# The Seven Madmen, The Black House Los siete locos · Roberto Arlt · Part Two Source: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/la-casa-negra. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/arlt/la-casa-negra.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/arlt/.m4a. Y apareció en él la angustia, pero tan poderosa, que de pronto Erdosain se tomaba la cabeza enloquecido de un dolor físico. And the anguish appeared in him, but so powerful that all at once Erdosain would clutch his head, maddened by a physical pain. > «tan… que» (so… that): The pattern «tan» + adjective + «que» expresses result: 'so powerful that…'. Here «tan poderosa» agrees in gender with «la angustia», and the «que» clause states the consequence. Parecíale que la masa encefálica se le había desprendido del cráneo y que chocaba con las paredes de éste al movimiento de la menor idea. It seemed to him that his brain matter had come loose from his skull and was striking against its walls at the movement of the slightest thought. > Enclitic pronoun on a verb: «Parecíale» is «le parecía» with the pronoun attached to the end of the verb — a literary inversion common in Arlt. It means 'it seemed to him'. The same move appears later in «sentíase», «tornábase», «deslizábase». Sabía que estaba irremisiblemente perdido, desterrado de la posible felicidad que siempre, algún día, sonría en la mejilla más pálida: comprendía que el destino lo abortó al caos de esa espantosa multitud de hombres huraños que manchan la vida con sus estampas agobiadas por todos los vicios y sufrimientos. He knew he was hopelessly lost, exiled from the possible happiness that always, some day, smiles on the palest cheek: he understood that destiny had aborted him into the chaos of that ghastly multitude of sullen men who stain life with their figures, weighed down by every vice and suffering. > Imperfect vs. preterite: «comprendía» (imperfect) describes an ongoing state of mind — 'he understood', 'he kept realizing'. «abortó» (preterite) marks a single completed act of fate — 'destiny aborted him'. Spanish constantly pairs the backdrop tense with the event tense like this. El ya no tenía ninguna esperanza, y su miedo de vivir se hacía más poderoso cuando pensaba que jamás tendría ilusiones, cuando obstinadamente fijos los ojos en un rincón de la estancia, reconocía que le era indiferente trabajar de lavaplatos en una fonda o de criado en un prostíbulo. He no longer had any hope, and his fear of living grew stronger when he thought that he would never have illusions again, when, his eyes obstinately fixed on a corner of the room, he admitted that it was all the same to him to work as a dishwasher in a cheap eatery or as a servant in a brothel. > «jamás» — never (emphatic): «jamás» is a stronger, more absolute 'never' than «nunca»: 'never ever', 'not once for as long as he lives'. It intensifies «tendría ilusiones» — he is sure he will never again have illusions. ¡Qué le importaba! What did it matter to him! > «importar» works like «gustar»: «importar» (to matter) takes the thing as subject and the person as an indirect object: «qué le importaba» literally = 'what mattered to him'. The «le» marks the affected person, exactly as with «gustar» ('to please'). La angustia lo niveló para el seno de una multitud silenciosa de hombres terribles que durante el día arrastran su miseria vendiendo artefactos o biblias, recorriendo al anochecer los urinarios donde exhiben sus órganos genitales a los mozalbetes que entran a los mingitorios acuciados por otras ansiedades semejantes. The anguish levelled him down into the bosom of a silent multitude of dreadful men who by day drag their misery about selling gadgets or bibles, prowling at nightfall the urinals where they display their genitals to the youths who enter the latrines, goaded by other, similar cravings. Estas convicciones lo aletargaban en sombrías meditaciones. These convictions lulled him into gloomy meditations. Sentíase atornillado a un bloque formidable del que no se evadiría jamás. He felt himself bolted to a formidable block from which he would never escape. > False friend: «formidable»: Here «formidable» keeps its older sense of 'fearsome, dreadful, overwhelming' — not the modern colloquial 'great, terrific'. The block is something monstrous he is chained to, not something wonderful. Porque esta angustia llegó a ser tan persistente, que de pronto descubrió que su alma estaba triste por el destino que en la ciudad aguardaba a su cuerpo, un cuerpo que pesaba setenta kilos y que él sólo veía cuando lo encaminaba frente a un espejo. Because this anguish came to be so persistent that suddenly he discovered his soul was sad for the fate that, in the city, awaited his body — a body that weighed seventy kilos and that he saw only when he steered it in front of a mirror. > «llegar a ser» — to come to be: «llegar a + infinitive» expresses reaching a point or eventually managing something: «llegó a ser tan persistente» = 'came to be / ended up being so persistent'. It stresses the gradual arrival at a state. En otros tiempos con el pensamiento se había rodeado de todas las comodidades y los placeres, placeres que por no estar limitados por la materia no tenían duración ni fronteras, mientras que su tristeza actual se refería a su cuerpo, un cuerpo sufriente, y en el cual a momentos Erdosain pensaba como si ya no le perteneciera, pero con el remordimiento de no haberlo hecho feliz. In other times he had surrounded himself, in thought, with every comfort and pleasure — pleasures that, being unlimited by matter, had neither duration nor borders — whereas his present sadness was about his body, a suffering body, one Erdosain at times thought about as if it no longer belonged to him, but with the remorse of never having made it happy. > «como si» + past subjunctive: «como si» ('as if') always triggers the imperfect subjunctive: «perteneciera» (from «pertenecer»). It frames a contrary-to-fact comparison — 'as if it no longer belonged to him', though in fact the body is his. Dicha tristeza, en cuanto se refería a su pobre físico, tornábase profunda, como debe ser profundo el dolor de una madre que nunca pudo satisfacer los deseos de su hijo. That sadness, insofar as it concerned his poor body, turned deep — as deep as the grief of a mother who could never satisfy her child's wishes. > «dicho/dicha» as 'said, aforementioned': As an adjective, «dicho/dicha» means 'said' or 'aforementioned': «dicha tristeza» = 'that / the aforesaid sadness'. It is a slightly formal way to point back to something just named, distinct from the noun «la dicha» ('happiness'). Porque él no le dio a su carne, que tan poco tiempo viviría, ni un traje decente, ni una alegría que lo reconciliara con el vivir; él no había hecho nada por el placer de su materia, mientras que a su espíritu no le fue negada ni la geografía de los países para quienes los hombres aún no han descubierto máquinas para llegar. Because he had given his flesh, which would live so short a time, neither a decent suit nor a joy to reconcile it with living; he had done nothing for the pleasure of his body, whereas his spirit was denied not even the geography of the countries men have yet to invent machines to reach. > «ni… ni» — neither… nor: Paired «ni… ni» means 'neither… nor' and reinforces a negative verb: «no le dio… ni un traje… ni una alegría» = 'gave it neither a suit nor a joy'. Spanish keeps the «no» on the verb even with the «ni» pair. Y muchas veces se decía: And many times he said to himself: –¿Qué he hecho yo por la felicidad de este desdichado cuerpo mío? —What have I done for the happiness of this wretched body of mine? > Stressed possessive «mío»: After the noun, the long-form possessive «mío» adds emphasis and emotion: «este cuerpo mío» = 'this body of mine'. It is warmer and more pointed than the plain «mi cuerpo». Porque lo cierto es que se sentía en circunstancias tan ajeno a él, como el vino del tonel que lo contiene. Because the truth is that at times he felt as foreign to himself as the wine to the barrel that holds it. > Neuter «lo» + adjective: «lo» before an adjective makes an abstract noun: «lo cierto» = 'what is certain / the certain thing / the truth'. This neuter «lo» turns any adjective into 'the … part / the … thing', as in «lo importante» ('the important thing'). Luego recaía que ese cuerpo era el que envasaba sus cavilaciones, las nutría con su sangre cansada; un miserable cuerpo mal vestido que ninguna mujer se dignaba mirar y que sentía el desprecio y la carga de los días, de la que sólo eran responsables sus pensamientos que nunca habían apetecido los placeres que reclamaba en silencio, tímidamente. Then it would dawn on him that this body was the one that bottled up his broodings and fed them with its weary blood; a wretched, ill-dressed body that no woman deigned to look at and that felt the scorn and the weight of the days — for which only his thoughts were to blame, thoughts that had never craved the pleasures it silently, timidly demanded. > Pronominal verb «dignarse»: «dignarse» ('to deign') is pronominal — it carries a reflexive pronoun and is followed by a bare infinitive: «se dignaba mirar» = 'deigned to look'. The «se» is part of the verb, not a true reflexive 'self'. Erdosain se sentía apiadado, entristecido hacia su doble físico, del que era casi un extraño. Erdosain felt pity, felt saddened, toward his physical double, of which he was almost a stranger. Entonces, como un desesperado que se arroja desde un séptimo piso, él se arrojaba en el delicioso terror de la masturbación, queriendo aniquilar sus remordimientos en un mundo del que nadie podía expulsarlo, rodeándose de las delicias que estaban alejadas de su vida, de todos los cuerpos más distintos y hermosos, para los que se necesitarían una suma inmensa de existencias y dinero para gozar. Then, like a desperate man who throws himself from a seventh floor, he flung himself into the delicious terror of masturbation, wanting to annihilate his remorse in a world from which no one could expel him, surrounding himself with the delights kept far from his life, with all the most varied and beautiful bodies, to enjoy which an immense sum of lifetimes and money would be needed. > Reflexive «arrojarse» — to fling oneself: «arrojar» means 'to throw'; with the reflexive pronoun, «arrojarse» means 'to throw / fling oneself'. The present «se arroja» describes the simile's leaper; the imperfect «se arrojaba» describes Erdosain's habitual plunge. Era aquél un universo de ideas gelatinosas, roto en pasadizos donde la obscenidad se vestía con las sedas y puntillas y terciopelos y guipures más costosos; un mundo resplandeciente en su pulpa crepuscular. That was a universe of gelatinous ideas, broken into passageways where obscenity dressed itself in the costliest silks and lace and velvets and guipures; a world resplendent in its crepuscular pulp. > Verb-first inversion with «aquél»: Spanish freely puts the verb before the subject: «Era aquél un universo…» = 'That was a universe…'. The stressed demonstrative «aquél» ('that one, that') carries an accent to mark it as a pronoun, not the adjective «aquel». Transitaban en él las mujeres más hermosas de la creación, desconocidas tersas que por él descubrían sus senos de manzana, ofreciendo a su boca, agriada por innobles cigarrillos, labios fraganciosos y palabras pesadas de sensualidad. Through it moved the most beautiful women of creation, smooth-skinned strangers who for him bared their apple-firm breasts, offering to his mouth, soured by vile cigarettes, fragrant lips and words heavy with sensuality. Y ya eran doncellas altas, finas y pulidas, ya colegiales corrompidas, un mundo femenino y diverso del que nadie podía expulsarle, a él, pobre diablo, a quien las regentes de los prostíbulos más destartalados miraban con desconfianza como si fuera a defraudarles el importe de la fornicación. And now they were tall maidens, slender and polished, now corrupted schoolgirls — a feminine, varied world from which no one could expel him, him, poor devil, whom the madams of the most ramshackle brothels eyed with suspicion, as if he were going to cheat them of the price of the fornication. > «ya… ya…» — now… now…: Repeated «ya… ya…» means 'now this… now that…', listing alternating possibilities: «ya eran doncellas… ya colegiales» = 'now they were maidens… now schoolgirls'. It is a literary way to say 'sometimes one, sometimes another'. Cerraba los ojos y entraba en la ardiente oscuridad, olvidado de todo, como el fumador de opio que al entrar al asqueroso fumadero donde el patrón chino huele a excremento, cree recobrar el cielo. He would close his eyes and enter the burning darkness, oblivious to everything, like the opium smoker who, on entering the filthy den where the Chinese owner reeks of excrement, believes he is regaining heaven. > «al» + infinitive: «al» followed by an infinitive means 'upon / on (doing something)': «al entrar al fumadero» = 'on entering the den', 'as he enters the den'. It packs a whole clause of time into two words. Y por un momento deslizábase subrepticiamente hacia el placer clandestino, avergonzado, mas con la impaciencia de un jovenzuelo al entrar por primera vez en un lenocinio. And for a moment he would slip surreptitiously toward the clandestine pleasure, ashamed, but with the impatience of a young lad entering a brothel for the first time. > «mas» without an accent: «mas» (no accent) is a literary conjunction meaning 'but', equivalent to «pero». Do not confuse it with «más» (with accent), which means 'more'. Arlt uses the bookish «mas» for tone. El deseo zumbaba como un tábano en sus oídos, pero nadie lo podía arrancar ya de la oscuridad sensual. Desire buzzed like a horsefly in his ears, but no one could tear him now from the sensual darkness. Era esta oscuridad una casa familiar en la que perdía súbitamente las nociones del vivir común. This darkness was a familiar house in which he suddenly lost all sense of ordinary living. Allí, en la casa negra, le eran habituales los placeres terribles, que de haberlos sospechado en la existencia de otro hombre le habrían separado para siempre de él. There, in the black house, the terrible pleasures were habitual to him — pleasures that, had he suspected them in another man's life, would have separated him from that man forever. > «de» + perfect infinitive = 'if': «de» + a perfect infinitive expresses a hypothetical condition: «de haberlos sospechado» = 'had he suspected them', 'if he had suspected them'. It pairs naturally with the conditional perfect «habrían separado» ('would have separated'). Aunque esta casa negra estaba en Erdosain, entraba en ella haciendo singulares rodeos, tortuosas maniobras, y una vez traspuesto el umbral sabía que era inútil retroceder, porque por los corredores de la casa negra, por un exclusivo corredor siempre enfardado de sombras, avanzaba a su encuentro, con pies ligeros, la mujer que un día en la vereda, en un tranvía o en una casa, le había envarado de deseo. Although this black house was inside Erdosain, he entered it by singular detours, tortuous maneuvers, and once the threshold was crossed he knew it was useless to turn back, because down the corridors of the black house, down one particular corridor forever bundled in shadow, there came toward him, on light feet, the woman who one day on the sidewalk, on a streetcar, or in a house, had stiffened him with desire. > «vereda» — sidewalk (River Plate): In Argentina and Uruguay «la vereda» is the everyday word for 'sidewalk / pavement', where Spain says «la acera». The novel is steeped in this Buenos Aires register — «vereda», «tranvía», «pollera» (skirt). Como quien saca de su cartera un dinero que es producto de distintos esfuerzos, Erdosain sacaba de las alcobas de la casa negra una mujer fragmentaria y completa, una mujer compuesta por cien mujeres despedazadas por los cien deseos siempre iguales, renovados a la presencia de semejantes mujeres. Like someone drawing from his wallet money that is the product of separate efforts, Erdosain drew from the bedchambers of the black house a woman fragmentary and complete, a woman composed of a hundred women torn apart by the hundred ever-identical desires, renewed at the presence of such women. > «quien» = 'someone who': Without an antecedent, «quien» means 'someone who / one who': «como quien saca…» = 'like someone who takes out…'. It is a compact way to introduce a generic person inside a comparison. Porque ésta tenía las rodillas de una muchacha a quien el viento soslayaba la pollera mientras esperaba el ómnibus, y los muslos que recordaba haber visto en una postal pornográfica, y la sonrisa triste y desvanecida de una colegiala que hacía mucho tiempo había encontrado en el tranvía, y los ojos verdosos de una modistilla con la pálida boca rodeada de granos que los domingos salía, al atardecer, con una amiga, para bailar en esos centros recreativos, donde los tenderos empujan con sus braguetas sublevadas a las mocitas que gustan de los hombres. Because this woman had the knees of a girl whose skirt the wind slanted aside while she waited for the bus, and the thighs he remembered having seen on a pornographic postcard, and the sad, faded smile of a schoolgirl he had met long ago on the streetcar, and the greenish eyes of a little dressmaker with a pale, pimple-ringed mouth who on Sundays went out, at dusk, with a friend, to dance in those recreation halls where shopkeepers shove their swollen flies against the young girls who like men. > «pollera» — skirt (River Plate): In Argentina «la pollera» means 'skirt', where most of Spain says «la falda». It is another mark of the novel's porteño vocabulary, alongside «ómnibus» and «tranvía» for city transport. Esta mujer arbitraria, amasada con la carnadura de todas las mujeres que no había podido poseer, tenía con él esas complacencias que tienen las novias prudentes que ya han dejado las manos en las entrepiernas de sus novios sin dejar por ello de ser honestas. This arbitrary woman, kneaded from the flesh of all the women he had not been able to possess, granted him those indulgences that prudent sweethearts grant — sweethearts who have already let their hands stray to their boyfriends' crotches without thereby ceasing to be decent. > «dejar de» + infinitive — to stop doing: «dejar de + infinitive» means 'to stop / cease doing something': «sin dejar de ser honestas» = 'without ceasing to be decent'. Note that plain «dejar» means 'to leave/let', but «dejar de» flips it to 'stop'. Iba hacia él. She came toward him. Tenía las nalgas contenidas por una faja ortopédica, que dejaba libres sus senos ligeramente combados, y sus modales eran irreprochables como los de una señorita educada que sabe razonar, lo cual no le impide dejar que su novio pierda los dedos en el corpiño entreabierto por un olvido. Her buttocks were held in by an orthopedic girdle that left her slightly arched breasts free, and her manners were irreproachable, like those of a well-bred young lady who knows how to reason — which does not stop her from letting her boyfriend lose his fingers in the bodice left half-open by an oversight. > «lo cual» — 'which' (whole-clause): «lo cual» means 'which' and refers back to the entire preceding idea, not to a single noun: 'her manners were irreproachable, which does not stop her…'. Use «lo cual / lo que» when the antecedent is a whole situation. Luego caía en los abismos de la casa negra. Then he would fall into the abysses of the black house. ¡La casa negra! The black house! Erdosain, de aquellos tiempos conservaba un recuerdo abominable; tenía la sensación de que había vivido en el interior de un infierno, cuyo contenido diabólico lo acompañaba a través de los días, y aun a pocos de los de su muerte, perseguido por la justicia. Of those times Erdosain kept an abominable memory; he had the sensation of having lived inside a hell whose diabolical contents accompanied him through the days, and even within a few days of his death, hunted by the law. > «cuyo» — whose: «cuyo» is a relative possessive, 'whose', and agrees with the thing possessed, not the owner: «un infierno, cuyo contenido…» = 'a hell, whose contents…'. So «cuyo» is masculine singular to match «contenido», not «infierno»'s role. Cuando volcaba su memoria hacia aquella época se exaltaba sobriamente, una llama roja brillaba ante sus ojos, y tal era su doloroso furor, que hubiera querido de un salto llegar hasta más allá de las estrellas, quemarse en una hoguera que limpiara su presente de todo aquel terrible pasado, persistente e inevitable. When he turned his memory toward that period he grew soberly exalted, a red flame burned before his eyes, and such was his painful fury that he would have wanted to reach, in a single leap, beyond the stars, to burn himself in a bonfire that would cleanse his present of all that terrible past, persistent and inevitable. > Subjunctive in a relative clause: «limpiara» is imperfect subjunctive because the bonfire is wished-for, not real: 'a bonfire that would cleanse'. Spanish uses the subjunctive in relative clauses when the antecedent is hypothetical or sought rather than known to exist. ¡La casa negra! The black house! Aún me parece tener ante los ojos el semblante enrigecido del hombre taciturno, que de pronto levantaba la cabeza hacia el cielorraso, luego bajaba los ojos hasta ponerlos a la altura de los míos y sonriendo fríamente, agregaba: I still seem to have before my eyes the rigid face of the taciturn man, who would suddenly raise his head toward the ceiling, then lower his eyes until they were level with mine and, smiling coldly, would add: > «cielorraso» — ceiling: «cielorraso» (also «cielo raso») is the interior ceiling of a room — literally a 'smooth sky'. Note the abrupt shift to the first person here («los míos», 'mine'): a narrator now reports the killer's words directly. –Vaya, dígales a los hombres lo que es la casa negra. —Go on, tell men what the black house is. > Formal command + pronoun: «dígales» is the «usted» command of «decir» ('say') with the indirect-object pronoun «les» ('to them') attached: 'tell them'. Formal imperatives take subjunctive forms and bolt their pronouns onto the end. Y que yo era un asesino. And that I was a murderer. Y sin embargo yo, el asesino, he amado todas las bellezas y he luchado en mí mismo contra todas las horribles tentaciones que hora tras hora subían de mis entrañas. And yet I, the murderer, have loved every beauty and have struggled within myself against all the horrible temptations that hour after hour rose up from my guts. > Present perfect for a life's record: «he amado», «he luchado» are present-perfect forms ('I have loved', 'I have struggled'). The speaker sums up the whole span of his life up to now — a completed experience still bearing on the present moment of confession. He sufrido por mí, y por los otros, ¿se da cuenta?, también por los otros... I have suffered for myself, and for others — do you realize? — for others too... > «darse cuenta (de)» — to realize: «darse cuenta (de)» means 'to realize / become aware (of)'. The formal «¿se da cuenta?» = 'do you realize?', addressed with «usted». Do not confuse it with «dar cuenta de» ('to account for'), which is a different idiom. --- 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.