocijaron, porque el vasco Delavene era un salvaje.  
They all rejoiced, because Delavene the Basque was a savage.
> «vasco» — Basque: «vasco» = Basque. As «gallego» tags a Spaniard, «vasco» tags someone of Basque origin — common immigrant labels in porteño speech. «Se regocijaron» (preterite of «regocijarse») = 'they were delighted, they rejoiced'.
Un hombre dobló en la esquina y Delavene comenzó a orinar.  
A man came round the corner and Delavene began to urinate.
> «doblar» — to turn (a corner): «doblar» (intransitive) means 'to turn' a corner: «dobló en la esquina» = 'he turned the corner, came round the corner'. «Comenzar a» + infinitive = 'to begin to'.
El desconocido se hizo a un lado, pero el «vasco» casi atropellándolo, lo mojó.  
The stranger stepped aside, but the "Basque," almost knocking him over, soaked him.
> «hacerse a un lado»: «hacerse a un lado» is the idiom 'to step / move aside, get out of the way'. «El desconocido se hizo a un lado» = 'the stranger stepped aside'. «Atropellar» = 'to knock down, run over, barge into'.

Sucedió algo terrible.  
Something terrible happened.
> Adjective after «algo»: After «algo» ('something'), the adjective is masculine singular and follows: «algo terrible» = 'something terrible'. «Sucedió» (preterite of «suceder») = 'happened, occurred'. Note again the verb-before-subject order.

Sin pronunciar una palabra el ofendido se detuvo, la patota miraba riéndose y silbando, de pronto el desconocido desenfundó el revólver, oyóse un estampido, y Delavene cayó de rodillas apretándose, el vientre con las manos.  
Without uttering a word the offended man stopped; the gang watched, laughing and whistling; suddenly the stranger drew his revolver, a shot rang out, and Delavene fell to his knees, clutching his belly with his hands.
> Enclitic «se» + impersonal passive: «oyóse» = «se oyó» with the pronoun attached to the end (literary): 'there was heard, a ... was heard'. «Oyóse un estampido» = 'a shot rang out'. The «se» makes it impersonal — no one is named as hearing.
La agonía del «vasco» fue larga y dolorosa.  
The Basque's death throes were long and painful.
> «agonía» — death throes: «agonía» means the final death struggle, the throes of dying, not English 'agony' in the loose sense of any pain. «La agonía del vasco fue larga» = 'the Basque's dying was long-drawn-out'.

Antes de morir, noblemente reconoció que había provocado el drama, y cuando Ergueta estaba borracho y se nombraba a Delavene, aquél se arrodillaba y con la lengua hacía una cruz en el polvo.  
Before dying, he nobly acknowledged that he had provoked the tragedy, and whenever Ergueta was drunk and Delavene was mentioned, the former would kneel and with his tongue make a cross in the dust.
> «aquél» — the former: «aquél» (with accent, as a pronoun) here means 'the former one' = Ergueta. Spanish uses «éste» / «aquél» to distinguish 'the latter' / 'the former'. The imperfects «se arrodillaba», «hacía» mark a recurring ritual whenever he was drunk.
Mientras amasaba un cigarrillo, el farmacéutico contestó a una pregunta de Erdosain sobre Delavene:  
While he rolled a cigarette, the pharmacist answered a question of Erdosain's about Delavene:
> «amasar un cigarrillo»: «amasar» normally means 'to knead' (dough); here, of a hand-rolled cigarette, it is 'to roll / work' the tobacco into shape. «Mientras amasaba un cigarrillo» = 'while he rolled a cigarette'.

–Sí, era un corazón noble... un amigo único.  
"Yes, he was a noble heart... a one-of-a-kind friend."
Yo pagaré por él algún día –mas replegando su pensamiento a una preocupación más actual, dijo–: ¡Ah, he pensado mucho estos últimos tiempos.  
"I'll pay for him someday," and folding his thought back onto a more present concern, he said: "Ah, I've thought a great deal lately."
> «pagar por» — to pay for: «pagar por (alguien/algo)» = 'to pay for, atone for'. «Yo pagaré por él algún día» = 'I'll pay for him someday' (in a penitential sense). The future «pagaré» states the vow.
Y yo me decía si era justo que un hombre estéril, enfermo, vicioso e inmoral se casara con una virgen...  
"And I kept asking myself whether it was right that a sterile, sick, depraved and immoral man should marry a virgin..."
> Subjunctive after a value judgment: Expressions of value like «ser justo que» ('to be right that') trigger the subjunctive: «era justo que ... se casara» = 'was right that ... should marry'. The imperfect subjunctive «se casara» follows the past «era».

–¿Hipólita... sabe?  
"Hipólita... knows?"

–Sí, ella sabe todo.  
"Yes, she knows everything."
Además, una virgen merece un nombre de virgen.  
"Besides, a virgin deserves a virgin's name."
Un hombre que tenga el alma y el cuerpo virgen.  
"A man whose soul and body are virgin."
> Subjunctive for a sought-for type: When the noun refers to a desired or hypothetical kind, not a known individual, the relative clause is subjunctive: «un hombre que tenga el alma ... virgen» = 'a man who has / would have a virgin soul'. The subjunctive «tenga» marks him as an ideal, not yet found.
Así será algún día.  
"So it will be someday."
¿Te imaginas un macho hermoso y virgen y fuerte?  
"Can you imagine a handsome, virgin, strong male?"
> «imaginarse» — to imagine: «imaginarse» (pronominal) = 'to imagine, picture'. «¿Te imaginas...?» = 'Can you imagine...?'. The reflexive «te» adds the sense of imagining to oneself. «Macho» here = a male, a strapping man.

–Así debía ser –susurró Erdosain.  
"That's how it ought to be," Erdosain whispered.
> «deber» = ought to / should: «deber» + infinitive expresses obligation or what is fitting: «así debía ser» = 'that's how it ought to be / should be'. The imperfect «debía» softens it to a reflective 'that's how it should be' rather than a hard command.

El farmacéutico observó su reloj.  
The pharmacist looked at his watch.

–¿Tenés que hacer?  
"Have you got things to do?"
> Voseo «tenés» + «tener que hacer»: «tenés» is the voseo present of «tener» (standard «tienes»). «¿Tenés que hacer?» is elliptical for «¿Tenés (algo) que hacer?» = 'Have you got something to do? / Are you busy?'. A very colloquial porteño turn.

–Sí, dentro de un rato voy a casa a ver a Hipólita.  
"Yes, in a little while I'm going home to see Hipólita."
> «dentro de» + time = in / within: «dentro de» + a time expression means 'in / within (so much time)': «dentro de un rato» = 'in a little while'. Don't confuse with «hace un rato» ('a while ago'); «dentro de» points forward, «hace» points back.

–Esta vez me asombré –contábale más tarde Erdosain al cronista de esta historia –.  
"This time I was astonished," Erdosain was telling the chronicler of this story later on.
> Enclitic «le» + the frame narrator: «contábale» = «le contaba» ('was telling him'), with the pronoun attached to the end in literary style. The «cronista» ('chronicler') is the novel's frame narrator, to whom Erdosain supposedly recounts everything — a recurring device in Arlt.
La casa de la familia Ergueta era suntuosa y el espíritu de la gente que allí se movía como los caracoles, absolutamente conservador y rutinario.  
The Ergueta family's house was sumptuous, and the spirit of the people who moved about there like snails was absolutely conservative and routine-bound.
> Simile «como los caracoles»: «como los caracoles» = 'like snails', conveying slow, withdrawn, shell-bound movement. The image paints the wealthy Ergueta household as sluggish, closed, and complacent — the staid world Ergueta wants to scandalize.
Erdosain le preguntó:  
Erdosain asked him:

–¿Cómo?... ¿La llevaste a tu casa?  
"What?... You took her to your house?"
> «llevar» vs. «traer»: «llevar» = 'to take (to a place away from the speaker)', as against «traer» = 'to bring (toward the speaker)'. «¿La llevaste a tu casa?» = 'you took her to your house?'. «Llevaste» is the voseo/tú preterite.

–¡Y las historias que tuve que inventar!...Ella no quería ir, mejor dicho, aceptaba de ir, pero como lo que es...  
"And the stories I had to invent!... She didn't want to go, or rather, she agreed to go, but as what she is..."
> «tener que» in the preterite: «tuve que inventar» = 'I had to invent' — the preterite of «tener que» reports an obligation actually carried out (he did invent them), as against the imperfect «tenía que» (a standing obligation). «Mejor dicho» = 'or rather, better said'.

–¿Fue capaz?...  
"She was capable of it?..."
> «ser capaz de» — to be capable of / to dare: «ser capaz (de)» means 'to be capable of, to be up to / to dare'. «¿Fue capaz?» = 'she was capable of it? / she actually did it?'. The preterite «fue» points to a specific, completed instance.

–Tan capaz que sólo al final la pude convencer.  
"So capable that only at the end was I able to convince her."
A mamá le dije que la había robado en el momento de embarcarse con sus tíos para Europa... una «mula» más grande que una casa.  
"I told my mother I'd carried her off at the moment she was about to embark with her aunt and uncle for Europe... a whopper bigger than a house."
> Lunfardo: «mula» — a lie: In lunfardo «mula» (literally 'mule') means a lie, a con, a tall tale: «una mula más grande que una casa» = 'a whopping lie, a lie as big as a house'. «Robar» here = 'to abduct / carry off' a woman, an old euphemism for elopement.

–¿Y tu mamá?  
"And your mother?"

Erdosain iba a preguntarle si su madre creyó semejante mentira, como si Hipólita llevara escrito en el semblante los trabajos que le habían convulsionado la vida...  
Erdosain was about to ask him whether his mother had believed such a lie, as if Hipólita carried written on her face the ordeals that had convulsed her life...
> «como si» + imperfect subjunctive: «como si llevara escrito ... en el semblante» = 'as if she bore written on her face'. «Como si» forces the imperfect subjunctive «llevara» for the unreal comparison. «Los trabajos» here = 'the hardships, ordeals' (an older sense of «trabajo»).

–¿Y tu mamá cómo recibió la noticia?  
"And how did your mother take the news?"

–Me dijo que se la llevara inmediatamente.  
"She told me to bring her over immediately."
> Reported command + subjunctive: «decir que» + subjunctive reports a command: «me dijo que se la llevara» = 'she told me to bring her (over)'. The imperfect subjunctive «llevara» follows the past «dijo». «Se la» = «se» (her, to the mother) + «la» (Hipólita).
Cuando se la presenté, la abrazó y le dijo: «¿Te ha respetado, hija?» Y ella, bajando los ojos, le contestó: «Sí, mamá».  
"When I introduced her, she embraced her and said: 'Has he respected you, my child?' And she, lowering her eyes, answered: 'Yes, mama.'"
> «respetar» — to keep chaste: Here «respetar a alguien» carries the old sense 'to respect (sexually), to refrain from touching': «¿Te ha respetado?» = 'Has he kept his hands off you? / has he respected your virtue?'. The mother's question, and the irony, turn entirely on this sense.
Lo cual es cierto.  
"Which is true."
Te prevengo que mamá y mi hermana Sara están encantadas con Hipólita.  
"I warn you, my mother and my sister Sara are delighted with Hipólita."
> «prevenir» — to warn / forewarn: «prevenir» means 'to warn, forewarn, alert'. «Te prevengo que...» = 'I warn you / I'll have you know that...'. «Estar encantado con» = 'to be delighted with'. «Prevengo» is the irregular present of «prevenir».

En aquel momento Erdosain tuvo el presentimiento que esos desdichados se habían preparado un desastre futuro.  
At that moment Erdosain had the presentiment that those wretched souls had prepared a future disaster for themselves.
> «tener» in the preterite: The preterite «tuvo» marks a presentiment that struck him at one specific moment ('he had / got a presentiment'), unlike the imperfect «tenía» ('he used to have'). «Se habían preparado» = pronominal pluperfect, 'had prepared for themselves'.
No se equivocó, y al recordar ahora en el tren eléctrico la certidumbre que no había fallado, se dijo al tiempo que pasaba por Liniers: «Es curioso, las primeras impresiones no lo engañan nunca a uno», y al preguntarle a Ergueta cuándo se casaba, éste le respondió:  
He was not wrong, and as he now recalled on the electric train the certainty that had not failed, he said to himself just as he was passing through Liniers: "It's curious, first impressions never deceive you," and when he asked Ergueta when he was getting married, the latter answered him:
> «uno» as impersonal 'you/one': «uno» serves as an impersonal subject 'one / you (in general)': «no lo engañan nunca a uno» = 'they never deceive you'. The doubled «lo ... a uno» is the object. «Al tiempo que» = 'just as, at the same time as'.

–Mañana salimos para Montevideo.  
"Tomorrow we leave for Montevideo."
Nos casamos allá, por si acaso no nos entendemos.  
"We'll get married there, just in case we don't get along."
> «por si acaso» — just in case: «por si acaso» = 'just in case'. With the indicative it presents a real contingency: «por si acaso no nos entendemos» = 'just in case we don't get along'. «Entenderse» (reciprocal) = 'to understand each other, get along'.
–Al pronunciar estas palabras volvió a guiñar el párpado sonriendo cínicamente, y agregó–: No soy ningún caído del catre, che.  
And as he spoke these words he winked his eyelid again, smiling cynically, and added: "I'm no fool fresh off the cot, man."
> «caído del catre»: «caído del catre» (literally 'fallen out of the cot/bed') is the porteño idiom for a naive fool, a simpleton — like the English 'born yesterday'. «No soy ningún caído del catre» = 'I'm nobody's fool'.

A Erdosain le molestó ese lujo de precauciones.  
That lavishness of precautions bothered Erdosain.
> «molestar» — to bother (reverse subject): «molestar» works like «gustar»: «A Erdosain le molestó ese lujo de precauciones» = 'that lavishness of precautions bothered Erdosain' (literally 'was bothersome to him'). The thing that bothers is the subject; the person is the indirect object «le».
No pudiendo contenerse, le dijo:  
Unable to contain himself, he said to him:
> Negated gerund as a clause: A gerund can stand in for a whole subordinate clause; negated, «no pudiendo contenerse» = 'being unable to contain himself, since he couldn't hold back'. «Pudiendo» is the gerund of «poder»; «contenerse» (pronominal) = 'to restrain oneself'.

–¿Cómo... no te casaste y ya estás pensando en el divorcio?  
"What... you haven't even married and you're already thinking about divorce?"
> «pensar en» — to think about: «pensar en» = 'to think about / of (have on one's mind)', distinct from «pensar de» ('to have an opinion about') and «pensar» + infinitive ('to intend to'). «Estás pensando en el divorcio» = 'you're already thinking about divorce'.
¿Qué hazaña de comunista es la tuya?  
"What kind of communist feat is yours?"
> Possessive pronoun «la tuya»: «la tuya» = 'yours' (feminine, agreeing with «hazaña»): «¿Qué hazaña ... es la tuya?» = 'what feat is yours?'. The long-form possessive «el mío / la tuya / los suyos» stands in for a noun already mentioned.
En el fondo seguís siendo el jugador tramposo.  
"Deep down you're still the cheating gambler."
> Voseo «seguís» + gerund: «seguir» + gerund = 'to keep on / still be (doing)'. «Seguís siendo» (voseo of «sigues siendo») = 'you're still being / you remain'. «En el fondo» = 'deep down, at bottom'. «Tramposo» = 'cheating, a cheat'.

Pero el farmacéutico se regodeaba con la suficiencia de un usurero a quien no le importan los insultos, si se los dirigen en el momento de pagar los intereses.  
But the pharmacist gloated with the smugness of a usurer to whom insults do not matter, provided they are hurled at him as the interest is being paid.
> «regodearse» — to gloat: «regodearse» (pronominal) = 'to gloat, revel, take malicious delight'. «Se regodeaba con la suficiencia de un usurero» = 'he gloated with a usurer's smugness'. «Suficiencia» here = 'smugness, self-satisfaction'.
Guarango, repuso:  
Coarse as ever, he retorted:
> «guarango» — coarse, rude: «guarango» is a River Plate word for a coarse, vulgar, ill-mannered person. Used adverbially-appositively here, «Guarango, repuso» = 'coarse / boorish, he retorted'. «Repuso» is the preterite of «reponer», 'he replied/retorted'.

Pero el farmacéutico se regodeaba con la suficiencia de un usurero a quien no le importan los insultos, si se los dirigen en el momento de pagar los intereses.  
But the pharmacist gloated with the smugness of a usurer to whom insults do not matter, provided they are hurled at him as the interest is being paid.
> Relative «a quien» + «importar»: «a quien no le importan los insultos» = 'to whom insults do not matter'. The relative «a quien» (for a person) pairs with «importar», which agrees with its real subject «los insultos» (plural «importan»). This block repeats the previous paragraph verbatim in the source text.
Guarango, repuso:  
Coarse as ever, he retorted:

–Hay que ser turbo, che.  
"You've got to be shrewd, man."
> Lunfardo: «turbo» / «hay que ser»: «turbo» (a play on «turro» / «vivo») is lunfardo for sharp, cunning, streetwise. «Hay que ser turbo» = 'you've got to be cunning / play it smart'. «Hay que» + infinitive is impersonal 'one must / you have to'.

Erdosain estaba asombrado frente a tanta grosería.  
Erdosain was astonished in the face of such coarseness.
> «estar» + participle = resulting state: «estar» plus a past participle describes a resulting state: «estaba asombrado» = 'he was astonished / in a state of astonishment'. The participle «asombrado» agrees with the subject. «Frente a» here = 'in the face of, confronted with'.

Pensó en la deliciosa criatura y se la imaginó soportando a ese bruto bajo un cielo oscurecido por grandes nubes de polvo e incendiado por un sol amarillo y espantoso.  
He thought of the delightful creature and pictured her enduring that brute beneath a sky darkened by great clouds of dust and set ablaze by a yellow, dreadful sun.
> «imaginarse» + gerund: «imaginarse a alguien (haciendo algo)» = 'to picture someone (doing something)': «se la imaginó soportando a ese bruto» = 'he pictured her enduring that brute'. The gerund «soportando» shows what he imagines her doing. «Soportar» = 'to put up with, endure'.
Ella se marchitaría como un helécho trasplantado a un pedregal.  
She would wither like a fern transplanted to a stony patch of ground.
> Conditional for an imagined outcome: «se marchitaría» = 'she would wither', the conditional projecting an imagined future from Erdosain's reverie. «Marchitarse» (pronominal) = 'to wilt, wither'. «Pedregal» = a stony, rocky waste — barren ground for a delicate fern.
Ahora Erdosain lo examinó nuevamente al farmacéutico pero con rabia.  
Now Erdosain examined the pharmacist again, but with fury.

El jugador reparó en la malevolencia de su compañero y dijo:  
The gambler noticed his companion's malevolence and said:
> «reparar en» — to notice: «reparar en» = 'to notice, take note of, become aware of'. «Reparó en la malevolencia de su compañero» = 'he noticed his companion's malevolence'. Don't confuse with «reparar» alone ('to repair'); the «en» changes the meaning.

–Es necesario hacer algo contra esta sociedad, che.  
"Something must be done against this society, man."
> «es necesario» + infinitive: «es necesario» + a bare infinitive makes an impersonal statement of necessity: «es necesario hacer algo» = 'it is necessary to do something / something must be done'. With a subject it would switch to «que» + subjunctive («es necesario que hagamos algo»).
Hay días que sufro de un modo insoportable.  
"There are days when I suffer unbearably."
Parece que todos los hombres se hubieran vuelto bestias.  
"It seems as if all men had turned into beasts."
> «parece que» + subjunctive of unreality: Normally «parece que» takes the indicative, but with the pluperfect subjunctive «se hubieran vuelto» it gains a 'as if' force: 'it seems as if all men had turned into beasts'. «Volverse» + noun = 'to turn into, become'.
Dan ganas de salir a la calle y predicar al exterminio o poner una ametralladora en cada bocacalle.  
"It makes you want to go out into the street and preach extermination, or set a machine gun at every street corner."
> «dar ganas de» — to make one want: The impersonal «dan ganas de» + infinitive = 'it makes you want to, one feels like': «dan ganas de salir a la calle» = 'it makes you want to go out into the street'. «Bocacalle» = the mouth of a street, an intersection / street corner.
¿Te das cuenta?  
"Do you realize?"
Vienen tiempos terribles.  
"Terrible times are coming."

«El hijo se levantará contra el padre y el padre contra el hijo.  
"'The son will rise up against the father and the father against the son.'"
> «levantarse contra» — to rise against: «levantarse contra» = 'to rise up / rebel against'. The future «se levantará» gives the prophetic tone: 'the son will rise against the father'. The line echoes the Gospel prophecy of households divided in the last days.
Es necesario hacer algo contra esta sociedad maldita.  
"Something must be done against this accursed society."
Por eso me caso con una prostituta.  
"That's why I'm marrying a prostitute."
> «por eso» — that's why: «por eso» = 'for that reason, that's why', introducing a consequence. «Por eso me caso con una prostituta» = 'that's why I'm marrying a prostitute'. The present «me caso» again stands for the imminent future.
Bien dicen las Escrituras: «Y tú, hijo de hombre, no juzgarás tú a la ciudad derramadora de sangre y le mostrarás todas sus abominaciones».  
"The Scriptures say it well: 'And you, son of man, will you not judge the bloodshedding city, and show her all her abominations?'"
Y estas otras palabras, fíjate en estas otras palabras: «Y enamoróse de sus rufianes cuya carne es como carne de asno y cuyo flujo como flujo de caballos».  
"And these other words, just look at these other words: 'And she doted on her paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses and whose issue is like the issue of horses.'"
> Enclitic «se» in biblical style: «enamoróse» = «se enamoró» with the pronoun attached, an archaic literary form that suits the scriptural register: 'and she fell in love with / doted on her paramours'. From Ezekiel 23:20. «Rufián» = a pimp, paramour, ruffian.
–Y señalando a los «cafishios», que jugaban en torno de las mesas, dijo–: Ahí los tenés.  
And pointing at the "pimps," who were playing around the tables, he said: "There you have them."
> Voseo «tenés» as 'there you have': «Ahí los tenés» = 'there you have them, there they are'. The voseo «tenés» (standard «tienes») plus the object «los» is a pointing, presentational idiom — gesturing at the pimps as living proof of his prophecy.
Entra al Royal Keller, al Marzzoto, al Pigall, al Maipú, en todas partes donde entres los vas a encontrar.  
"Go into the Royal Keller, the Marzzoto, the Pigall, the Maipú; everywhere you go in, you'll find them."
> Subjunctive after an indefinite «donde»: When the place is unspecified ('wherever'), «donde» takes the subjunctive: «en todas partes donde entres» = 'everywhere you (might) go in'. The subjunctive «entres» marks it as any possible place, not a particular one. «Vas a encontrar» = near future, 'you're going to find'.
Fuerzas perdidas.  
"Wasted forces."
Hasta esa canalla se aburre en el fondo.  
"Even that rabble is bored deep down."
Cuando llegue la revolución se les ahorcará o se les mandará a la primera fila.  
"When the revolution comes they'll be hanged or sent to the front line."
> Subjunctive after future «cuando»: When «cuando» points to a future event, it takes the subjunctive: «cuando llegue la revolución» = 'when the revolution comes'. «Se les ahorcará» = impersonal «se» + future, 'they will be hanged / one will hang them'.
Carne de cañón.  
"Cannon fodder."
> «carne de cañón» — cannon fodder: «carne de cañón» is the set phrase 'cannon fodder' — soldiers, or people, treated as expendable. Ergueta consigns the pimps to the slaughter of his coming revolution.
Yo pude ser como ellos y renuncié.  
"I could have been like them, and I renounced it."
> «poder» in the preterite: «pude ser» (preterite of «poder») = 'I could have been / I was able to be (and the chance is past)'. The preterite stresses a closed past possibility he turned down — «renuncié» ('I renounced / gave it up').
Ahora vienen tiempos terribles.  
"Now terrible times are coming."
Por eso dice el libro.  
"That's why the book says it."
«Y salvaré a la coja y recogeré a la descarriada y pondréla por alabanza y por renombre en todo el país de confusión».  
"'And I will save her that is lame and gather her that was driven astray, and I will set her for a praise and a renown in all the land of their confusion.'"
> Enclitic «la» on a future verb: «pondréla» = «la pondré» with the pronoun attached to the end — an archaic, biblical word order. Note that this repetition of the Zephaniah verse uses the singular «la» ('her'), where the first quotation (paragraph 159) used the plural «las»; both readings circulate in old Spanish Bibles.

Porque hoy la ciudad está enamorada de sus rufianes y ellos hundieron a la coja y a la descarriada, pero tendrán que humillarse y besarle los pies a la coja y a la descarriada.  
"For today the city is in love with her pimps, and they have brought down the lame woman and the strayed one, but they will have to humble themselves and kiss the feet of the lame woman and the strayed one."
> «tener que» + two infinitives: «tendrán que humillarse y besarle los pies» = 'they will have to humble themselves and kiss her feet'. One «tener que» governs both infinitives. «Besarle los pies a la coja» doubles the indirect object («le ... a la coja»), normal in Spanish.

–¿Pero vos la querés o no a Hipólita?  
"But do you love Hipólita or not?"
> Voseo «querés» + «querer a»: «querer a (alguien)» = 'to love (a person)'; with things or for 'to want' it drops the «a». «¿Vos la querés ... a Hipólita?» = 'do you love Hipólita?', with the object doubled («la ... a Hipólita») and the voseo «querés» (standard «quieres»).

–Claro que la quiero.  
"Of course I love her."
> «claro que» — of course: «claro que» + indicative = 'of course (I/you/etc.)...': «claro que la quiero» = 'of course I love her'. It strongly affirms what was just questioned. «La» = 'her'.
A momentos me parece que ha bajado de la luna por una escalera.  
"At times it seems to me she's come down from the moon by a staircase."
> «parecer que» + indicative: Affirmative «parecer que» takes the indicative: «me parece que ha bajado de la luna» = 'it seems to me she has come down from the moon'. (Compare the unreal «parece que ... se hubieran vuelto» earlier, which used the subjunctive for an 'as if'.)
Donde está ella todos se sentirán felices.  
"Where she is, everyone will feel happy."
> Indicative after a real «donde»: Because the place is real and known (wherever she actually is), «donde» takes the indicative «está»: «donde está ella» = 'where she is'. Contrast the subjunctive «donde entres» earlier, where the place was hypothetical.

Y Erdosain creyó por un instante que ella hubiera bajado de la luna para que todos los hombres acudieran a extasiarse en su sencillez, tranquila.  
And for an instant Erdosain believed that she had come down from the moon so that all men might come to lose themselves in rapture before her calm simplicity.
> «para que» + subjunctive of purpose: «para que» (purpose) always takes the subjunctive: «para que todos los hombres acudieran a extasiarse» = 'so that all men might come to be enraptured'. The imperfect subjunctive «acudieran» follows the past frame. «Extasiarse» = 'to be enraptured, go into ecstasy'.

El farmacéutico continuó:  
The pharmacist went on:

–Ahora vienen tiempos de sangre, che, de venganza.  
"Now times of blood are coming, man, of vengeance."
Los hombres adentro de sus almas están llorando.  
"Men, inside their souls, are weeping."
> «estar» + gerund — the progressive: «estar» + gerund forms the progressive 'to be (doing)': «están llorando» = 'they are weeping'. «Adentro de» (River Plate for «dentro de») = 'inside'. Spanish uses the progressive less than English, so it marks an action vividly underway.
Pero no quieren escuchar el llanto de su ángel.  
"But they don't want to hear the weeping of their angel."
Y las ciudades están como las prostitutas, enamoradas de sus rufianes y de sus bandidos.  
"And the cities are like prostitutes, in love with their pimps and their bandits."
Esto no puede seguir así.  
"This cannot go on like this."
> «seguir así» — to go on like this: «seguir» + «así» = 'to go on / continue this way'. «Esto no puede seguir así» = 'this can't go on like this'. «Seguir» here is used without a gerund, simply meaning 'to continue (in this state)'.

Miró un instante a la calle, y después con la atención fijada como en un sonido interior, el jugador dijo con voz patética en el café del aburrimiento:  
He looked at the street for an instant, and then, his attention fixed as if on an inner sound, the gambler said in a pathetic voice, in the café of boredom:
> Participle as a reduced clause: «con la atención fijada como en un sonido interior» = 'with his attention fixed as if on an inner sound'. The participle «fijada» (agreeing with «la atención») compresses a whole description into an absolute phrase introduced by «con».

–Tendrá que venir un hombre, un ángel, yo qué sé.  
"A man will have to come, an angel, what do I know."
> «yo qué sé»: «yo qué sé» is a colloquial throwaway, 'what do I know, I don't know, or something' — vague hand-waving. «Tendrá que venir un hombre» = 'a man will have to come', «tener que» giving prophetic necessity.
Se arrodillará en medio de la Avenida de Mayo.  
"He will kneel down in the middle of the Avenida de Mayo."
Los automóviles se detendrán, los gerentes de los bancos y los ricos de los hoteles se asomarán a los balcones y moviendo los brazos indignados le dirán:  
"The automobiles will stop, the bank managers and the rich men of the hotels will lean out over the balconies, and, waving their arms indignantly, they will say to him:"
> «asomarse a» — to lean out of: «asomarse a» = 'to lean / peer out of (a window, balcony)'. «Se asomarán a los balcones» = 'they will lean out over the balconies'. The string of futures («se detendrán», «se asomarán», «dirán») sustains the prophetic vision.

«¿Qué quieres, tú, cara de sapo?  
"'What do you want, you, toad-face?'"
> «cara de sapo» — toad-face: «cara de sapo» (literally 'toad-face') is a contemptuous insult for an ugly face. The rich men hurl it at the kneeling redeemer. Note the shift to peninsular «tú quieres» rather than voseo — Ergueta gives the bankers a more formal, bookish voice.
No nos seas molesto –pero él se levantará– y cuando vean su carita triste y sus ojos encendidos de fiebre, a todos se les caerán los brazos, y él se dirigirá a los cogotudos, les hablará, les preguntará por qué hicieron mal, por qué se olvidaron del huérfano y machacaron al hombre y han hecho un infierno de la vida que era tan linda.  
"'Don't be a nuisance to us' — but he will rise — and when they see his sad little face and his eyes blazing with fever, the arms of all of them will drop, and he will turn to the bigwigs, he will speak to them, he will ask them why they did wrong, why they forgot the orphan and crushed the common man and made a hell of life, which was so beautiful."
> Negative command + subjunctive: Negative commands use the subjunctive: «no seas» = 'don't be' (here «tú/vos»). «No nos seas molesto» = 'don't be a bother to us'. The «cuando vean» that follows is again subjunctive for a future event: 'when they see'.
> «cogotudo» — bigwig: «cogotudo» (from «cogote», nape of the neck) is lunfardo for a rich, arrogant, important person — a bigwig, a fat cat. Earlier Ergueta called his jilted fiancée «una cogotuda» (a snob); here it is the moneyed class the redeemer confronts.
Y ellos no sabrán qué contestar, y la voz del ángel postrero resonará de tal forma que se les pondrá la piel de gallina, y hasta los más rufianes llorarán».  
"'And they will not know what to answer, and the voice of the last angel will resound in such a way that their skin will crawl with goose bumps, and even the most ruffianly of them will weep.'"
> «poner la piel de gallina»: «ponerse la piel de gallina» = 'to get goose bumps / goose flesh' (literally 'hen's skin'). «Se les pondrá la piel de gallina» = 'their skin will crawl'. «Postrero» = 'last, final'; «el ángel postrero» = 'the last angel'.

La bocaza del farmacéutico se deformó de angustia.  
The pharmacist's great gaping mouth twisted with anguish.
> Augmentative «-aza»: «bocaza» = «boca» + the augmentative «-aza», 'a big / coarse mouth'. The «-azo/-aza» suffix enlarges (often disparagingly): «manaza» (a big hand), «cochazo» (a great big car). «Se deformó de angustia» = 'twisted with anguish'.
Parecía que masticara un veneno elástico y amargo.  
He seemed to be chewing an elastic, bitter poison.
> «parecía que» + subjunctive: «parecía que masticara un veneno» = 'he seemed to be chewing a poison'. The imperfect subjunctive «masticara» after «parecía que» gives the 'as if' quality — an appearance, not a fact, like «como si masticara».

–Sí, es necesario que venga Cristo otra vez.  
"Yes, it is necessary that Christ come again."
> «es necesario que» + subjunctive: When «es necesario» has a subject clause, it switches from infinitive to «que» + subjunctive: «es necesario que venga Cristo» = 'it is necessary that Christ come'. The subjunctive «venga» (from «venir») is required after the impersonal expression of necessity.
Los hombres más perros, los cínicos más letrinosos sufren todavía.  
"The most doglike men, the most latrine-foul cynics, still suffer."
> «letrinoso» — latrine-foul: «letrinoso» is an Arltian coinage from «letrina» ('latrine, privy'), meaning filthy, foul, sewer-like. «Los más perros» uses «perro» ('dog') adjectivally for 'vile, mean'. Arlt strains the language toward maximum squalor for these final lines.
Y si él no viene, ¿quién nos va a salvar?  
"And if he does not come, who is going to save us?"
> «si» + present indicative (real condition): An open, real condition uses the present indicative in the «si» clause: «si él no viene» = 'if he does not come'. (Contrast the unreal «si vos supieras» earlier, which needed the subjunctive.) «¿Quién nos va a salvar?» = 'who is going to save us?'.
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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.