# The Seven Madmen, States of Consciousness

Los siete locos · Roberto Arlt · Part One

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


Sabía que era un ladrón.  
He knew he was a thief.
> The imperfect tense: «Sabía» and «era» are imperfect forms of «saber» and «ser». The imperfect describes an ongoing state in the past — what was already true — rather than a single completed event. Here it states a standing fact about Erdosain: he knew, all along, what he was.
Pero la categoría en que se colocaba no le interesaba.  
But the category in which he found himself placed did not interest him.
> Pronominal «colocarse»: «Colocarse» is the pronominal form of «colocar» ('to place'); with the reflexive «se» it means 'to place/position oneself', 'to be situated'. Here «la categoría en que se colocaba» is roughly 'the category in which he was placed / found himself'.
Quizá la palabra ladrón no estuviera en consonancia con su estado interior.  
Perhaps the word thief was not in keeping with his inner state.
> Subjunctive after «quizá»: «Quizá» ('perhaps') triggers the subjunctive to mark uncertainty. «Estuviera» is the imperfect subjunctive of «estar»: 'perhaps the word was not in keeping...'. Spanish uses the subjunctive here precisely because the statement is hedged, not asserted as fact.
Existía otro sentimiento y ése era el silencio circular entrado como un cilindro de acero en la masa de su cráneo, de tal modo que lo dejaba sordo para todo aquello que no se relacionara con su desdicha.  
There was another feeling, and it was the circular silence driven like a steel cylinder into the mass of his skull, in such a way that it left him deaf to everything that had no bearing on his misery.
> «de tal modo que» — result clause: «De tal modo que» means 'in such a way that' and introduces a clause of result. It links a cause (the silence lodged in his skull) to its consequence (it left him deaf). Note that the following verb, «relacionara» (imperfect subjunctive), appears because «todo aquello que no se relacionara» describes a hypothetical, non-specific 'anything that did not relate'.

Este círculo de silencio y de tinieblas interrumpía la continuidad de sus ideas, de forma que Erdosain no podía asociar, con el declive de su razonamiento, su hogar llamado casa con una institución designada con el nombre de cárcel.  
This circle of silence and darkness broke the continuity of his thoughts, so that, in the decline of his reasoning, Erdosain could not connect his home—called a house—with an institution designated by the name of prison.
> «de forma que» — consequence: «De forma que» ('so that', 'with the result that') introduces a consequence, much like «de tal modo que». Spanish has a family of these connectors — «de manera que», «de modo que», «de forma que» — all linking an action to the state of affairs it produces.

Pensaba telegráficamente, suprimiendo preposiciones, lo cual es enervante.  
He thought telegraphically, dropping prepositions, which is unnerving.
> «lo cual» — a whole-clause relative: «Lo cual» refers back not to a single noun but to the entire preceding idea: 'which' = 'the fact that he thought telegraphically'. Use «lo cual» (or «lo que») when the relative pronoun stands for a whole clause rather than one word.
Conoció horas muertas en las que hubiera podido cometer un delito de cualquier naturaleza, sin que por ello tuviera la menor noción de su responsabilidad.  
He knew dead hours in which he could have committed a crime of any kind without thereby having the slightest sense of his responsibility.
> «sin que» + subjunctive: «Sin que» ('without [it being the case that]') always takes the subjunctive when the two clauses have different subjects. «Tuviera» is the imperfect subjunctive of «tener»: 'without his having...'. Pair it with «hubiera podido» ('he could have'), the pluperfect subjunctive of «poder» (pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo). It can function as an equivalent to the conditional perfect «habría podido» in hypothetical contexts, but its mood is subjunctive, not conditional.
Lógicamente, un juez no hubiera entendido tal fenómeno.  
Logically, a judge would not have understood such a phenomenon.
Pero él ya estaba vacío, era una cáscara de hombre movida por el automatismo de la costumbre.  
But he was already empty, a husk of a man moved by the automatism of habit.
> «cáscara» — shell, husk, rind: «Cáscara» is the outer shell or rind — of an egg, a nut, an orange. «Una cáscara de hombre» turns it into a metaphor: a man hollowed out to nothing but his outer surface, a 'husk of a man'.

Si continuó trabajando en la Compañía Azucarera no fue para robar más cantidades de dinero, sino porque esperaba un acontecimiento extraordinario –inmensamente extraordinario– que diera un giro inesperado a su vida y lo salvara de la catástrofe que veía acercarse a su puerta.  
If he went on working at the Sugar Company it was not to steal more sums of money, but because he was waiting for an extraordinary event—immensely extraordinary—that would give his life an unexpected turn and save him from the catastrophe he saw drawing near his door.
> «no... sino» — not X but Y: «Sino» corrects a negation: 'not for one reason, but for another'. It differs from «pero»: «sino» replaces the rejected idea outright, whereas «pero» merely qualifies. The later verbs «diera» and «salvara» are imperfect subjunctive, used because the event is only hoped-for, not real.

Esta atmósfera de sueño y de inquietud que lo hacía circular a través de los días como un sonámbulo, la denominaba Erdosain, «la zona de la angustia».  
This atmosphere of dream and unease that made him move through the days like a sleepwalker, Erdosain called "the zone of anguish".
> Fronted object with a resumptive pronoun: The long phrase «Esta atmósfera... como un sonámbulo» is the object, moved to the front for emphasis, then echoed by the pronoun «la» in «la denominaba» ('Erdosain called it...'). This doubling — noun out front, matching object pronoun on the verb — is normal Spanish word order, not a mistake.

Erdosain se imaginaba que dicha zona existía sobre el nivel de las ciudades, a dos metros de altura, y se le representaba gráficamente bajo la forma de esas regiones de salinas o desiertos que en los mapas están revelados por óvalos de puntos, tan espesos como las ovas de un arenque.  
Erdosain imagined that this zone existed above the level of the cities, two meters up, and he pictured it graphically in the form of those regions of salt flats or deserts that on maps are shown by ovals of dots, as dense as the roe of a herring.
> «dicho/dicha» — aforementioned: «Dicha» here is not the noun 'happiness' but the participle of «decir» used as an adjective: 'the said / aforementioned zone'. It is a formal way to point back to something just named, equivalent to 'this zone' or 'the zone in question'.

Esta zona de angustia era la consecuencia del sufrimiento de los hombres.  
This zone of anguish was the consequence of the suffering of men.
Y como una nube de gas venenoso se trasladaba pesadamente de un punto a otro, penetrando murallas y atravesando los edificios, sin perder su forma plana y horizontal; angustia de dos dimensiones que guillotinando las gargantas dejaba en éstas un regusto de sollozo.  
And like a cloud of poison gas it shifted heavily from one point to another, penetrating walls and passing through buildings without losing its flat, horizontal shape; a two-dimensional anguish that, guillotining throats, left in them an aftertaste of sobbing.
> Chained gerunds: Arlt strings together gerunds (the «-ando/-iendo» form) to layer simultaneous actions onto one main verb: the gas shifts while 'penetrating' and 'passing through', and the anguish acts while 'guillotinating'. The gerund here means 'in the act of', running parallel to the finite verb.
Tal era la explicación que Erdosain se daba cuando sentía las primeras náuseas de la pena.  
Such was the explanation Erdosain gave himself when he felt the first nausea of grief.
> «tal era...» — inverted, formal: «Tal era la explicación que...» ('Such was the explanation that...') fronts «tal» ('such') and inverts the verb before the subject. It is a literary, slightly archaic way to gather up everything just described into a summary.

–¿Qué es lo que hago con mi vida? –decíase entonces, queriendo quizás aclarar con esta pregunta los orígenes de la ansiedad que le hacía apetecer una existencia en la cual el mañana no fuera la continuación de hoy con su medida de tiempo, sino algo distinto y siempre inesperado como en los desenvolvimientos de las películas norteamericanas, donde el pordiosero de ayer es el jefe de una sociedad secreta de hoy, y la dactilógrafa aventurera una multimillonaria de incógnito.  
"What am I doing with my life?" he would say to himself then, wanting perhaps to clarify with this question the origins of the anxiety that made him crave an existence in which tomorrow would not be the continuation of today with its measure of time, but something different and always unexpected, as in the unfolding of North American films, where yesterday's beggar is today's chief of a secret society, and the adventuress typist a multimillionaire incognito.
> Enclitic pronoun: «decíase» = «se decía»: In older literary Spanish the reflexive pronoun is often attached to the end of a finite verb: «decíase» = «se decía» ('he said to himself'). Arlt uses this enclitic form throughout the chapter for narration. The meaning is identical to placing «se» before the verb.
> «dactilógrafa» — typist: «Dactilógrafo/a» is a typist (from Greek 'finger' + 'writing'); in 1920s Buenos Aires it named the new class of office typists. The cinematic fantasy — the typist secretly a millionaire — fixes the chapter in the silent-film era Erdosain dreams through.

Dicha necesidad de maravillas que no tenía posibles satisfacciones –ya que él era un inventor fracasado y un delincuente al margen de la cárcel– le dejaba en las cavilaciones subsiguientes una rabiosa acidez y los dientes sensibles como después de masticar limón.  
This need for marvels, which had no possible satisfaction—since he was a failed inventor and a criminal on the edge of prison—left him, in the broodings that followed, a raging acidity and teeth as sensitive as after chewing a lemon.
> «ya que» — since, given that: «Ya que» introduces a reason already known or accepted: 'since', 'seeing that'. It is causal like «porque» but presents the cause as established background rather than new information — here, the facts of Erdosain's failure that explain why his hunger for marvels can never be fed.

En estas circunstancias compaginaba insensateces.  
In these circumstances he pieced together follies.
> «compaginar» — to piece together: «Compaginar» originally means to arrange printed pages into order (a printer's term), and by extension to fit or reconcile things together. «Compaginaba insensateces» casts his mind as a typesetter assembling nonsense into shape.
Llegó a imaginarse que los ricos, aburridos de escuchar las quejas de los miserables, construyeron jaulones tremendos que arrastraban cuadrillas de caballos.  
He came to imagine that the rich, tired of hearing the complaints of the wretched, built enormous cages dragged by teams of horses.
> «llegar a» + infinitive: «Llegar a» plus an infinitive means 'to get to the point of', 'to end up' doing something: «llegó a imaginarse» = 'he came to imagine', 'he even imagined'. It marks the reaching of an extreme — his fantasies escalating until he pictures this.
Verdugos escogidos por su fortaleza cazaban a los tristes con lazo de acogotar perros, llegándole a ser visible cierta escena: una madre, alta y desmelenada, corría tras el jaulón de donde, entre los barrotes, la llamaba su hijo tuerto, hasta que un «perrero», aburrido de oírla gritar, la desmayó a fuerza de golpes en la cabeza, con el mango del lazo.  
Executioners chosen for their strength hunted the sad with a noose for throttling dogs, and a certain scene grew visible to him: a mother, tall and disheveled, ran after the cage from which, between the bars, her one-eyed son called to her, until a "dogcatcher", tired of hearing her scream, knocked her out with blows to the head from the handle of the noose.
> «perrero» — dogcatcher: A «perrero» is a dogcatcher, the man who rounds up strays with a pole and noose. Arlt's nightmare reuses the dogcatcher's tools — the «lazo de acogotar perros», the noose for throttling dogs — to hunt the poor, collapsing the wretched into stray animals.

Desvanecida esta pesadilla, Erdosain se decía horrorizado de sí mismo:  
This nightmare having faded, Erdosain said to himself, horrified at himself:
> Absolute participle construction: A past participle placed before its noun with no verb — «Desvanecida esta pesadilla» — forms an 'absolute' clause meaning 'once this nightmare had faded'. The participle «desvanecida» agrees in gender and number with «pesadilla». It compresses a time clause, like English 'this done, ...'.

–¿Pero qué alma, qué alma es la que tengo yo? –Y como su imaginación conservaba el impulso motor que le había impreso la pesadilla, continuaba: –Yo debo haber nacido para lacayo, uno de esos lacayos perfumados y viles con quienes las prostitutas ricas se hacen prender los broches del pórtasenos, mientras el amante fuma un cigarro recostado en el sofá.  
"But what a soul, what a soul is this that I have?"—And since his imagination still held the driving force the nightmare had stamped on it, he went on: "I must have been born to be a lackey, one of those perfumed and vile lackeys whom rich prostitutes have fasten the clasps of their brassiere, while the lover smokes a cigar reclining on the sofa."
> «deber» + «haber» + participle — supposition: «Deber» followed by «haber» plus a past participle expresses inference about the past: «debo haber nacido» = 'I must have been born'. (Many speakers add «de»: «debo de haber nacido».) It states a probable conclusion, not an obligation.
> «lacayo» — lackey, footman: A «lacayo» is a liveried manservant, a footman — and figuratively a servile, contemptible person. The word carries both senses at once here: Erdosain's self-loathing fantasy of being literally a servant and morally a grovelling one.

Y nuevamente sus pensamientos caían de rebote en una cocina situada en los sótanos de una lujosísima mansión.  
And again his thoughts rebounded into a kitchen set in the cellars of a most luxurious mansion.
> The absolute superlative «-ísimo»: The suffix «-ísimo/a» intensifies an adjective to its highest degree without comparison: «lujosísima» = 'extremely / most luxurious'. It is stronger and more emphatic than «muy lujosa» ('very luxurious').
En torno de la mesa movíanse dos mucamas, además del chofer y un árabe vendedor de ligas y perfumes.  
Around the table moved two maids, besides the chauffeur and an Arab seller of garters and perfumes.
> «mucama» — maid (River Plate Spanish): «Mucama» is the everyday River Plate word (Argentina, Uruguay) for a domestic maid or servant, where Spain would say «criada» or «sirvienta». Its appearance roots the scene firmly in Buenos Aires.
En dicha circunstancia él gastaría un saco negro que no alcanzaba a cubrirle el trasero, y corbatita blanca.  
In that situation he would wear a black coat that did not reach to cover his backside, and a little white tie.
> «saco» — jacket (Latin America): In Argentina and most of Latin America «saco» is a man's jacket or suit coat (Spain: «chaqueta», «americana»). «Gastar» here is used colloquially for 'to wear', and the diminutive «corbatita» — 'a little tie' — adds a note of shabby servility.
Súbitamente lo llamaría «el señor», un hombre que era su doble físico, pero que no se afeitaba los bigotes y usaba lentes.  
Suddenly "the master" would call him, a man who was his physical double, but who did not shave his mustache and wore glasses.
> Conditional for an imagined scene: The conditional («gastaría», «llamaría», «olvidaría») narrates this whole daydream — what 'would' happen in the imagined life of the lackey. Spanish uses the conditional to project a hypothetical sequence, much as English does with 'would'.
El no sabía qué es lo que deseaba de él su patrón, mas nunca olvidaría la mirada singular que éste le dirigió al salir de la estancia.  
He did not know what his master wanted of him, but he would never forget the singular look the man gave him on leaving the room.
> «mas» (no accent) = «pero»: «Mas» without an accent is a literary conjunction meaning 'but' — synonymous with «pero». Do not confuse it with «más» (with accent), meaning 'more'. Arlt favors the unaccented «mas» for its old-fashioned, formal ring.
Y volvía a la cocina para conversar de suciedades, con el chofer que, ante el regocijo de las mucamas y el silencio del árabe pederasta, contaba como había pervertido a la hija de una gran señora, cierta criatura de pocos años.  
And he would return to the kitchen to talk filth with the chauffeur who, to the delight of the maids and the silence of the pederast Arab, told how he had corrupted the daughter of a great lady, a certain child of few years.
> «volver a» — return vs. repeat: «Volver a» plus a noun means to go back to a place: «volvía a la cocina», 'he returned to the kitchen'. Note that «volver a» plus an infinitive instead means 'to do again' (as in «volvía a repetirse» later, 'he would say to himself again'). Same verb, two patterns.

Y volvía a repetirse:  
And he would say to himself again:
> «volver a» + infinitive — to do again: Here «volver a» is followed by an infinitive, «repetirse», and means 'to do (something) again': 'he repeated to himself once more'. This is the periphrastic Spanish way to express 'again', distinct from «otra vez» tacked onto a verb.

–Sí, yo soy un lacayo.  
"Yes, I am a lackey."
Tengo el alma de un verdadero lacayo –y apretaba los dientes de satisfacción al insultarse y rebajarse de ese modo ante sí mismo.  
I have the soul of a true lackey," and he clenched his teeth in satisfaction at insulting and debasing himself in this way before his own eyes.
> «al» + infinitive: «Al» before an infinitive means 'on / upon (doing)': «al insultarse y rebajarse» = 'on insulting and debasing himself'. It compresses a clause of time or cause — here, the moment of self-abasement that brings him a perverse satisfaction.

Otras veces se veía saliendo de la alcoba de una soltera vieja y devota, llevando con unción un pesado orinal, mas en ese momento le encontraba un sacerdote asiduo de la casa que sonriendo, sin inmutarse, le decía:  
Other times he saw himself coming out of the bedroom of an old, devout spinster, carrying with unction a heavy chamber pot, but at that moment a priest, a regular of the house, would come upon him and, smiling, unperturbed, would say to him:
> «verse» + gerund: «Verse» (to see oneself) followed by a gerund means to picture or find oneself in the act of doing something: «se veía saliendo» = 'he saw himself coming out'. The gerund supplies the ongoing action he visualizes himself performing.

–¿Cómo vamos de deberes religiosos, Ernesto? –Y él, Ernesto, Ambrosio o José, viviría torvamente una vida de criado obsceno e hipócrita.  
"How are we doing with our religious duties, Ernesto?"—And he, Ernesto, Ambrosio or José, would grimly live the life of an obscene, hypocritical servant.

Un temblor de locura le estremecía cuando pensaba en esto.  
A tremor of madness shook him when he thought of this.

Sabía, ¡ah, qué bien lo sabía!, que estaba gratuitamente ofendiendo, ensuciando su alma.  
He knew—ah, how well he knew it!—that he was gratuitously offending, soiling his soul.
> Past progressive «estar» + gerund: «Estaba ofendiendo... ensuciando» is the past progressive: «estar» in the imperfect plus a gerund, 'he was offending... soiling'. It stresses the action as in progress and ongoing, exactly as English 'was -ing' does.
Y el terror que experimenta el hombre que en una pesadilla cae al abismo en que no morirá, padecíalo él mientras deliberadamente se iba enlodando.  
And the terror felt by a man who in a nightmare falls into an abyss where he will not die, he suffered it while he deliberately mired himself.
> «ir» + gerund — gradual progression: «Ir» plus a gerund expresses an action unfolding little by little: «se iba enlodando» = 'he was gradually miring himself', 'he sank deeper into the mud'. Where «estar» + gerund just marks ongoing action, «ir» + gerund adds a sense of step-by-step progress.

Porque a instantes su afán era de humillación, como el de los santos que besaban las llagas de los inmundos; no por compasión, sino para ser más indignos de la piedad de Dios, que se sentiría asqueado de verles buscar el cielo con pruebas tan repugnantes.  
For at moments his craving was for humiliation, like that of the saints who kissed the sores of the filthy; not out of compassion, but to be more unworthy of the mercy of God, who would feel disgusted to see them seek heaven with such repugnant proofs.
> «no por X, sino para Y»: «No por compasión, sino para ser...» contrasts two motives: not 'out of' (por) compassion, but 'in order to' (para) be unworthy. The pairing pivots on «por» (cause/reason) versus «para» (purpose/goal) — a core distinction between these two prepositions.
Mas cuando desaparecían de él esas imágenes, y sólo quedaba en su conciencia el «deseo de conocer el sentido de la vida», decíase:  
But when those images vanished from him, and only the "desire to know the meaning of life" remained in his consciousness, he said to himself:

–No, yo no soy un lacayo... de verdad que no lo soy... –y hubiera querido ir a pedirle a su esposa que se compadeciera de él, que tuviera piedad de sus pensamientos tan horribles y bajos.  
"No, I am not a lackey... truly I am not..."—and he would have liked to go and ask his wife to take pity on him, to have mercy on his thoughts so horrible and base.
> «pedir que» + subjunctive: Verbs of asking and wishing — «pedir», «querer» — take «que» plus the subjunctive when a different subject is being influenced: «pedirle... que se compadeciera» ('to ask her to take pity'). «Compadeciera» and «tuviera» are imperfect subjunctives, set in the past by «hubiera querido».
Mas el recuerdo de que por ella se había visto obligado a sacrificarse tantas veces, le colmaba de un rencor sordo, y en esas circunstancias hubiera querido matarla.  
But the memory that on her account he had been forced to sacrifice himself so many times filled him with a dull rancor, and in such circumstances he would have liked to kill her.
> «verse obligado a» — to be forced to: «Verse obligado a» literally 'to see oneself obliged to', is the idiomatic way to say 'to be forced/compelled to'. The pluperfect «se había visto obligado» places it before another past moment: he had been forced, repeatedly, before the rancor sets in.

Y bien sabía que algún día ella se entregaría a otro y aquél era un sumado elemento más a los otros factores que componían su angustia.  
And he well knew that someday she would give herself to another, and that was one more element added to the other factors that composed his anguish.
> Conditional in reported thought: «Se entregaría» ('she would give herself') is the conditional used as a 'future-in-the-past': from the standpoint of «sabía» ('he knew'), it reports what was yet to come. English does the same with 'would': 'he knew she would...'.

De allí que cuando defraudó los primeros veinte pesos, se asombró de la facilidad con que se podía hacer «eso», quizá porque antes de robar creyó tener que vencer una serie de escrúpulos que en sus actuales condiciones de vida no podía conocer.  
Hence, when he embezzled the first twenty pesos, he was amazed at the ease with which one could do "that", perhaps because before stealing he believed he would have to overcome a series of scruples that in his present conditions of life he could not know.
> «de allí que» — hence, that is why: «De allí que» (also «de ahí que») means 'hence', 'which is why', drawing a consequence from what came before. It often takes the subjunctive, though here Arlt continues with indicative («defraudó», «se asombró») in a more narrative register.
> «defraudar» — to defraud, embezzle: «Defraudar» means to defraud or embezzle — to cheat someone of money entrusted to you. (It can also mean 'to disappoint', as in «me defraudó».) Here it is the concrete act: Erdosain skimming the company's pesos.
Decíase luego:  
He said to himself afterward:

–Es cuestión de tener voluntad y hacerlo, nada más.  
"It is a matter of having the will and doing it, nothing more."
> «es cuestión de» — it's a matter of: «Es cuestión de» plus an infinitive means 'it is a matter / question of (doing)': «es cuestión de tener voluntad», 'it's just a matter of having the will'. A common idiom for reducing something to a single condition.

Y «eso» aliviaba la vida, con «eso» tenía dinero que le causaba sensaciones extrañas porque nada le costaba ganarlo.  
And "that" eased life; with "that" he had money that gave him strange sensations because it cost him nothing to earn it.
Y lo asombroso para Erdosain no consistía en el robo, sino que no se revelara en su semblante que era un ladrón.  
And what was astonishing for Erdosain did not consist in the theft, but in the fact that it was not revealed in his face that he was a thief.
> «lo» + adjective — the abstract noun: «Lo» before a masculine-singular adjective makes an abstract noun: «lo asombroso» = 'what is astonishing', 'the astonishing thing'. The same device gives «lo distinto». The later «no se revelara» is subjunctive, governed by «sino que» after a negation.
Se vio obligado a robar porque ganaba un mensual exiguo.  
He was forced to steal because he earned a meager monthly wage.
> «mensual» as a noun; «exiguo»: Here «mensual» (normally the adjective 'monthly') is used as a noun for one's monthly pay. «Exiguo» means scant, meager, barely sufficient — a formal word that drily underlines how little the company paid him.

Ochenta, cien, ciento veinte pesos, pues este importe dependía de las cantidades cobradas, ya que su sueldo se componía de una comisión por cada ciento cobrado.  
Eighty, one hundred, one hundred and twenty pesos, for this amount depended on the sums collected, since his salary was made up of a commission on every hundred collected.

Así, hubo días que llevó de cuatro a cinco mil pesos, mientras él, malamente alimentado, tenía que soportar la hediondez de una cartera de cuero falso en cuyo interior se amontonaba la felicidad bajo la forma de billetes, cheques, giros y órdenes al portador.  
Thus there were days when he carried four to five thousand pesos, while he, poorly fed, had to bear the stench of a fake-leather briefcase inside which happiness piled up in the form of banknotes, checks, money orders, and bearer drafts.
> «hubo» — the preterite of «hay»: «Hubo» is the preterite of «haber» in its impersonal 'there is/are' sense: «hubo días», 'there were days'. The preterite frames those days as a bounded set of completed past occasions, against the ongoing «tenía que soportar» ('he had to bear') in the imperfect.

Su esposa le recriminaba las privaciones que cotidianamente soportaba; él escuchaba en silencio sus reproches y luego, a solas, se decía:  
His wife reproached him for the deprivations she daily endured; he listened in silence to her reproaches and then, alone, said to himself:
> Imperfect for habitual action: «Recriminaba», «soportaba», «escuchaba» are all imperfect, used here for repeated, habitual past action: 'she would reproach him', 'he would listen'. The imperfect paints an ongoing routine rather than single events — the daily grind of their marriage.

–¿Qué es lo que puedo hacer yo?  
"What is it that I can do?"
> «¿Qué es lo que...?» — emphatic question: «¿Qué es lo que puedo hacer?» is an emphatic, drawn-out way of asking «¿Qué puedo hacer?» ('What can I do?'). The frame «es lo que» ('is it that') stresses the helplessness of the question — closer to English 'What is it that I can possibly do?'.

Cuando tuvo la idea, cuando una pequeñita idea lo cercioró de que podía defraudar a sus patrones, experimentó la alegría de un inventor.  
When he had the idea, when a tiny idea assured him that he could defraud his employers, he felt the joy of an inventor.
> Preterite for the decisive moment: After paragraphs of imperfect (the slow, habitual misery), Arlt shifts to the preterite — «tuvo», «cercioró», «experimentó» — to mark single, completed turning points: the instant the idea struck. The tense switch itself signals that something finally happened.
¿Robar?  
Steal?
¿Cómo no se le había ocurrido antes?  
How had it not occurred to him before?
> «ocurrírsele» — to occur to someone: «Ocurrírsele algo a alguien» means an idea 'occurs to' a person, with the «se» marking the idea as cropping up by itself and «le» naming whom it strikes: «no se le había ocurrido» = 'it had not occurred to him'. This indirect construction puts the person on the receiving end of the thought.

Y Erdosain se asombró de su incapacidad llegando hasta reprocharse falta de iniciativa, pues en esa época (tres meses antes de los sucesos narrados) sufría necesidades de toda naturaleza, a pesar de que diariamente pasaban por sus manos crecidas cantidades de dinero.  
And Erdosain was astonished at his own ineptitude, going so far as to reproach himself for a lack of initiative, for in that period (three months before the events narrated) he suffered needs of every kind, despite the fact that large sums of money passed daily through his hands.
> «a pesar de que» — despite the fact that: «A pesar de que» introduces a clause of concession, 'in spite of the fact that', 'even though'. Followed by a full clause with a finite verb («pasaban»), it concedes a contrasting circumstance: he went without, even though money flowed through his hands.

Y lo que facilitó sus maniobras fraudulentas fue la falta de administración que había en la Compañía Azucarera.  
And what made his fraudulent maneuvers easy was the lack of administration there was at the Sugar Company.
> Cleft sentence with «lo que»: «Lo que facilitó sus maniobras fue...» is a cleft construction: 'What made his maneuvers easy was...'. «Lo que» ('that which / what') packages a whole idea as the subject, then «fue» points to the answer — a way of spotlighting the real cause.
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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.