# The Seven Madmen, A Sense of the Subconscious

Los siete locos · Roberto Arlt · Part Two

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


Semi incorporado en un sofá, con los brazos cruzados y la galera echada sobre la frente, el Astrólogo meditaba esa noche sus preocupaciones, en la oscuridad del escritorio.  
Half propped up on a sofa, his arms crossed and his top hat pulled down over his forehead, the Astrologer brooded that night over his worries, in the darkness of the study.
> «galera»: In the Río de la Plata «galera» is a top hat (elsewhere in Spanish it can be a galley or a wagon shed). The Astrologer's «galera echada sobre la frente» — hat tugged down over his brow — is a recurring physical tag for him throughout the novel.
> Imperfect for a held action: «Meditaba» is the imperfect of «meditar» ('to ponder'). The imperfect paints an ongoing, unbounded past action — 'he was brooding / he brooded on and on' — rather than a single finished event, which sets the scene's stalled, suspended mood.
La lluvia batía en los cristales de la ventana, pero no la escuchaba ensimismado en numerosos proyectos.  
The rain beat against the windowpanes, but he did not hear it, lost in himself amid countless schemes.
> «ensimismado»: «Ensimismado» = absorbed in oneself, lost in thought. It is built transparently from «en sí mismo» ('in oneself') and is the perfect word for the Astrologer's inward, self-enclosed brooding.
Además, le ocurría algo extraño.  
Besides, something strange was happening to him.
> «ocurrir» with an indirect object: «Le ocurría algo» = 'something was happening to him'. «Ocurrir» ('to happen') takes the indirect-object pronoun «le» ('to him') to mark the person it happens to; the imperfect «ocurría» leaves the strange event still unfolding.

La proximidad del crimen a cometer aceleraba en el espacio de tiempo normal otro tiempo particular.  
The nearness of the crime to be committed sped up, within the space of normal time, another time all its own.
> «a» + infinitive = 'to be done': «El crimen a cometer» = 'the crime to be committed', i.e. the crime still to come. «A» before an infinitive after a noun expresses something pending or yet to be carried out — like English 'a task to do', 'a bill to pay'.
Recibía así la sensación de existir sensibilizado en dos tiempos.  
He thus received the sensation of existing, made acutely aware, in two times at once.
> «sensibilizado»: «Sensibilizado» is the past participle of «sensibilizar» ('to make sensitive, to heighten the senses'). Here it describes the Astrologer's perception sharpened to the point of pain — he feels himself living in two simultaneous tempos.
Uno natural a todos los estados de la vida normal, otro fugacísimo y pesado en los latidos de su corazón, escapándose entre sus dedos trabados por la meditación como el agua de un cesto.  
One natural to every state of ordinary life, the other fleeting in the extreme yet heavy in the beats of his heart, slipping through his fingers — locked together in meditation — like water through a basket.
> The «-ísimo» superlative: «Fugacísimo» = «fugaz» ('fleeting') + «-ísimo», the absolute superlative: 'extremely fleeting'. Spanish attaches «-ísimo» to an adjective to push it to its limit, without 'most' or 'very' — a single emphatic word.

Y el Astrólogo, retenido dentro del tiempo del reloj, sentía deslizarse en su cerebro el otro tiempo rapidísimo e interminable que como una película cinematográfica, al deslizarse vertiginosamente, hería con las imágenes que aparejaba, su sensibilidad, de un modo impreciso y fatigante, ya que antes de percibir con claridad una idea ésta había desaparecido para ser substituida por otra.  
And the Astrologer, held inside clock time, felt sliding through his brain that other time, swift beyond measure and unending, which — like a strip of film, reeling past dizzyingly — wounded his sensibility with the images it strung together, in a way blurred and exhausting, since before he could perceive an idea clearly it had already vanished, to be replaced by another.
> «al» + infinitive: «Al deslizarse» = 'on sliding / as it slides'. «Al» plus an infinitive compresses a clause of time into two words — 'upon doing X'. The reflexive «-se» on «deslizar» makes it 'to slide along, glide'.
> Pluperfect for 'already gone': «Había desaparecido» is the pluperfect (imperfect of «haber» + participle): 'it had disappeared'. It marks an action completed before another past moment — the idea was gone before he could grasp it.
Tal que, cuando miraba el reloj encendiendo un fósforo, comprobaba que el tiempo transcurrido era de minutos, mientras que en su entendimiento esos minutos mecánicos, acelerados por su ansiedad, tenían otra longitud que ningún reloj podía medir.  
So much so that when he looked at the clock, striking a match, he confirmed that the time elapsed was only minutes, while in his understanding those mechanical minutes, accelerated by his anxiety, had another length that no clock could measure.
> «fósforo»: «Fósforo» (literally 'phosphorus') is the everyday Río de la Plata word for a match. The Astrologer keeps striking matches to read the clock in the dark study — a small recurring gesture that measures the scene's stalled time.

Sensación que lo retenía en la oscuridad, a la expectativa.  
A sensation that held him in the darkness, on the alert.
> «a la expectativa»: «A la expectativa» = 'on the lookout, waiting watchfully'. The fixed phrase describes a state of tense, suspended anticipation — exactly the Astrologer's posture as he waits in the dark.
Comprendía que cualquier error cometido en dicho estado podría serle fatal más tarde.  
He understood that any error made in such a state could prove fatal to him later on.
> Conditional «podría»: «Podría serle fatal» = 'could be fatal to him'. «Podría» is the conditional of «poder», expressing a hypothetical possibility ('could, might'); «-le» is the indirect object 'to him'. The conditional projects a consequence that has not yet happened.

El asesinato del hombre Barsut no le preocupaba mayormente, sino las precauciones que debía tomar para que ese hecho no adquiriera importancia indebida.  
The murder of the man Barsut did not worry him greatly; what worried him were the precautions he had to take so that the deed should not take on undue importance.
> Subjunctive after «para que»: «Para que ese hecho no adquiriera importancia» uses the subjunctive «adquiriera». «Para que» ('so that') introduces a purpose clause and always triggers the subjunctive; the imperfect subjunctive «adquiriera» follows the past-tense main verb.
Y aunque pretendía preparar una coartada, ello era dificultoso.  
And although he meant to prepare an alibi, that was a difficult thing.
> False friend: «pretender»: «Pretender» does not mean 'to pretend'. It means 'to intend, aim, try to' — «pretendía preparar una coartada» = 'he intended to prepare an alibi'. To 'pretend' (feign) is «fingir» or «aparentar».
Tenía la sensación de que el que así cavilaba en las tinieblas no era él, sino que estaba contemplando a su doble, un doble forjado de emoción y que tenía su apariencia exacta, con la cara romboidal, brazos cruzados y la galera echada sobre la frente.  
He had the feeling that the one who brooded thus in the gloom was not himself, but that he was watching his double — a double forged out of emotion, with his exact appearance: the rhomboid face, crossed arms, and the top hat pulled down over the forehead.
> «cavilar»: «Cavilar» = to mull over obsessively, to turn something endlessly in the mind. «El que así cavilaba» = 'the one who brooded like that'. It is a heavier, more anxious word than simply 'to think', and recurs throughout this chapter.
Sin embargo, no podía darse cuenta de qué naturaleza eran los pensamientos de ese doble tan íntimamente ligado a él y tan distante de su comprensión.  
And yet he could not make out the nature of the thoughts of that double, so intimately bound to him and yet so far beyond his understanding.
> «darse cuenta de»: «Darse cuenta de» = 'to realize, to become aware of'. It is a pronominal verb (note the «se») followed by «de»: «no podía darse cuenta de qué naturaleza…» = 'he could not realize what nature…'. Don't confuse it with «dar cuenta de» ('to account for').
Porque juzgaba que su sentimiento de existir era en aquellos instante más efectivo que la existencia de su cuerpo.  
For he judged that his sense of existing was, in those instants, more real than the existence of his body.
Mas tarde, explicando dicho fenómeno, dijo que era la conciencia de la distinta velocidad del tiempo que duraban sus emociones, dentro del otro tiempo mecánico, como aquellos que dicen «aquel minuto me pareció un siglo».  
Later on, explaining the phenomenon, he said it was the awareness of the differing speed of the time his emotions lasted, inside that other, mechanical time — like those who say, 'that minute felt like a century to me.'
> «mas» vs «más»: «Mas» without an accent is a literary conjunction meaning 'but' (= «pero»); «más» with an accent means 'more'. Here «Mas tarde» reads as 'But later' / 'Later on'. The unaccented «mas» is formal and is mostly found in written prose.

Imposibilidad de pensar que no dejaba de ser importante, ya que se trataba de quitarle la vida a un hombre, paralizar la circulación de sus cinco litros de sangre, enfriar todas sus células, borrarlo de la vida como una mancha de un papel blanco eliminando todo rastro en la superficie.  
An impossibility of thinking that was nonetheless important, since what was at stake was taking a man's life, halting the circulation of his five liters of blood, cooling all his cells, erasing him from life like a stain from a white sheet of paper, removing every trace from the surface.
> Impersonal «tratarse de»: «Se trataba de quitarle la vida» = 'it was a matter of taking his life'. The impersonal «tratarse de» means 'to be about / to be a question of'; it has no personal subject and is always followed by «de» + noun or infinitive.
Como tan grave problema no se apartaba del Astrólogo, éste sentíase dentro del tiempo mecánico del reloj, el hombre físico, mientras que en la lenta velocidad del otro tiempo que ningún reloj podía controlar se localizaba su doble, pensativo, enigmático, auténticamente misterioso, preparando quizá qué coartadas que luego lo sorprenderían al hombre inteligente.  
Since so grave a problem would not leave the Astrologer, he felt himself, within the clock's mechanical time, to be the physical man, while in the slow speed of that other time which no clock could control there dwelt his double — pensive, enigmatic, genuinely mysterious — perhaps preparing who knows what alibis that would later astonish the intelligent man.
> Enclitic pronoun: «sentíase»: «Sentíase» = «se sentía» ('he felt himself') with the reflexive pronoun attached to the end of the verb. This enclitic placement is a literary, slightly archaic style Arlt uses often; in everyday speech the pronoun comes before: «se sentía».

La certidumbre de haberse convertido por la proximidad del crimen en un doble mecanismo con dos nociones de tiempo tan diferentes y dos inercias tan desemejantes, lo apoltronaban sombrío en la oscuridad.  
The certainty of having turned, through the nearness of the crime, into a double mechanism with two such different notions of time and two such unlike inertias, sank him, somber, deep into his seat in the darkness.
> Perfect infinitive: «Haberse convertido en…» = 'to have become / having turned into…'. The perfect infinitive («haber» + participle) names a completed action as a noun-like idea — here the thing he is certain of. The «-se» makes «convertir» reflexive: 'to turn (oneself) into'.

Una fatiga terrible anonadaba su musculatura, sus miembros recios, la coyuntura de sus huesos.  
A terrible fatigue overwhelmed his musculature, his sturdy limbs, the joints of his bones.
> «anonadar»: «Anonadar» = to overwhelm, crush, leave utterly drained or stunned. «Anonadaba su musculatura» = 'a fatigue was crushing his muscles'. It is a strong, formal verb for being flattened or annihilated by some force — here, exhaustion.

La lluvia hacía funcionar en las acequias el breve engranaje de las ranas, pero él, hombre de acción, ablandado por la inquietud como si le hubieran reblandecido los huesos y no pudiera ponerse de pie, «yo, hombre de acción –se decía–, permanezco aquí, estoy así dentro de mi plazo de tiempo mecánico, palpitando con otro tiempo que no es mi tiempo y que me relaja para la precaución.  
The rain set the brief gearwork of the frogs going in the irrigation ditches, but he, a man of action, softened by unease as if his bones had been turned to pulp and he could not get to his feet — 'I, a man of action,' he said to himself, 'remain here, I am like this inside my allotted span of mechanical time, throbbing with another time that is not my time and that slackens me out of caution.
> «como si» + past subjunctive: «Como si le hubieran reblandecido los huesos» = 'as if his bones had been softened'. «Como si» ('as if') always takes the subjunctive; the pluperfect subjunctive «hubieran reblandecido» marks an unreal, contrary-to-fact comparison.
> «acequia»: An «acequia» is an irrigation ditch or water channel — a word inherited from Arabic («as-sāqiya»). The frogs croaking in the rain-filled ditches give the night its 'gearwork', one of Arlt's mechanical metaphors for nature.
Porque es indudable que matar a un hombre es lo mismo que degollar a un cordero, pero no lo es para los otros, y aunque estén distantes y mi conducta sea un misterio para ellos, este tiempo anormal me los acerca, y yo no me puedo casi mover, como si ellos estuvieran allí, en la sombra, espiándome.  
Because there is no doubt that killing a man is the same as slitting a lamb's throat — but it is not so for the others, and although they are far off and my conduct is a mystery to them, this abnormal time brings them close to me, and I can scarcely move, as if they were there, in the shadow, spying on me.
> «aunque» + subjunctive: «Aunque estén distantes y mi conducta sea un misterio» uses the present subjunctive «estén», «sea». After «aunque», the subjunctive frames the concession as hypothetical or granted ('even if / even though they may be') rather than as a stated fact.
Será el tiempo de nerviosidad lo que me inutiliza, o el Astrólogo subconsciente que se reserva sus ideas y me deja exprimido como una naranja para concebir pensamientos que ahora me hacen falta.  
It must be the time of nervousness that disables me, or the subconscious Astrologer who keeps his ideas to himself and leaves me squeezed like an orange, unable to conceive the thoughts I now need.
> Future of probability: «Será el tiempo de nerviosidad…» here does not mean 'it will be' but 'it must be / it's probably'. Spanish uses the future tense to express a present conjecture or guess — «¿Qué hora será?» = 'I wonder what time it is.'
Sin embargo, muerto Barsut, la vida continuará como si nada hubiera ocurrido... y es que nada ha ocurrido si esto no se descubre».  
And yet, with Barsut dead, life will go on as though nothing had happened... and the truth is that nothing has happened, if this is never found out.'
> Absolute participle construction: «Muerto Barsut» = 'Barsut [being] dead', 'once Barsut is dead'. A bare past participle plus its noun forms an 'absolute' clause that sets a condition or time — equivalent to 'with Barsut dead'. Compact and literary.

Encendió nuevamente un fósforo.  
He struck a match again.
> Preterite for a single act: «Encendió» is the preterite of «encender» ('to light'): 'he lit / struck'. The preterite reports one completed, bounded action — contrast it with the surrounding imperfects («batía», «meditaba») that hold the scene open.
La habitación quedó flechada de vértices de sombras movedizas.  
The room was left shot through with the points of shifting shadows.
> «flechada»: «Flechada» comes from «flecha» ('arrow'): pierced or shot through as if by arrows. «Quedó flechada de vértices de sombras» = 'was left arrowed with shadow-points'. A typically Arltian image that turns light and shadow into something sharp and physical.
No había pasado un minuto.  
Not a minute had passed.
Sus pensamientos eran simultáneos y contenían en la nada del tiempo hechos que para estar presentes en el tiempo que los recogía hubieran necesitado en otras circunstancias meses y años.  
His thoughts were simultaneous and held, in the nothingness of time, events that to be present in the time gathering them would, in other circumstances, have needed months and years.
> Conditional perfect via subjunctive: «Hubieran necesitado» (pluperfect subjunctive) here stands in for the conditional perfect 'would have needed'. In literary Spanish the «-ra» subjunctive often replaces «habrían necesitado» in such unreal, past hypothetical results.
Así había nacido hacía cuarenta y tres años y siete días, y ese pasado se aniquilaba de continuo en el presente, presente tan fugaz, que siempre era el Astrólogo del minuto posterior, en el tiempo de minuto o segundo venidero.  
Thus he had been born forty-three years and seven days ago, and that past was forever annihilating itself in the present — a present so fleeting that he was always the Astrologer of the following minute, in the time of the minute or second yet to come.
> «hacía» + time = 'ago': «Había nacido hacía cuarenta y tres años» = 'he had been born forty-three years before / ago'. «Hacer» in the third person plus a span of time expresses 'ago'; in the past, «hacía» measures the distance back from a past moment.
Ahora su vida enfocada hacia un hecho que aún no existía, pero que se consumaría dentro de algunas horas, se tendía dentro del tiempo mecánico como un arco, cuya violencia contenida daba al tiempo del reloj la tensión extraordinaria de ese otro tiempo de inquietud.  
Now his life, aimed toward a deed that did not yet exist but that would be consummated within a few hours, stretched itself inside mechanical time like a bow, whose pent-up violence gave clock time the extraordinary tension of that other time of unease.
> Conditional «se consumaría»: «Que se consumaría dentro de algunas horas» = 'that would be consummated within a few hours'. The conditional «-ía» here expresses the future seen from a past vantage point ('future-in-the-past'): the deed still to come.

Y aunque muchas veces se había dicho que si tenía oportunidad de poder asesinar a alguien no desperdiciaría la ocasión, volvió a detener sus preocupaciones en aquellos tiempos de misterio.  
And although he had told himself many times that if he ever had the chance to murder someone he would not waste the occasion, he once more fixed his worries on those mysterious times.
> «volver a» + infinitive: «Volvió a detener sus preocupaciones» = 'he once again fixed his worries'. «Volver a» + infinitive means 'to do something again'; literally 'to return to doing'. It is the idiomatic way Spanish says 'again' with a verb.
Luego saltó de allí a la imaginación de una dictadura, que se sostendría mediante el terror impuesto por numerosas ejecuciones y el medio de anular esa repugnante impresión momentánea era representarse a los fusilados como hombres horizontales.  
Then he leapt from there to imagining a dictatorship, one that would sustain itself through the terror imposed by numerous executions; and the means of canceling that momentary repugnant impression was to picture the executed as horizontal men.
> «los fusilados»: «Fusilar» = to execute by firing squad (from «fusil», 'rifle'). «Los fusilados» = 'those shot, the executed'. The past participle stands alone as a noun — a recurring word in the Astrologer's fantasies of revolution and mass executions.
En efecto, se imaginaba en el centro de la llanura el pequeño cuerpo de un hombre tendido, y al comparar la longitud del muerto con la de los millares de kilómetros que medía la tierra por él tiranizada, se apoderaba de la certidumbre que la vida de un hombre no tenía ningún valor.  
Indeed, he pictured at the center of the plain the small body of a man stretched out, and on comparing the length of the dead man with that of the thousands of kilometers the land he tyrannized measured, he seized upon the certainty that a man's life had no value at all.
> «apoderarse de»: «Se apoderaba de la certidumbre» — 'he was seizing certainty'. «Apoderarse de» is the pronominal verb 'to seize, take possession of'; here the Astrologer is the agent, actively grasping the conviction that a man's life has no value.

El otro se pudriría bajo la tierra, mientras que él, eliminado el obstáculo humano cuya longitud era la millonésima parte de la tierra suya, avanzaría hacia todas las conquistas.  
The other would rot beneath the earth, while he, the human obstacle eliminated — its length one-millionth of the land that was his — would advance toward every conquest.
> Absolute participle: «Eliminado el obstáculo humano» = 'the human obstacle [once] eliminated'. As before, a past participle placed in front of its noun forms an absolute clause meaning 'with X done / once X is done' — here, 'once the obstacle is removed'.

Luego pensaba en Lenin, que, restregándose las manos, repetía a los comisarios de los Soviets:  
Then he thought of Lenin, who, rubbing his hands together, kept repeating to the commissars of the Soviets:
> Gerund of simultaneous action: «Restregándose las manos» = 'rubbing his hands'. The gerund («-ando») describes an action going on at the same time as the main verb «repetía»: Lenin rubs his hands while he repeats. The «-se» makes it reflexive ('rubbing his own hands').

Es una locura.  
It is madness.
¿Cómo podemos hacer la revolución sin fusilar a nadie? –Y esto regocijaba el corazón del Astrólogo.  
How can we make the revolution without shooting anyone? — And this gladdened the Astrologer's heart.
> «regocijar»: «Regocijar» = to gladden, fill with joy. «Esto regocijaba el corazón del Astrólogo» = 'this delighted the Astrologer's heart'. The dark irony — he is cheered by Lenin's complaint that no revolution can do without executions — is pure Arlt.
Establecería dicho principio en la sociedad.  
He would establish that principle in his society.
> «dicho» = 'the said / that': «Dicho principio» = 'the aforesaid principle, that principle'. Used before a noun, «dicho/dicha» is a formal way to refer back to something already mentioned — common in legal and literary prose, and a tic of Arlt's narrator.
Los futuros patriarcas de razas serían educados con un inexorable criterio homicida; y nuevamente se ensanchaban sus esperanzas.  
The future patriarchs of races would be raised with an inexorable homicidal outlook; and once again his hopes broadened.
> Conditional passive: «Serían educados» = 'they would be educated/raised'. This is the conditional of «ser» plus a participle, forming a passive in the future-in-the-past: a hypothetical outcome of the dictatorship he imagines.

Luego reconocía que todo innovador debía luchar con ideas antiguas, estampadas por la costumbre en sí mismo, y que todas sus cavilaciones actuales eran la consecuencia de una contradicción entre principios a sancionarse y aquellos establecidos.  
Then he acknowledged that every innovator had to struggle with old ideas, stamped by habit into himself, and that all his present broodings were the consequence of a contradiction between principles still to be sanctioned and those already established.
> «a» + infinitive for the pending: «Principios a sancionarse» = 'principles [still] to be sanctioned/enacted'. «A» + infinitive after a noun marks something yet to be done; the «-se» gives it a passive sense ('to be sanctioned').
El tiempo corría entre sus dedos trabados por la cavilación.  
Time ran through his fingers, locked together by brooding.
> «trabados»: «Trabar» = to lock, bind, interlace. «Dedos trabados» = 'interlocked fingers'. The image — time slipping through his clasped, immobile hands — echoes the earlier 'water through a basket' and is a leitmotif of this chapter.

Asesino de hoy sería el conquistador del mañana, pero en tanto soportaba la hosca malevolencia del presente amasado con ayeres.  
Today's murderer would be tomorrow's conqueror, but in the meantime he endured the sullen malevolence of a present kneaded out of yesterdays.
> «amasado con ayeres»: «Amasar» = to knead (dough); «ayeres» is the noun plural of «ayer» ('yesterday') — 'yesterdays'. «El presente amasado con ayeres» = 'the present kneaded together out of yesterdays'. Arlt turns an abstract idea (the past weighing on now) into a tactile, doughy image.
Levantóse encolerizado.  
He rose, enraged.
> Enclitic «se» again: «Levantóse» = «se levantó» ('he stood up') with the reflexive pronoun attached to the end. «Levantarse» is pronominal ('to get up'); the enclitic placement after the verb is Arlt's literary register.
Llovía aún.  
It was still raining.
Salió hasta la escalinata, donde se detuvo escudriñando la oscuridad silvestre, estremecida por el agua que caía espesa y lenta.  
He went out as far as the front steps, where he stopped, scrutinizing the wild darkness, shuddering under the water that fell thick and slow.
> «escudriñar»: «Escudriñar» = to scrutinize, peer searchingly into. «Escudriñando la oscuridad» = 'peering hard into the darkness'. The gerund marks what he does while standing still on the steps.
Las tinieblas parecían allí formar parte de la existencia de un monstruo que jadeaba pesadamente en la oscuridad.  
The gloom there seemed to form part of the existence of a monster that panted heavily in the dark.
> «tinieblas»: «Tinieblas» is a plural-only, weightier word for darkness — 'gloom, deep darkness', often with a moral or biblical charge (cf. the 'iglesia tenebrosa' later in the chapter). Stronger than the neutral «oscuridad».
La tierra mojada se había vuelto ocre... Y él era un hombre firme en la noche, un animador de acontecimientos grandiosos, y sin embargo ningún fantasma se levantaba de la espesura para sancionar su actitud.  
The wet earth had turned ocher... And he was a firm man in the night, an instigator of grandiose events, and yet no phantom rose from the thicket to sanction his stance.
> «volverse» = 'to turn / become': «Se había vuelto ocre» = 'had turned ocher'. The pronominal «volverse» expresses a change of state or color ('to become'). In the pluperfect it reports a change completed before the moment described.
Ahora se preguntaba si los hombres de otras edades habían sufrido sus indecisiones, o sí marchaban al logro de sus fines satisfechos de que la Muerte les diera un espesor de coraza a sus determinaciones.  
Now he wondered whether the men of other ages had suffered his indecisions, or whether they had marched toward the achievement of their ends, satisfied that Death lent a thickness of armor to their resolves.
> Subjunctive after emotion: «Satisfechos de que la Muerte les diera…» uses the imperfect subjunctive «diera». An expression of emotion or evaluation ('satisfied that…') governs the subjunctive in the subordinate clause; the past main verb pulls it into the imperfect subjunctive.
¿Pero tenía importancia la muerte?  
But did death have any importance?
Decíase que como a ente filosófico lo único que podía interesarle era la especie, no el individuo, más los que asediaban con escrúpulos eran sus sentimientos, que contra su voluntad desdoblaban el tiempo que se necesitaba, en dos tiempos extraños.  
He said to himself that, as a philosophical being, the only thing that could interest him was the species, not the individual; but what besieged him with scruples were his feelings, which, against his will, split the time he needed into two strange times.
> Enclitic «se» on the imperfect: «Decíase» = «se decía» ('he said to himself'). The pronoun is attached to the verb's end again, Arlt's habitual literary placement. «Decirse» here is 'to tell oneself, think to oneself'.

Un relámpago interpuso distancias azules entre los bloques de las montañas de nubes.  
A flash of lightning set blue distances between the blocks of the cloud mountains.
> «relámpago» vs «trueno»: «Relámpago» is the flash of lightning (the light); «trueno» is the thunder (the sound), and «rayo» the bolt that strikes. Here the lightning opens 'blue distances' between the banked storm clouds.

Mojado y con la cabellera revuelta, se detuvo a un costado de la escalinata el Hombre que vio a la Partera.  
Wet and with his hair in disarray, the Man Who Saw the Midwife stopped at one side of the front steps.

–¡Ah! es usted –dijo el Astrólogo.  
"Ah! It's you," said the Astrologer.

–Sí; quería preguntarle qué es lo que piensa usted de esta interpretación del versículo que dice: «El cielo de Dios».  
"Yes; I wanted to ask you what you think of this interpretation of the verse that says: 'the heaven of God.'
> «preguntar» + indirect object: «Quería preguntarle» = 'I wanted to ask you'. «Preguntar» ('to ask a question') takes the person asked as an indirect object — here the «-le» attached to the infinitive ('to you', formal «usted»).
Esto significa claramente que hay otros cielos que no son de Dios...  
This clearly means that there are other heavens that are not God's...
> «hay» = 'there is / are': «Hay otros cielos» = 'there are other heavens'. «Hay» is the invariable existential form of «haber»: it never changes for singular or plural ('there is', 'there are').

–¿De quién, entonces?  
"Whose, then?"
> «¿De quién?» = 'whose?': Spanish has no single word for 'whose' in questions; it uses «¿De quién?» — literally 'of whom?'. «¿De quién es?» = 'whose is it?'. Here it asks whom the other heavens belong to.

–Quiero decir que puede ser que haya cielos en los que no esté Dios.  
"I mean that there may be heavens in which God is not present.
> Subjunctive after «puede ser que»: «Puede ser que haya cielos en los que no esté Dios» — both «haya» and «esté» are present subjunctive. Expressions of possibility ('it may be that…') govern the subjunctive, marking these heavens as uncertain, merely possible.
Porque el versículo añade: «Y bajará la nueva Jerusalén».  
Because the verse adds: 'And the new Jerusalem shall come down.'
¿La nueva Jerusalén?  
The new Jerusalem?
¿Será la nueva Iglesia?  
Could it be the new Church?
> Future of conjecture in a question: «¿Será la nueva Iglesia?» = 'Could it be / might it be the new Church?'. As before, the future tense expresses a present guess. In a question it conveys wondering or speculation rather than a real future event.

El Astrólogo meditó un instante.  
The Astrologer pondered for an instant.
> Preterite «meditó»: «Meditó un instante» = 'he pondered for a moment'. The preterite presents the thinking as a single, bounded act with a clear endpoint ('an instant'), unlike the open-ended imperfect «meditaba» that opened the chapter.
El asunto no le interesaba, pero sabía que para mantener su prestigio ante el otro tenía que responder, y contestó:  
The matter did not interest him, but he knew that to keep up his prestige before the other man he had to answer, and so he replied:
> «tener que» + infinitive: «Tenía que responder» = 'he had to answer'. «Tener que» + infinitive expresses strong obligation or necessity ('to have to'). The imperfect «tenía» keeps the obligation present in the scene's ongoing time.

–Nosotros, los iluminados, sabemos en secreto que la nueva Jerusalén es la nueva Iglesia.  
"We, the illuminated, know in secret that the new Jerusalem is the new Church.
Por eso dice Swedemborg: «Puesto que el Señor no puede manifestarse en persona, y habiendo anunciado que vendrá y establecerá una Nueva Iglesia, sigue que lo hará por medio de un hombre, que no sólo pueda recibir la doctrina de esta iglesia, sino también publicarla por medio de la prensa...» pero ¿por qué usted independientemente de otra escritura llega a admitir la existencia de varios cielos?  
That is why Swedenborg says: 'Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in person, and having announced that He will come and establish a New Church, it follows that He will do so through a man, who can not only receive the doctrine of this church but also publish it by means of the press...' — but why is it that you, independently of any other scripture, come to admit the existence of several heavens?"
Bromberg, guareciéndose en el pórtico, miró la jadeante oscuridad estremecida por la lluvia, luego contestó:  
Bromberg, taking shelter in the portico, looked at the panting darkness shuddering under the rain, then answered:
> «guarecerse»: «Guarecerse» = to take shelter, shield oneself (from weather or danger). «Guareciéndose en el pórtico» = 'sheltering in the portico'. It is a pronominal verb (note «se»); the gerund shows what Bromberg does while looking out at the rain.

–Porque los cielos se sienten como el amor.  
"Because the heavens are felt like love."
> Passive/impersonal «se»: «Los cielos se sienten como el amor» = 'the heavens are felt like love / one feels the heavens as one feels love'. The «se» makes the verb impersonal-passive: the heavens are the thing felt, with no stated feeler.

El Astrólogo miró sorprendido al judío, y éste continuó:  
The Astrologer looked at the Jew in surprise, and the latter went on:
> «éste» = 'the latter': «Éste continuó» = 'the latter went on'. The demonstrative «éste» ('this one') points to the nearer, most recently named person — here Bromberg — and is the standard way Spanish says 'the latter'.

–Es como el amor.  
"It is like love.
¿Cómo puede usted negar el amor si el amor está en usted y usted siente que los ángeles hacen más fuerte su amor?  
How can you deny love, if love is in you and you feel that the angels make your love stronger?
Lo mismo pasa con los cuatro cielos.  
The same happens with the four heavens.
Se debe admitir que todas las palabras de la Biblia son de misterio, porque si así no fuera el libro sería absurdo.  
One must admit that all the words of the Bible are words of mystery, for if it were not so the book would be absurd.
> Unreal conditional: «Si así no fuera, el libro sería absurdo» = 'if it were not so, the book would be absurd'. This is the unreal/hypothetical conditional: imperfect subjunctive «fuera» in the 'if' clause, conditional «sería» in the result.
La otra noche leía entristecido el Apocalipsis.  
The other night I was reading the Apocalypse, full of sorrow.
> Imperfect for an ongoing past: «Leía entristecido el Apocalipsis» = 'I was reading the Apocalypse, saddened'. The imperfect «leía» sets a continuous background action — what he was busy doing on that other night — rather than a single completed read.
Pensaba que tenía que asesinarlo a Gregorio, y me decía si está permitido verter sangre humana.  
I was thinking that I had to murder Gregorio, and I asked myself whether it is permitted to shed human blood.
> Redundant object pronoun: «Asesinarlo a Gregorio» doubles the object: the pronoun «-lo» and the full noun «a Gregorio» both name the victim. This 'clitic doubling' is very common in Río de la Plata Spanish, especially with a personal «a» before the named person.

–Cuando se estrangula no se vierte sangre –repuso el Astrólogo.  
"When you strangle, no blood is shed," the Astrologer rejoined.
> Impersonal «se»: «Cuando se estrangula no se vierte sangre» = 'when one strangles, no blood is spilled'. Both verbs use the impersonal «se» to state a general truth with no specific subject — 'one does X', 'X is done'.

–Y cuando llegué a la parte del «cielo de Dios» comprendí el motivo de la tristeza de los hombres.  
"And when I reached the part about the 'heaven of God,' I understood the reason for men's sorrow.
> Two preterites in sequence: «Cuando llegué… comprendí» = 'when I reached… I understood'. Both are preterites, reporting two single completed actions one after the other. The preterite is the tense of the storyline's moving events.

El cielo de Dios les había sido negado por la iglesia tenebrosa... y por eso los hombres pecaban tan fuertemente.  
The heaven of God had been denied them by the dark church... and that is why men sinned so heavily.
> Pluperfect passive: «Les había sido negado» = 'had been denied to them'. This is a full passive in the pluperfect: «haber» + «sido» (participle of «ser») + «negado». «Les» is the indirect object ('to them').
> «tenebroso»: «Tenebroso» = dark, shadowy, sinister — built on «tinieblas» ('gloom'). «La iglesia tenebrosa», 'the dark/sinister church', is Bromberg's name for the corrupt institutional Church that, in his vision, has shut men out of God's heaven.

En las tinieblas, la voz aniñada de Bromberg sonaba tan tristemente como si se lamentara de que lo hubiesen excluido del verdadero cielo.  
In the gloom, Bromberg's childlike voice sounded as sorrowful as if he were lamenting that he had been shut out of the true heaven.
> «como si» + subjunctive layered: «Como si se lamentara de que lo hubiesen excluido» stacks two subjunctives: imperfect «lamentara» after «como si» ('as if'), and pluperfect «hubiesen excluido» after the emotion «lamentarse de que» ('to lament that'). Both mark unreal, felt-but-not-stated content.
El Astrólogo arguyó:  
The Astrologer argued:
> «argüir» in the preterite: «Arguyó» is the preterite of «argüir» ('to argue, contend'). Two spelling changes apply: (1) the «-i-» of the ending becomes «-y-» when it falls between vowels («argü-i-ó → arguy-ó»); (2) the stem's «ü» loses its dieresis in forms where it is no longer needed to signal the separate vowel sound («argü-» → «argu-»). Both are regular patterns for «-üir» verbs.

–El hombre alado que me habla en sueños me ha dicho que el fin de la iglesia tenebrosa es próximo...  
"The winged man who speaks to me in dreams has told me that the end of the dark church is near..."
> Present perfect «ha dicho»: «Me ha dicho» = 'has told me'. The present perfect (present of «haber» + participle) links a past event to the present moment — the telling still bears on now. River Plate speech often prefers the preterite, so the perfect here gives a slightly elevated, prophetic tone.

–Así tiene que ser... porque el infierno crece día a día.  
"So it must be... because hell grows day by day.
> «tener que» of inference: «Así tiene que ser» = 'that's how it must be'. Besides obligation, «tener que» + infinitive can express logical necessity or strong inference — 'it has to be so'. Context tells the two apart.
Son tan pocos los que se salvan, que el cielo junto al infierno es más chico que un grano de arena junto al océano.  
So few are those who are saved that heaven, beside hell, is smaller than a grain of sand beside the ocean.
> «tan… que» (so… that): «Son tan pocos los que se salvan, que…» = 'so few are saved that…'. The «tan + adjective… que…» construction expresses degree and consequence — 'so X that Y'. «Chico» is the everyday River Plate word for 'small'.
Año tras año crece el infierno, y la iglesia tenebrosa, que debió salvar al hombre, engorda día por día al infierno, y el infierno triste crece, crece, sin que haya una posibilidad de hacerlo más pequeño.  
Year after year hell grows, and the dark church, which ought to have saved man, fattens hell day by day, and sad hell grows, grows, without there being any possibility of making it smaller.
> Subjunctive after «sin que»: «Sin que haya una posibilidad» = 'without there being any possibility'. «Sin que» ('without … -ing') always takes the subjunctive; «haya» is the present subjunctive of the existential «haber» ('there is').
Y los ángeles miran con miedo la iglesia tenebrosa y el infierno rojo inflado como el vientre de un hidrópico.  
And the angels look in fear at the dark church and at red hell, swollen like the belly of a dropsical man.
> «hidrópico»: «Hidrópico» = suffering from dropsy (edema) — the body swollen with retained fluid. «El vientre de un hidrópico» = 'the belly of a dropsical man'. The grotesque-medical simile for a bloated hell is characteristically Arltian.

El Astrólogo repuso, adoptando para hablar un altisonante tono:  
The Astrologer replied, adopting a high-flown tone in which to speak:
> «altisonante»: «Altisonante» = high-sounding, pompous, grandiloquent. The narrator flags that the Astrologer puts on an inflated, theatrical voice — he is performing a prophet, and Arlt lets us see the seam.

–Por eso el hombre alado me ha dicho: «Ve, santo varón, a edificar a los hombres y a anunciar la buena nueva.  
"That is why the winged man has said to me: 'Go, holy man, to edify men and to announce the good news.
> Affirmative «tú» command «ve»: «Ve» is the irregular affirmative command («tú» imperative) of «ir» ('to go'): 'Go!'. (Spelled the same as «ve» from «ver», but here it is 'go'.) The Astrologer slips into the «tú» of biblical revelation.
> «la buena nueva»: «La buena nueva» = 'the good news' — the literal gloss of 'gospel' (Greek euangelion). «Nueva» as a noun means 'tidings, news'. The phrase is deliberately scriptural.
Y extermina a los anticristos y revélale tus secretos y los secretos de la nueva Jerusalén a Bromberg el judío» –y de pronto el Astrólogo, tomándolo de un brazo a su compañero, le dijo–: ¿No te acuerdas cuando tu espíritu conversaba con los ángeles y les servías el pan blanco a la orilla de los caminos, y les hacías sentar a la puerta de tu cabaña y les lavabas los pies?  
And exterminate the antichrists, and reveal your secrets and the secrets of the new Jerusalem to Bromberg the Jew' — and suddenly the Astrologer, taking his companion by an arm, said to him: "Don't you remember when your spirit conversed with the angels, and you served them white bread at the roadside, and you had them sit at the door of your hut and you washed their feet?"
> Command + attached pronouns: «Revélale tus secretos» = 'reveal your secrets to him'. An affirmative command takes its object pronouns attached to the end: «revela» + «le» → «revélale» (with an added accent to keep the stress). «Extermina» is likewise a «tú» command.
> «acordarse de»: «¿No te acuerdas…?» = 'Don't you remember…?'. «Acordarse (de)» is the pronominal verb 'to remember'; the Astrologer now switches to the intimate «tú» («te») as he leans on his companion.

–No me acuerdo.  
"I don't remember."
> «acordarse» (pronominal): «No me acuerdo» = 'I don't remember'. «Acordarse» needs its reflexive pronoun («me, te, se…»); without it, «acordar» means 'to agree' or 'to decide'. Compare «acordamos» ('we agreed') vs «nos acordamos» ('we remembered').

–Pues debías acordarte.  
"Well, you ought to remember.
> «deber» of obligation: «Debías acordarte» = 'you should / ought to remember'. «Deber» + infinitive expresses obligation or expectation ('ought to'); the imperfect «debías» softens it into a standing, reproachful 'you really should'.
¿Qué dirá el Señor cuando sepa eso?  
What will the Lord say when He learns of this?
> Subjunctive after «cuando» (future): «Cuando sepa eso» = 'when He finds that out'. When «cuando» points to a future, not-yet-real event, the verb goes into the subjunctive: «sepa» (present subjunctive of «saber»). English keeps the present ('when He learns'); Spanish uses the subjunctive.
¿Cómo responderé yo de tu alma ante el Ángel de la Nueva Iglesia?  
How shall I answer for your soul before the Angel of the New Church?
> «responder de» = 'to answer for': «Responder de tu alma» = 'to answer for / be accountable for your soul'. «Responder de» (with «de») means to take responsibility for something. Note «responder a» would instead mean 'to answer to/reply to'.
Me dirá: ¿Qué es de ese hijo querido, mi piadoso Alfon?  
He will say to me: 'What has become of that beloved son, my pious Alfon?'
> «¿Qué es de…?» idiom: «¿Qué es de ese hijo querido?» = 'What has become of that dear son? / What's become of him?'. The fixed expression «¿Qué es de + person?» asks after someone's fate or whereabouts.
¿Y yo qué le diré?  
And what shall I say to Him?
Que eres un cernícalo.  
That you are a kestrel.
> «cernícalo»: A «cernícalo» is literally a kestrel (a small falcon), but figuratively it is an insult: a coarse, stupid brute, a blockhead. The Astrologer's mock-divine reproach lands as comic abuse.
Que te has olvidado de los tiempos en que realizaste una existencia angélica y que te pasas todo el día en un rincón ventoseando como un mulo.  
That you have forgotten the times when you led an angelic existence and that you spend the whole day in a corner breaking wind like a mule.
> «ventosear»: «Ventosear» = to break wind, pass gas (from «viento», 'wind'). The bathos — sliding from 'angelic existence' to a man farting in a corner 'like a mule' — is vintage Arlt, deflating the sacred with the crudely bodily.

Gravemente enfurruñado, objetó Bromberg:  
Gravely sulking, Bromberg objected:
> «enfurruñado»: «Enfurruñado» = sulky, in a huff, peevishly cross. «Gravemente enfurruñado» = 'gravely sulking' — the solemn-comic adverb makes Bromberg's wounded dignity funnier.

–Yo no ventoseo.  
"I do not break wind."
> Emphatic subject «yo»: Spanish usually drops subject pronouns, since the verb ending shows the person. Stating «yo» here is emphatic — Bromberg insists 'I, for one, do not'. The bare «no ventoseo» would already mean 'I don't'.

–Y bien ruidosamente ventoseas... pero no importa... el Ángel de las Iglesias sabe que tu espíritu arde en la devoción sincera, y que eres enemigo del Rey de Babilonia, del tenebroso Papa, y por eso estás elegido para ser el amigo del hombre, que con mandato del Señor establecerá la Nueva Iglesia sobre la tierra.  
"And quite noisily you break wind... but no matter... the Angel of the Churches knows that your spirit burns with sincere devotion, and that you are an enemy of the King of Babylon, of the dark Pope, and that is why you are chosen to be the friend of the man who, by the Lord's mandate, will establish the New Church upon the earth."

Sonaba quedamente la lluvia en las hojas de las higueras y toda la oscuridad acre y blanda estremecía en la noche su húmedo hedor vegetal.  
The rain sounded softly on the leaves of the fig trees, and the whole acrid, soft darkness shuddered into the night its damp vegetal stench.
> «quedamente»: «Quedamente» = quietly, softly, gently — from the adjective «quedo» ('still, soft, low'). «Sonaba quedamente la lluvia» = 'the rain sounded softly'. A literary adverb for hushed, faint sound.
Bromberg predijo gravemente:  
Bromberg gravely foretold:
> «predecir» irregular preterite: «Predijo» is the preterite of «predecir» ('to foretell'), built like «decir → dijo». The whole «-decir» family takes the irregular «-dij-» stem in the preterite: «dijo, predijo, contradijo».

–Y el Papa, el mismo Papa espantado saldrá a la calle descalzo, y todos se apartarán de él con terror y premura y en los caminos los cercos se llenarán de flores cuando pase el santo Cordero.  
"And the Pope, the Pope himself, terrified, will come out into the street barefoot, and everyone will draw away from him in terror and haste, and along the roads the hedges will fill with flowers when the holy Lamb passes."
> Future «cuando» + subjunctive: «Cuando pase el santo Cordero» = 'when the holy Lamb passes'. Again «cuando» about a future event takes the present subjunctive «pase». The surrounding main verbs are all future («saldrá», «se apartarán», «se llenarán»).

–Así nomás es –continuó el Astrólogo–.  
"That's just how it is," the Astrologer went on.
> «así nomás» (River Plate): «Nomás» (= «no más») is a very common Río de la Plata particle. «Así nomás es» = 'that's just how it is, exactly so'. «Nomás» can soften or intensify — 'just', 'right', 'go ahead' — and is a marker of regional speech.
Y en el cielo entreabierto será dado ver a todos los pecadores arrepentidos, las doradas puertas de la nueva Jerusalén.  
And in the half-opened heaven it will be granted to all repentant sinners to see the golden gates of the new Jerusalem.
> «ser dado» + infinitive: «Será dado ver» = 'it will be granted/given to see'. The formal, biblical-sounding passive «ser dado + infinitive» means 'it will be granted (to someone) to do'. «A todos los pecadores arrepentidos» marks who it is granted to.
Porque tan inmensa es la caridad de Dios, querido Alfon, que ningún hombre podría entrar directamente en contacto con ella sin caer por tierra con los huesos esponjosos.  
Because so immense is the charity of God, dear Alfon, that no man could come directly into contact with it without falling to the ground with his bones turned spongy.
> Fronted «tan… que»: «Tan inmensa es la caridad de Dios… que…» = 'so immense is God's charity that…'. The adjective is fronted before the verb for emphasis, then «que» introduces the consequence — a heightened, rhetorical word order.

–Por eso yo daré a los hombres mi interpretación del Apocalipsis y luego me iré a la montaña a hacer penitencia y a rogar por ellos.  
"That is why I will give men my interpretation of the Apocalypse, and then I will go off to the mountain to do penance and to pray for them."
> «irse» = 'to go off / away': «Me iré a la montaña» = 'I'll go away to the mountain'. The pronominal «irse» stresses departure from where one is ('to leave, go off'), as opposed to plain «ir» ('to go [to]'). The future «-é» marks his resolve.

–Así es Alfon, pero ahora vete a dormir porque tengo que meditar y es la hora en que el hombre alado viene a hablarme a la oreja.  
"So it is, Alfon, but now go off to sleep, for I must meditate, and it is the hour when the winged man comes to speak to me in my ear.
> Command of «irse»: «vete»: «Vete a dormir» = 'go (off) to sleep'. «Vete» is the affirmative «tú» command of «irse» — the imperative «ve» of «ir» plus the reflexive «te». A very common everyday way to tell someone 'off you go'.
Tú también tienes que dormir porque mañana, si no, no tendrás fuerza para estrangular al réprobo...  
You too must sleep, because tomorrow, otherwise, you will not have the strength to strangle the reprobate..."
> «réprobo»: A «réprobo» is a reprobate — in theology, one condemned or damned, rejected by God. The Astrologer keeps the religious register even while plotting a strangling: the victim is recast as a soul justly destined for ruin.

–Y al Rey de Babilonia.  
"And the King of Babylon."
> Personal «a»: «al Rey»: «Al Rey de Babilonia» continues the sentence's verb «estrangular», and the personal «a» («a + el» → «al») marks the human direct object. Spanish places «a» before a specific person who is the object of a verb.

–Así es.  
"So it is."

Lento separóse de la gradinata el Hombre que vio a la Partera.  
Slowly the Man Who Saw the Midwife drew away from the flight of steps.
> Enclitic «se»: «separóse»: «Separóse» = «se separó» ('he drew apart / away'). The reflexive pronoun is again attached to the end of the verb. «Separarse de» is 'to move away from, part from' — here from the «gradinata» (the stone steps).
El Astrólogo entró a la casa y subiendo por una escalera que estaba a un costado del vestíbulo, se internó en una habitación extremadamente alargada, cruzada en los altos por las vigas que soportaban las alfajías del techo, que allí extendía su oblicua ala.  
The Astrologer went into the house and, climbing a staircase set to one side of the vestibule, made his way into an extremely elongated room, crossed up high by the beams that held the laths of the roof, which there spread out its slanting wing.
> «internarse en»: «Se internó en una habitación» = 'he made his way deep into a room'. The pronominal «internarse (en)» means to go far inside, penetrate into a space — more than just «entró»; it suggests moving into the interior.

En los muros desconchados no había ningún grabado.  
On the chipped walls there was not a single engraving.
> Double negative: «No había ningún grabado» = 'there was not any engraving / there was no engraving at all'. Spanish uses a double negative: «no» before the verb and «ningún» with the noun, which together reinforce — not cancel — the negation.
En un rincón estaban los baúles de Gregorio Barsut y bajo un ojo de buey una cama de madera pintada de rojo.  
In one corner stood Gregorio Barsut's trunks, and under a porthole a wooden bed painted red.
> «ojo de buey»: «Ojo de buey» (literally 'ox eye') is a round window — a porthole or bull's-eye window. The small round opening above the red bed gives the cramped attic room a ship-cabin feeling.
Una manta negra formaba baturrillo con las sábanas blancas.  
A black blanket made a jumble with the white sheets.
> «baturrillo»: «Baturrillo» = a hotchpotch, a confused jumble or mishmash. «Formaba baturrillo con las sábanas» = 'made a tangle with the sheets'. A vivid, slightly old-fashioned word for the rumpled black-and-white bedding.
Sentóse pensativamente el Astrólogo a la orilla del lecho.  
The Astrologer sat down pensively at the edge of the bed.
> «lecho»: «Lecho» is a literary, elevated word for 'bed' (cf. «cama», the everyday term). «A la orilla del lecho» = 'at the edge of the bed'. Arlt reaches for the higher register at this quiet, meditative beat.
Su gabán se entreabrió dejando ver desnudo el pecho velludo.  
His overcoat fell half-open, revealing his bare, hairy chest.
> Pronominal «entreabrirse»: «Se entreabrió» = 'it came half-open / opened partway'. The «se» makes the action happen of itself, with no one opening it. «Entre-» means 'half / partly', so «entreabrir» is 'to open halfway'.
En horqueta abrió la yema de los dedos sobre sus mostachos de foca, y frunciendo el ceño quedóse contemplando un baúl en el rincón.  
Splaying them like a fork, he opened his fingertips over his seal-like mustache, and, knitting his brow, he sat gazing at a trunk in the corner.
> «quedarse» + gerund: «Quedóse contemplando» = «se quedó contemplando» ('he remained gazing / he sat there gazing'). «Quedarse» + gerund expresses staying in an action or state — here, lingering in contemplation. The enclitic «se» is Arlt's literary style.

Quería hacer salta su pensamiento a una novedad exterior, que rompiendo el monorritmo de sus sensaciones le devolviera la presencia de ánimo que, anteriormente a la determinación de asesinar a Barsut, estaba en él.  
He wanted to make his thought leap to some outward novelty, one that — by breaking the single rhythm of his sensations — might give him back the presence of mind that, before the decision to murder Barsut, had been in him.
> Subjunctive in a wished-for relative clause: «Una novedad… que le devolviera la presencia de ánimo» uses the imperfect subjunctive «devolviera». The relative clause describes a desired, not-yet-existing thing ('some novelty that would give back…'), so it takes the subjunctive.

–Son veinte mil pesos –pensó–, veinte mil pesos que servirán para instalar los prostíbulos y la colonia... la colonia...  
"It's twenty thousand pesos," he thought, "twenty thousand pesos that will serve to set up the brothels and the colony... the colony..."

Sin embargo no veía claro.  
And yet he could not see clearly.
Las ideas se le escapaban como sombras, sus pensamientos desleídos por el sobresalto permanente hacían estéril toda concentración.  
His ideas slipped away from him like shadows; his thoughts, diluted by the constant start of alarm, made all concentration barren.
> «se le escapaban» — the 'unplanned' se: «Las ideas se le escapaban» = 'his ideas kept slipping away from him'. The «se» plus indirect-object «le» frames it as something happening to him beyond his control — the ideas escape 'on him'. A very Spanish way to dodge blame and stress helplessness.
De pronto dióse una palmada en la frente y jubiloso pasó al desván inmediato arrastrando un cajón, de cuya tapa mal retenida por los flejes se desprendía espeso polvo.  
Suddenly he slapped his forehead and, jubilant, passed into the adjoining loft, dragging a crate from whose lid — poorly held by its metal bands — thick dust came loose.
> Enclitic «se»: «dióse»: «Dióse una palmada en la frente» = «se dio una palmada» ('he slapped his own forehead'). The «se» is the indirect reflexive — he gives himself the slap. Once more the pronoun rides on the end of the verb.

Sin cuidarse por las bocamangas del gabán que se le llenaban de tierra blanca, destapó el cajón.  
Without worrying about the cuffs of his overcoat, which were filling with white dust, he uncovered the crate.
> «sin» + infinitive: «Sin cuidarse por…» = 'without bothering about…'. «Sin» + infinitive expresses a negative accompanying circumstance ('without doing X'). «Cuidarse (por/de)» here means to take care or trouble over something.

Mezclábanse allí soldados de plomo con muñecos de madera, y era aquello un hacinamiento de payasos, generalitos, clowns, princesas y extraños monstruos gordos con narices averiadas y bocas de sapo.  
Lead soldiers were mixed in there with wooden dolls, and the thing was a heap of buffoons, little generals, clowns, princesses, and strange fat monsters with damaged noses and toad mouths.
> Enclitic on a passive «se»: «Mezclábanse allí soldados de plomo» = «se mezclaban allí…» ('lead soldiers were mixed in there'). The passive/middle «se» rides on the end of the imperfect verb. Word order is inverted, with the subject after the verb.

Cogió un trozo de cuerda, y dirigiéndose al rincón, ató ésta a dos clavos, uniendo así el ángulo que formaban los dos muros con improvisada bisectriz.  
He took a piece of cord and, going over to the corner, tied it to two nails, thus joining the angle formed by the two walls with an improvised bisector.
> «coger» — a regional caution: «Coger» = 'to take, grab, pick up', and that is its meaning here («cogió un trozo de cuerda» = 'he took a piece of cord'). Note that in much of Latin America, including the Río de la Plata, «coger» has a vulgar sexual sense in speech, so «agarrar/tomar» are preferred — but Arlt uses the neutral literary «coger» freely in narration.
Hecho esto tomó del cajón varios fantoches, arrojándolos sobre la cama.  
This done, he took several puppets from the crate, tossing them onto the bed.
> «Hecho esto» absolute participle: «Hecho esto» = 'this [being] done, once this was done'. A past participle plus its noun forms an absolute clause marking a completed prior action — a compact 'after he had done this'.
Con trozos de piola amarró la garganta de cada pelele, y tan absorbido estaba en la labor, que no se apercibió que el viento empujaba por el ventanillo abierto el agua de la lluvia, que había arreciado.  
With bits of twine he bound the throat of each puppet, and he was so absorbed in the work that he did not notice that the wind was driving the rainwater in through the open little window — the rain having grown harder.
> «piola»: «Piola» is the Río de la Plata word for thin cord or twine, string. (As an adjective in lunfardo-tinged slang, «piola» can also mean 'clever, cool', but here it is the literal cord he ties the puppets' necks with.)

Trabajaba entusiasmado.  
He worked with enthusiasm.
> Imperfect for ongoing activity: «Trabajaba entusiasmado» = 'he was working, full of enthusiasm'. The imperfect again paints a continuous activity in progress, the backdrop against which the next preterite events land.
Cuando hubo acollarado la garganta de los muñecos con piolines que recortaba de mayor a menor, los llevó hasta el rincón, amarrándolos de la soga.  
When he had collared the throats of the dolls with little cords that he cut from longest to shortest, he carried them over to the corner, tying them to the rope.
> Preterite perfect «hubo + participle»: «Cuando hubo acollarado…» = 'when he had collared…'. The «hubo» + participle (preterite anterior) is a now-rare, literary tense marking an action just completed right before the next one. Modern Spanish would use the pluperfect «había acollarado» or simply «acolló».
Terminada su obra, quedóse contemplándola.  
His work finished, he stood gazing at it.
> Absolute participle (agreeing): «Terminada su obra» = 'his work [once] finished'. The participle «terminada» agrees in gender and number with «obra» (feminine singular). The absolute construction sets the time: 'after his work was done'.
Los cinco fantoches ahorcados movían sus sombras de capuchón en el muro rosado.  
The five hanged puppets stirred their hooded shadows on the pink wall.
> «fantoche»: «Fantoche» = a puppet, marionette, or grotesque figure (also, figuratively, a pompous nobody). Arlt uses «fantoche», «muñeco», and «pelele» almost interchangeably for the little hanged dolls in this uncanny scene.
El primero, un pierrot sin calzones, pero con una blusa a cuadritos blancos y negros; el segundo, un ídolo de chocolate y labios bermellón, cuyo cráneo de sandía estaba a la altura de los pies del pierrot; el tercero, más abajo aún, era un pierrot automático, con un plato de bronce clavado en el estómago y cara de mono; el cuarto era un marinero de pasta de cartón azul, y el quinto un negro desnarigado mostrando una llaga de yeso por la vitola blanca de un cuello patricio.  
The first, a pierrot without trousers but with a blouse of little black-and-white squares; the second, an idol of chocolate with vermilion lips, whose watermelon skull was level with the pierrot's feet; the third, lower still, was a clockwork pierrot, with a bronze plate nailed into its stomach and a monkey's face; the fourth was a sailor of blue cardboard pulp; and the fifth, a noseless black figure showing a plaster sore through the white band of a patrician collar.
> «bermellón»: «Bermellón» = vermilion, a vivid red-orange pigment. «Labios bermellón» = 'vermilion lips'. Arlt names exact colors — bottle-green, ocher, vermilion — to make these toy figures lurid and precise.
Satisfecho contempló su obra el Astrólogo.  
Satisfied, the Astrologer contemplated his work.
Estaba de espaldas a la lámpara, y hasta el techo alcanzaba su silueta negra.  
He stood with his back to the lamp, and his black silhouette reached all the way to the ceiling.
> «de espaldas a»: «Estaba de espaldas a la lámpara» = 'he stood with his back to the lamp'. The fixed phrase «de espaldas a» means 'with one's back turned to'. It is why his shadow is thrown huge up the wall.
Habló fuertemente:  
He spoke out loudly:

–Vos, pierrot, sos Erdosain; vos, gordo, sos el Buscador de Oro; clown, sos el Rufián; y vos, negro, sos Alfón.  
"You, pierrot, are Erdosain; you, fat one, are the Gold Seeker; clown, you are the Ruffian; and you, black one, are Alfón.
> Voseo: «vos sos»: «Vos sos» = 'you are' in River Plate «voseo». Instead of «tú eres», Buenos Aires Spanish uses the pronoun «vos» with special verb forms: «vos sos», «vos tenés», «vos querés». This is the everyday second-person singular in Argentina, and a strong marker of the setting.
Estamos de acuerdo.  
We are agreed.
> «estar de acuerdo»: «Estamos de acuerdo» = 'we are in agreement, we agree'. The set phrase uses «estar» (a state) + «de acuerdo». The Astrologer addresses his puppets as if they had assented to their assigned roles.

Terminada su arenga, separó el baúl de Barsut del muro, y colocándolo frente a los muñecos sentóse ante ellos.  
His harangue finished, he pulled Barsut's trunk away from the wall, and, placing it in front of the dolls, sat down facing them.
> «arenga»: An «arenga» is a harangue — a rousing, declamatory speech, often to troops. Calling the Astrologer's address to five toy puppets an «arenga» is quietly mocking: he orates to dolls as if to an army.
Y así comenzó un diálogo silencioso, cuyas preguntas partían de él, recibiendo en su interior la respuesta cuando fijaba la mirada en el fantoche interrogado.  
And so began a silent dialogue, whose questions came from him, the answer received inside himself when he fixed his gaze on the puppet being questioned.
> Participle as adjective: «El fantoche interrogado» = 'the puppet [being] questioned, the questioned puppet'. The past participle «interrogado» works as an adjective on the noun, agreeing with it — a compact relative clause ('the puppet that he questioned').

Su pensamiento tomó una claridad sorprendente.  
His thought took on a surprising clarity.
Necesitaba expresar sus ideas en un sistema telegráfico, vibrante, interrumpido, como si todo él tuviera que acompasar el ritmo del pensamiento a una misteriosa trepidación de entusiasmo.  
He needed to express his ideas in a telegraphic system — vibrant, broken — as if his whole being had to keep the rhythm of his thought in time with some mysterious throb of enthusiasm.
> «como si» + «tener que»: «Como si todo él tuviera que acompasar…» = 'as if his whole self had to keep in time…'. «Como si» forces the subjunctive, here on the obligation phrase «tener que» → imperfect subjunctive «tuviera que» ('had to').

Pensaba:  
He thought:

–Es necesario instalar fábricas de gases asfixiantes.  
"It is necessary to set up factories for asphyxiating gases.
> «es necesario» + infinitive: «Es necesario instalar fábricas» = 'it is necessary to set up factories'. With a bare infinitive (no specific subject), the impersonal «es necesario» states a general need. With a personal subject it would shift to «que» + subjunctive: «es necesario que instalemos…».
Conseguirse químico.  
Get hold of a chemist.
> Telegraphic infinitive: In this clipped, telegraphic monologue the Astrologer drops articles and finite verbs, leaving bare infinitives: «Conseguirse químico» = roughly 'get [a] chemist'. The «-se» adds a sense of 'get oneself / procure'. Arlt mimics the staccato of a telegram or shorthand notes.
Células, en vez de automóviles camiones.  
Cells — instead of cars, trucks.
> «en vez de»: «En vez de automóviles» = 'instead of cars'. «En vez de» (+ noun or infinitive) means 'instead of, in place of'. The fragmentary syntax leaves the full thought implied.
Cubiertas macizas.  
Solid tires.
> «cubierta» = tire: In the Río de la Plata «cubierta» is a tire (the casing of a wheel); «cubiertas macizas» = 'solid (airless) tires'. The word literally means 'cover', and also means a ship's deck — context picks the sense.
Colonia de la cordillera, disparate.  
Mountain-range colony — nonsense.
> «disparate»: A «disparate» is a piece of nonsense, an absurdity, a crazy idea. «Colonia de la cordillera, disparate» = 'the colony in the mountains — absurd'. He shoots down his own idea mid-thought.
O no.  
Or no.
Sí.  
Yes.
No.  
No.
También orilla Paraná una fábrica.  
Also a factory on the bank of the Paraná.
Automóviles blindaje cromo acero níquel.  
Cars — armor — chrome, steel, nickel.
> «blindaje»: «Blindaje» = armor plating, armoring (of a vehicle or wall); the verb is «blindar», 'to armor-plate'. «Acero, cromo, níquel» — steel, chrome, nickel — become an obsessive refrain in the Astrologer's industrial daydream.
Gases asfixiantes importantes.  
Asphyxiating gases — important.
En la cordillera y en el Chaco estallar revolución.  
In the mountain range and in the Chaco, set off revolution.
Donde haya prostíbulos, matar dueños.  
Wherever there are brothels, kill the owners.
> «donde» + subjunctive: «Donde haya prostíbulos» = 'wherever there are brothels'. When «donde» refers to unspecified or hypothetical places ('wherever'), it takes the subjunctive — here «haya», the subjunctive of existential «haber».
Banda asesinos en aeroplano.  
Band of assassins by airplane.
Todo factible.  
All feasible.
> «factible»: «Factible» = doable, feasible, able to be carried out (from Latin «facere», 'to do/make'). The Astrologer's terse verdict on his own scheme: «Todo factible» — 'all of it can be done'.
Cada célula radiotelegrafía.  
Each cell radiotelegraphs.
Código y onda cambiante sincrónicamente.  
Code and wavelength changing synchronously.

Corriente eléctrica con caída de agua.  
Electric current from a waterfall.
> «caída de agua»: «Caída de agua» = a waterfall or water drop, here as a source of hydroelectric power. «Corriente eléctrica con caída de agua» = generating electricity from falling water — the Astrologer dreams in engineering.
Turbinas suecas.  
Swedish turbines.
Erdosain tiene razón.  
Erdosain is right.
> «tener razón»: «Erdosain tiene razón» = 'Erdosain is right'. Spanish says 'to have reason' («tener razón») where English says 'to be right'. Likewise «no tener razón» = 'to be wrong'.
¡Qué grande es la vida!  
How great life is!
> Exclamatory «¡qué…!»: «¡Qué grande es la vida!» = 'How great life is!'. «¡Qué + adjective…!» forms exclamations of degree — 'how X!'. Note the opening «¡» and the written accent on «qué».
¿Quién soy yo?  
Who am I?
Fábrica de bacilos bubónica y tifus exantemático.  
Factory of bubonic bacilli and exanthematic typhus.
> «tifus exantemático»: «Tifus exantemático» is exanthematic (epidemic) typhus, the louse-borne fever that ravaged armies and slums; «bacilos» are bacilli, rod-shaped bacteria. The Astrologer imagines mass-producing plague itself — biological terror as industry.
Instalar academia estudios comparativos revolución francesa y rusa.  
Set up an academy for comparative studies of the French and Russian revolutions.
También escuela de propaganda revolucionaria.  
Also a school of revolutionary propaganda.

Cinematógrafo elemento importante.  
The cinematograph — an important element.
> «cinematógrafo»: «Cinematógrafo» is the early word for cinema / the film projector (later shortened to «cine»). In 1929 film was the dazzling new mass medium, and the Astrologer instantly grasps it as a propaganda weapon.
Ojo.  
Watch out.
> «¡Ojo!»: «Ojo» literally means 'eye', but as an interjection «¡Ojo!» means 'watch out!, careful!, take note!'. Here it is the Astrologer flagging a point to himself — 'note this'.
Ver cinematógrafo.  
Look into the cinematograph.
Erdosain que estudie ramo.  
Erdosain should study the field.
> «que» + subjunctive = a third-person command: «Erdosain que estudie ramo» = 'let Erdosain study the field / Erdosain should study it'. «Que» + present subjunctive («estudie») expresses an order or wish for someone else — an indirect, third-person imperative.
Cinematógrafo aplicado a la propaganda revolucionaria.  
The cinematograph applied to revolutionary propaganda.
Eso es.  
That's it.
Ahora el ritmo del pensamiento se atemperaba.  
Now the rhythm of his thought was easing.
> «atemperarse»: «Se atemperaba» = 'it was tempering / calming down'. The pronominal «atemperarse» means to grow milder or moderate (cf. «temperatura»). The imperfect shows the staccato rhythm gradually settling.
Decíase:  
He said to himself:

–¿Cómo poner en cada conciencia el entusiasmo revolucionario que hay en la mía?  
"How to put into each consciousness the revolutionary enthusiasm that is in mine?
> Possessive pronoun «la mía»: «El entusiasmo… que hay en la mía» = '…that is in mine [= my conscience]'. «La mía» ('mine') is the possessive pronoun standing in for «mi conciencia»; it agrees in gender and number with the omitted noun.
Eso, eso, eso.  
That, that, that.
¿Con qué mentira o verdad?  
By what lie or truth?
¡Qué rápido es el tiempo que pasa!  
How fast the passing time is!
¡Y qué triste!  
And how sad!
Porque eso es cierto.  
Because that is true.
Hay tanta tristeza en mí, que si ellos la conocieran se asombrarían.  
There is so much sadness in me that if they knew it they would be astonished.
> Unreal conditional: «Si ellos la conocieran se asombrarían» = 'if they knew it, they would be amazed'. The hypothetical conditional: imperfect subjunctive «conocieran» in the 'if' clause, conditional «se asombrarían» in the result — a contrary-to-fact supposition.
Y yo solo sostenerlo todo.  
And I alone to bear it all.
> «lo… todo»: «Sostenerlo todo» = 'to hold/bear it all'. Spanish often pairs the neuter pronoun «lo» with «todo» around the verb to mean 'everything' — «lo sé todo» ('I know it all'). Here the bare infinitive heightens the lonely, exclamatory tone.

Se acurrucó en el sofá.  
He curled up on the sofa.
> «acurrucarse»: «Acurrucarse» = to curl up, huddle, nestle into a ball. «Se acurrucó en el sofá» = 'he huddled up on the sofa'. A pronominal verb of bodily self-comfort — he draws into himself, cold and tired.
Tenía frío.  
He was cold.
> «tener frío»: «Tenía frío» = 'he was cold'. Spanish expresses bodily sensations with «tener» + noun: «tener frío/calor/hambre/sueño» = 'to be cold/hot/hungry/sleepy'. Literally 'he had cold'.
En las sienes le batían fuertemente las venas.  
At his temples the veins were beating hard.
> Body part + indirect object: «En las sienes le batían… las venas» = 'the veins were pounding at his temples'. Spanish marks the possessor of a body part with an indirect-object pronoun («le», 'his') rather than a possessive, so the veins beat 'on him'.

–El tiempo que se escapa.  
"Time that slips away.
Eso.  
That.
Eso.  
That.
Y todos que se dejan estar caídos como bolsas.  
And everyone letting themselves stay slumped like sacks.
> «dejarse estar»: «Se dejan estar caídos» = 'they let themselves stay down / they let themselves go'. The pronominal «dejarse» + infinitive means 'to let oneself…', here passivity and self-neglect — slumped 'like sacks'.
Nadie que quiera volar.  
No one who wants to fly.
> Subjunctive after a negative antecedent: «Nadie que quiera volar» = 'no one who wants to fly'. Because the antecedent «nadie» ('no one') is negative and unreal, the relative verb is subjunctive: «quiera». You'd use the indicative for a real, existing person.
¿Cómo convencerlos a esos burros de que tienen que volar?  
How to convince those donkeys that they have to fly?
> Clitic doubling again: «Convencerlos a esos burros» doubles the object: «-los» and «a esos burros» both name them. Common in River Plate speech. «Burros» ('donkeys') is here an insult — 'blockheads, dolts'.
Y sin embargo, la vida es otra.  
And yet, life is something else.
Otra como ellos no la conciben tan siquiera.  
Something else, such as they do not even conceive of it.
> «ni siquiera / tan siquiera»: «No la conciben tan siquiera» = 'they don't even conceive of it'. «Siquiera» means 'even / at least'; with a negative it reinforces 'not even'. «Tan siquiera» is an emphatic variant of «ni siquiera».
El alma como un océano agitándose dentro de setenta kilos de carne.  
The soul like an ocean churning inside seventy kilos of flesh.
> Gerund as ongoing modifier: «Un océano agitándose» = 'an ocean churning / heaving'. The gerund «agitándose» (reflexive 'tossing itself about') describes the ocean in continuous motion, modifying the noun — vivid present action frozen in an image.
Y la misma carne que quiere volar.  
And the very flesh that wants to fly.
Todo en nosotros está deseando subir hasta las nubes, hacer reales los países de las nubes... pero ¿cómo?...  
Everything in us is longing to rise up to the clouds, to make the lands of the clouds real... but how?...
> Present progressive «estar» + gerund: «Está deseando subir» = 'is longing to rise'. «Estar» + gerund forms the progressive, stressing action in progress right now — the yearning is live and ongoing, not a settled fact.
Siempre aparece este «cómo» y yo... yo aquí, sufriendo por ellos, queriéndolos como si los hubiera parido, porque los quiero a estos hombres... a todos los quiero.  
Always this 'how' appears, and I... I here, suffering for them, loving them as if I had given birth to them, because I love these men... I love them all.
> «como si» + pluperfect subjunctive: «Como si los hubiera parido» = 'as if I had given birth to them'. «Como si» + pluperfect subjunctive («hubiera parido») states an unreal past comparison. «Parir» ('to give birth') makes his love maternal, visceral.
Están encima de la tierra porque sí, cuando debían estar de otro modo.  
They are on the earth just because, when they ought to be otherwise.
> «porque sí»: «Porque sí» = 'just because, for no reason, because that's how it is'. (Its opposite is «porque no».) The men exist «porque sí» — pointlessly, by default — when they ought to live differently.
Y sin embargo los quiero.  
And yet I love them.
Lo estoy sintiendo ahora.  
I am feeling it now.
Quiero a la humanidad.  
I love humanity.
Los quiero a todos como si todos estuvieran atados a mi corazón con un hilo fino.  
I love them all as if they were all tied to my heart by a thin thread.
> «como si» + imperfect subjunctive: «Como si todos estuvieran atados…» = 'as if they were all tied…'. «Como si» takes the subjunctive; the imperfect subjunctive «estuvieran» frames an unreal present comparison — they are not really tied to his heart, but he feels it so.
Y por ese hilo se llevan mi sangre, mi vida, y sin embargo, a pesar de todo, hay tanta vida en mí, que quisiera que fueran muchos millones más para quererlos más aun y regalarles mi vida.  
And along that thread they carry off my blood, my life, and yet, in spite of everything, there is so much life in me that I should wish them to be many millions more, so as to love them even more and make them a gift of my life.
> Two subjunctives: «quisiera que fueran»: «Quisiera que fueran muchos más» = 'I would wish them to be many more'. «Quisiera» is the imperfect subjunctive of «querer» used as a soft 'I would like'; it then governs another subjunctive, «fueran» ('that they be'), in the wish clause.
Sí, regalársela como un cigarrillo.  
Yes, to give it to them as a gift, like a cigarette.
> Two pronouns on the infinitive: «Regalársela» = «regalar» + «se» (= 'to them', from «les» → «se» before «la») + «la» (= 'it', his life). 'To give it to them.' When two object pronouns meet, «le/les» becomes «se»; both attach to the infinitive.
Ahora me explico el Cristo.  
Now I understand Christ.
> «explicarse» = 'to understand': «Ahora me explico el Cristo» = 'now I understand / can account to myself for Christ'. The pronominal «explicarse» means 'to make sense of, comprehend' — to explain something to oneself.

¡Cuánto debió quererla a la humanidad!  
How He must have loved humanity!
> «deber» of supposition (past): «¡Cuánto debió quererla!» = 'how He must have loved her [= humanity]!'. «Deber» + infinitive (without «de») here expresses inference about the past — 'must have'. «La» doubles the later object «a la humanidad».
Y sin embargo soy feo.  
And yet I am ugly.
Mi enorme cara ancha es fea.  
My huge wide face is ugly.
Y sin embargo debiera ser lindo, lindo como un dios.  
And yet I ought to be handsome, handsome as a god.
> «debiera» — soft obligation: «Debiera ser lindo» = 'I ought to be handsome'. The imperfect subjunctive «debiera» (from «deber») is a gentler, more wistful 'ought to / should' than «debería» — a literary softening of the obligation. «Lindo» ('handsome, pretty') is the River Plate everyday word.
Pero mi oreja es como un repollo y mi nariz como un tremendo hueso fracturado de un puñetazo.  
But my ear is like a cabbage and my nose like a tremendous bone fractured by a punch.
> «repollo»: «Repollo» = a (head of) cabbage — in the Río de la Plata the usual word, where Spain often says «col». «Mi oreja es como un repollo» = 'my ear is like a cabbage' — a self-mocking, grotesque simile.
Pero qué importa eso.  
But what does that matter.
> «importar» = 'to matter': «Qué importa eso» = 'what does that matter'. «Importar» means 'to matter, be of importance' as well as 'to import'. «No importa» = 'it doesn't matter' is one of its most common uses.
Soy hombre y basta.  
I am a man, and that is enough.
> «basta» = 'enough': «Soy hombre y basta» = 'I am a man and that's enough / and that settles it'. «Basta» (from «bastar», 'to suffice') used alone means 'enough!, that will do'. It closes the thought with finality.
Y necesito conquistar.  
And I need to conquer.
Es todo.  
That is all.
Y no daría uno solo de mis pensamientos a cambio del amor de la más linda mujer.  
And I would not give a single one of my thoughts in exchange for the love of the loveliest woman.
> Conditional «no daría»: «No daría uno solo de mis pensamientos» = 'I would not give a single one of my thoughts'. The conditional «daría» states a hypothetical refusal. «A cambio de» = 'in exchange for'.

De pronto unas palabras anteriores cruzan su memoria, y el Astrólogo se dice:  
Suddenly some earlier words cross his memory, and the Astrologer says to himself:
> Narrative present: «Cruzan su memoria» = 'they cross his memory'. Arlt shifts here into the present tense for vividness, pulling the reader into the immediacy of the Astrologer's racing mind — a 'historical present' inside a past-tense narrative.

–¿Por qué no?...  
"Why not?...
> «¿por qué?» vs «porque»: «¿Por qué no?» = 'Why not?' — two words, with an accent on «qué», used to ask a question. Don't confuse it with «porque» (one word, no accent) = 'because', which gives the answer. This insistent «¿Por qué no?» becomes the chapter's refrain.
Podemos fabricar cañones, como dice Erdosain.  
We can manufacture cannons, as Erdosain says.
El procedimiento es fácil.  
The procedure is easy.
Además, que no es necesario que tengan una resistencia para mil descargas.  
Besides, it is not necessary for them to withstand a thousand firings.
> «es necesario que» + subjunctive: «No es necesario que tengan una resistencia» = 'it is not necessary that they have / for them to have endurance'. With a specific subject («they») introduced by «que», the impersonal «es necesario» triggers the subjunctive «tengan».
Una revolución que durara ese tiempo sería un fracaso.  
A revolution that lasted that long would be a failure.
> Hypothetical relative + conditional: «Una revolución que durara ese tiempo sería un fracaso» = 'a revolution that lasted that long would be a failure'. The imperfect subjunctive «durara» frames a hypothetical, non-real revolution; «sería» gives its conditional result.

Las palabras callan en él.  
The words fall silent within him.
> «callar»: «Las palabras callan en él» = 'the words go silent within him'. «Callar» = 'to be/go silent, stop speaking'; the pronominal «callarse» means 'to shut up, fall quiet'. Here the words themselves are the subject.
En la oscuridad se abre hacia el interior de su cráneo un callejón sombrío, con vigas que cruzan el espacio uniendo los tinglados, mientras que entre una neblina de polvo de carbón los altos hornos, con sus atalajes de refrigeración que fingen corazas monstruosas, ocupan el espacio.  
In the darkness a somber alley opens toward the inside of his skull, with beams crossing the space and joining the sheds, while amid a mist of coal dust the blast furnaces, with their cooling rigs that mimic monstrous armor, fill the space.
> «altos hornos»: «Altos hornos» = blast furnaces, the towering furnaces of a steelworks. The Astrologer's daydream literally opens 'toward the inside of his skull' into an industrial landscape of furnaces and coal dust — thought becoming heavy industry.
Nubes de fuego escapan de los tragantes blindados y la selva más allá se extiende tupida e impenetrable.  
Clouds of fire escape from the armored furnace throats, and the jungle beyond stretches dense and impenetrable.
> «tragante»: A «tragante» is the throat or charging mouth of a furnace (also a drain's mouth) — from «tragar», 'to swallow'. «Tragantes blindados» = 'armored furnace throats', belching fire. The industrial vision turns molten and monstrous.

El Astrólogo siente recobrada su personalidad, que le sensación del tiempo extraño le había arrebatado.  
The Astrologer feels his personality recovered — the personality that the sensation of strange time had torn away from him.
> «sentir» + participle: «Siente recobrada su personalidad» = 'he feels his personality recovered'. The participle «recobrada» (from «recobrar», 'to recover, regain') agrees with «personalidad» and works as a result-state: he feels it as something now regained.
Piensa, piensa que es posible fabricar acero níquel y construir cañones de tubos enchufados.  
He thinks, he thinks that it is possible to manufacture nickel steel and to build cannons with telescoped tubes.
> «enchufado»: «Enchufar» = to plug in, fit one thing into another. «Cañones de tubos enchufados» = 'cannons with telescoped/fitted tubes' (barrels socketed together). (In other contexts «enchufado» colloquially means a person who got a job through connections.)

¿Por qué no?  
Why not?
Su pensamiento se desliza ahora sobre los obstáculos con flexibilidad.  
His thought now slides over the obstacles with flexibility.
Entonces con el dinero suministrado por los prostíbulos se comprarían en los diversos puntos de la República terrenos a un precio insignificante.  
Then, with the money supplied by the brothels, plots of land would be bought at various points of the Republic for an insignificant price.
> Passive «se» in the conditional: «Se comprarían… terrenos» = 'plots of land would be bought'. The passive «se» plus conditional «comprarían» states a hypothetical future purchase with no named buyer — 'land would be bought'. The subject «terrenos» follows the verb.
Allí los miembros de la logia pondrían las bases de cemento armado para emplazar las piezas de artillería, simulándose construcciones de galpones para conservar cereales.  
There the members of the lodge would lay the reinforced-concrete foundations to emplace the artillery pieces, the whole thing disguised as the building of sheds for storing grain.

Le exaltaba la posibilidad de crear un ejército revolucionario dentro del país, que se sublevaría mediante una señal radiotelefónica.  
He was thrilled by the possibility of creating a revolutionary army within the country, one that would rise up at a single radiotelephone signal.
> «exaltar» with indirect object: «Le exaltaba la posibilidad» = 'the possibility excited/thrilled him'. The grammatical subject is «la posibilidad»; «le» ('him') is the one affected. Like «gustar», these verbs put the cause first and the experiencer as indirect object.
¿Por qué no?  
Why not?
Acero, cromo, níquel.  
Steel, chrome, nickel.
Como un sortilegio la palabra hiende su imaginación.  
Like a magic spell the word cleaves his imagination.
> «sortilegio»: «Sortilegio» = a spell, charm, piece of sorcery. «Como un sortilegio la palabra hiende su imaginación» = the words 'steel, chrome, nickel' act on him 'like a spell'. «Hender» = to cleave, split.
Acero, cromo, níquel.  
Steel, chrome, nickel.
Cada jefe de célula estaría a cargo de una batería.  
Each cell leader would be in charge of a battery.
> «estar a cargo de»: «Estaría a cargo de una batería» = 'would be in charge of a battery'. The phrase «estar a cargo de» = 'to be in charge of, responsible for'. The conditional «estaría» keeps the whole plan in the hypothetical.
¿Qué es necesario, en resumen?  
What is necessary, in short?
> «en resumen»: «En resumen» = 'in short, to sum up, in summary'. A discourse connector that signals the speaker is boiling the point down to essentials — here, the Astrologer cutting his plan to its core.
Que los cañones disparen quinientos, cuatrocientos proyectiles.  
That the cannons fire five hundred, four hundred projectiles.
> «que» + subjunctive (requirement): «Que los cañones disparen…» = 'that the cannons should fire…'. Answering 'what is necessary?', this elliptical «que» + subjunctive («disparen») states the requirement — 'all that's needed is that the cannons fire…'.
Y los automóviles con ametralladoras.  
And the cars with machine guns.
> «ametralladora»: «Ametralladora» = machine gun (from «metralla», 'shrapnel, grapeshot'). It becomes a fixation in the monologue: with one machine gun, the Astrologer reasons, ten men can terrorize a town.
¿Por qué no?  
Why not?
Cada diez hombres una ametralladora, un automóvil, un cañón.  
For every ten men, one machine gun, one car, one cannon.
¿Por qué no ensayar?  
Why not give it a try?
> «ensayar»: «Ensayar» = to try out, test, rehearse, attempt. «¿Por qué no ensayar?» = 'why not try it / give it a go?'. (A related noun, «ensayo», means both a 'trial/rehearsal' and a literary 'essay'.) This too becomes a refrain.

Lentamente, en el fondo de la negra noche, un gigantesco huevo de acero al rojo blanco, entre dos columnas, dobla lentamente su punta hacia una cúpula.  
Slowly, in the depths of the black night, a gigantic egg of white-hot steel, between two columns, slowly bends its tip toward a dome.
> «al rojo blanco»: «Al rojo blanco» = white-hot (heated past red to white). Spanish grades metal heat as «al rojo» (red-hot) and «al rojo blanco» (white-hot). The 'gigantic egg of white-hot steel' is the Bessemer converter named just below.
Es el convertidor de Bessemer accionado por un pistón hidráulico.  
It is the Bessemer converter, driven by a hydraulic piston.
Un torrente de chispas y llamas ardientes se escapa de la punta del huevo de acero.  
A torrent of sparks and burning flames escapes from the tip of the steel egg.
Es el hierro que se convierte en acero soliviantado en la base por un chorro de aire de centenares de atmósferas de presión.  
It is the iron turning into steel, stirred up at the base by a jet of air at hundreds of atmospheres of pressure.
> «convertirse en»: «El hierro que se convierte en acero» = 'the iron that turns into steel'. The pronominal «convertirse en + noun» means 'to turn into, become' (a thing). Don't drop the «en»: «convertirse en acero», not «convertirse acero».
Acero, cromo, níquel.  
Steel, chrome, nickel.
¿Por qué no ensayar?  
Why not give it a try?
Su pensamiento se fija en cien detalles.  
His thought fixes on a hundred details.
No ha mucho la voz de adentro le ha preguntado:  
Not long ago the voice from within asked him:
> «no ha mucho»: «No ha mucho» = 'not long ago' — a fixed, literary expression using «haber» impersonally for elapsed time (cf. «tiempo ha», 'long ago'). Everyday Spanish would say «hace poco».

–¿Por qué motivo la felicidad humana ocupa tan poco espacio?  
"For what reason does human happiness take up so little space?"
> «¿por qué motivo?»: «¿Por qué motivo…?» = 'for what reason…?'. A slightly more formal, weighted way to ask 'why?' than the bare «¿por qué?» — fitting for the solemn inner 'voice' that poses the question.

Esta verdad le entristece la vida.  
This truth saddens his life.
> «entristecer» + indirect object: «Le entristece la vida» = 'it saddens his life' / 'it makes his life sad for him'. «Entristecer» ('to sadden') takes «le» for the person affected. The «-ecer» ending forms many such 'become/make' verbs from adjectives («triste» → «entristecer»).
El mundo debía ser de unos pocos.  
The world ought to belong to a few.
> «ser de» = belonging: «El mundo debía ser de unos pocos» = 'the world ought to belong to a few'. «Ser de» + person expresses possession ('to belong to'). «Debía» ('ought to') gives the wished-for, not actual, state.
Y estos pocos caminar con pasos de gigantes.  
And these few should walk with the steps of giants.
> Bare infinitive carrying over «debía»: «Y estos pocos caminar con pasos de gigantes» — the infinitive «caminar» picks up the modal «debía» from the previous sentence: '[ought] to walk'. Spanish can let one modal govern a following bare infinitive across the break, an elliptical, oratorical effect.

Es necesario crearse la complicación.  
It is necessary to create complication for oneself.
> «crearse» — the dative of interest: «Crearse la complicación» = 'to create complication for oneself, to make trouble for oneself'. The reflexive «-se» here is a 'dative of interest' — the action redounds on the doer. He must deliberately make things hard, then see clearly.
Y ver claro.  
And to see clearly.
> «claro» as adverb: «Ver claro» = 'to see clearly'. «Claro» here works adverbially (= «claramente»). Spanish often uses a bare adjective form adverbially with certain verbs: «hablar claro» ('to speak plainly'), «ver claro' ('to see clearly').
Primero matarlo a Barsut, después instalar el prostíbulo, la colonia en la montaña... pero ¿cómo hacer desaparecer el cadáver?  
First kill Barsut, then set up the brothel, the colony in the mountains... but how to make the corpse disappear?
> «hacer» + infinitive (causative): «¿Cómo hacer desaparecer el cadáver?» = 'how to make the corpse disappear?'. «Hacer» + infinitive is the causative — 'to make/have something happen'. The dilemma of disposing of the body is what stalls his omnipotent fantasy.
¿No es estúpido esto de que él, el hombre que encuentra fácil construir un cañón y fabricar acero, cromo, níquel, tenga tantas dudas para hacer desaparecer un cadáver?  
Isn't it stupid, this business of him — the man who finds it easy to build a cannon and to manufacture steel, chrome, nickel — having so many doubts about making a corpse disappear?
> «esto de que» + subjunctive: «Esto de que él… tenga tantas dudas» = 'this business of his having so many doubts'. The expression «esto de que» ('this matter of…') introduces a fact judged or evaluated, and pulls the verb into the subjunctive «tenga».
Cierto es que no debía pensar... se le quemará... quinientos grados son suficientes para destruir un cadáver contenido en un recipiente.  
True, he should not be thinking... it will be burned for him... five hundred degrees are enough to destroy a corpse contained in a vessel.
> «se le quemará» — the involuntary se: «Se le quemará» = roughly 'it will get burned (for him)'. The «se» + «le» frames the burning as something that will happen, almost of itself, to his advantage — the same 'unplanned se' seen earlier, now coldly applied to disposing of a body.
Quinientos grados.  
Five hundred degrees.

El tiempo y el cansancio corren por su mente.  
Time and weariness run through his mind.
No quisiera pensar, y de pronto la voz, la voz independiente de su boca y de su voluntad, susurra de adentro para distraerlo un poco:  
He would rather not think, and suddenly the voice — the voice independent of his mouth and of his will — whispers from within to distract him a little:
> «quisiera» = soft 'would (not) like': «No quisiera pensar» = 'he would rather not think / he wouldn't want to think'. The imperfect subjunctive «quisiera» functions as a gentle, conditional 'would like' — softer and more wistful than «no quiere».

–El movimiento revolucionario estallará a la misma hora en todos los pueblos de la República.  
"The revolutionary movement will break out at the same hour in all the towns of the Republic.
> Future «estallará»: «El movimiento… estallará» = 'the movement will break out / erupt'. «Estallar» = to burst, explode, break out (of war, revolution). The simple future «-á» now states the plan as settled certainty, dropping the earlier hypothetical conditionals.
Asaltaremos a los cuarteles.  
We will storm the barracks.
> «cuartel»: A «cuartel» is a military barracks. «Asaltar los cuarteles» = 'to storm the barracks'. Seizing the army's barracks (and its arms) is the hinge of the Astrologer's insurrection plan.
Comenzaremos por fusilar a todos los que puedan alborotar un poco.  
We will begin by shooting all those who might stir up any trouble.
> Subjunctive after an indefinite antecedent: «Todos los que puedan alborotar» = 'all those who might cause a disturbance'. The antecedent is indefinite ('whoever might…'), so the relative clause takes the subjunctive «puedan». «Comenzar por + infinitive» = 'to begin by doing'.
En la capital se lanzarán días antes algunos kilogramos de tifus exantemático y de peste bubónica.  
In the capital, a few kilograms of exanthematic typhus and bubonic plague will be released some days before.
> Passive «se» + future: «Se lanzarán… algunos kilogramos» = 'a few kilograms will be released'. Passive «se» with the future «lanzarán»; the subject «algunos kilogramos» follows the verb. No agent is named — the horror is stated as a clean logistical step.
Por medio de aeroplanos y en la noche.  
By means of airplanes and at night.
> «por medio de»: «Por medio de aeroplanos» = 'by means of airplanes'. «Por medio de» = 'by means of, through, via'. «Aeroplano» is the period word for 'airplane' (later «avión»).
Cada célula inmediata a la capital cortará los rieles del ferrocarril.  
Each cell next to the capital will cut the railway rails.
> «rieles» / «ferrocarril»: «Rieles» = (railway) rails; «ferrocarril» = railway (literally 'iron road', «hierro» + «carril»). Cutting the rails to isolate the capital is a classic insurrectionary tactic the Astrologer folds into his plan.
No dejaremos entrar ni salir trenes.  
We will let no trains in or out.
> «dejar» + infinitive = 'to let': «No dejaremos entrar ni salir trenes» = 'we won't let trains enter or leave'. «Dejar» + infinitive means 'to let / allow (someone or something) to do'. Note the shape: a single «ni» brings the second infinitive under the scope of the preceding «no» ('neither enter nor leave'). The full correlative would be «ni entrar ni salir».
Dominada la cabeza, suprimido el telégrafo, fusilados los jefes, el poder es nuestro.  
The head subdued, the telegraph cut off, the leaders shot — power is ours.
> Stacked absolute participles: «Dominada la cabeza, suprimido el telégrafo, fusilados los jefes» is a chain of absolute participle clauses ('the head subdued, the telegraph suppressed, the leaders shot'). Each participle agrees with its noun. The piled-up construction gives a clipped, almost military cadence.
Todo esto es una locura posible, y siempre se vive en una atmósfera de sueño y como de sonambulismo cuando se está en camino de realizar las cosas.  
All this is a possible madness, and one always lives in an atmosphere of dream and as if of sleepwalking when one is on the way to carrying things out.
> Impersonal «se» for 'one': «Siempre se vive… cuando se está en camino…» = 'one always lives… when one is on the way…'. The impersonal «se» + third-person verb expresses a general 'one / you' with no specific subject — generalizing his own experience into a law.
Sin embargo, se va hacia ellas con una lentitud tan rápida que todo es sorprendente cuando se ha conseguido.  
And yet one moves toward them with so swift a slowness that everything is surprising once it has been achieved.
> «tan… que» with an oxymoron: «Una lentitud tan rápida que…» = 'a slowness so swift that…'. The «tan… que…» degree construction frames the paradox («lentitud… rápida», 'swift slowness') — Arlt's signature time-warp, now applied to action.
Para ello es necesario sólo voluntad y dinero...  
For that, only will and money are necessary...
> «ello» — neuter 'it': «Para ello» = 'for that, for it'. «Ello» is the neuter pronoun standing for a whole idea or situation (not a masculine/feminine noun) — 'for [all] that'. It is somewhat formal.
Podemos organizar aparte de las células una gavilla de asesinos y de asaltantes.  
Apart from the cells, we can organize a gang of murderers and raiders.
> «gavilla»: A «gavilla» is literally a sheaf (of grain), but figuratively a band or gang of criminals — «una gavilla de asesinos» = 'a gang of murderers'. The metaphor binds the killers together like stalks in a bundle.

¿De cuántos aeroplanos dispondrá el ejército?  
How many airplanes will the army have at its disposal?
> «disponer de»: «¿De cuántos aeroplanos dispondrá el ejército?» = 'how many airplanes will the army have available?'. «Disponer de» = 'to have at one's disposal, have available'. «Dispondrá» is the irregular future of «disponer».
Pero cortados los medios de comunicación, asaltados los cuarteles, fusilados los jefes, ¿quién mueve ese mecanismo?  
But with the means of communication cut, the barracks stormed, the leaders shot — who works that mechanism?
> Absolute participles again: «Cortados los medios…, asaltados los cuarteles, fusilados los jefes» — another chain of absolute participle clauses setting the conditions ('with the lines cut, the barracks stormed, the leaders shot'). The piled participles drive the relentless rhythm of his planning.
Este es un país de bestias.  
This is a country of beasts.
Hay que fusilar.  
One must shoot people.
> «hay que» + infinitive: «Hay que fusilar» = 'one must shoot / shooting must be done'. «Hay que» + infinitive expresses an impersonal, general obligation ('it is necessary to…'), with no specific subject — colder and more absolute than «tener que».
Es lo indispensable.  
It is the indispensable thing.
> «lo» + adjective: «Lo indispensable» = 'the indispensable thing, what is indispensable'. Neuter «lo» + an adjective makes an abstract noun: «lo importante» ('the important thing'), «lo difícil» ('the hard part').
Sólo sembrando el terror nos respetarán.  
Only by sowing terror will they respect us.
> Gerund of means: «Sólo sembrando el terror nos respetarán» = 'only by sowing terror will they respect us'. The gerund «sembrando» expresses the means/method ('by doing'). «Sembrar» ('to sow [seed]') makes terror something cultivated like a crop.
El hombre es así de cobarde.  
Man is cowardly to that degree.
> «así de» + adjective: «El hombre es así de cobarde» = 'man is that cowardly / cowardly to that degree'. «Así de + adjective» means 'this/that + adjective', pointing to a degree just stated or shown — 'cowardly to such an extent'.
Una ametralladora...  
One machine gun...
¿Cómo se organizarán las fuerzas que deben combatirnos?  
How will the forces that must fight us organize themselves?
> Reflexive «organizarse»: «¿Cómo se organizarán las fuerzas…?» = 'how will the forces organize themselves?'. The pronominal «organizarse» = 'to get organized, organize oneself'. «Deben combatirnos» = 'must fight us', with the object pronoun «-nos» on the infinitive.
Suprimido el telégrafo, el teléfono, cortados los rieles...  
The telegraph, the telephone suppressed, the rails cut...
Diez hombres pueden atemorizar a una población de diez mil personas.  
Ten men can terrorize a population of ten thousand people.
> «atemorizar»: «Atemorizar» = to frighten, terrify, fill with fear (from «temor», 'fear'). «Diez hombres pueden atemorizar a una población…» = the chilling arithmetic of terror that the Astrologer keeps repeating in different numbers.

Basta que tengan una ametralladora.  
It is enough that they have one machine gun.
> «bastar que» + subjunctive: «Basta que tengan una ametralladora» = 'it's enough for them to have a machine gun'. The impersonal «basta que» ('it suffices that…') governs the subjunctive «tengan». Compare «basta con + infinitive».
Son once millones de habitantes.  
There are eleven million inhabitants.
El norte, con los yerbales, nos respondería.  
The north, with its yerba-mate plantations, would respond to us.
Tucumán y Santiago del Estero, con los ingenios...  
Tucumán and Santiago del Estero, with their sugar mills...
San Juan, con los medio–comunistas...  
San Juan, with the half-communists...
Sólo tenemos por delante el ejército.  
Only the army stands before us.
> «por delante»: «Tenemos por delante el ejército» = 'we have the army ahead of us / before us'. «Por delante» = 'ahead, in front, still to be faced'. The army is the one remaining obstacle in his reckoning.
Los cuarteles se pueden asaltar de noche.  
The barracks can be stormed by night.
> Passive «se» with a modal: «Los cuarteles se pueden asaltar» = 'the barracks can be stormed'. The passive «se» combines with the modal «poder»: 'one can storm them / they can be stormed'. The agent is left unsaid.
Secuestrado el pañol de armas, fusilados los jefes y ahorcados los sargentos, con diez hombres nos podemos apoderar de un cuartel de mil soldados siempre que tengamos una ametralladora.  
The arms store seized, the leaders shot and the sergeants hanged, with ten men we can take over a barracks of a thousand soldiers, provided we have a machine gun.
> «siempre que» + subjunctive: «Siempre que tengamos una ametralladora» = 'provided that we have a machine gun'. When «siempre que» means 'provided that / as long as' (a condition), it takes the subjunctive «tengamos». (Meaning 'whenever/every time', with the indicative, is a different use.)
> «pañol de armas»: A «pañol» is a storeroom or locker aboard ship or in a barracks; «pañol de armas» = the arms store / armory. Seizing it — and so the weapons — is the key move in taking the barracks.
Es tan fácil eso.  
It is so easy, that.
Y las bombas de mano, ¿dónde dejo las bombas de mano?  
And the hand grenades — where do I leave the hand grenades?
> «dejar» = 'to leave out/aside': «¿Dónde dejo las bombas de mano?» = 'where do I leave / put the hand grenades?', i.e. where do they fit in the plan, 'how could I forget them?'. «Dejar» = 'to leave (behind/out)'; «bombas de mano» = hand grenades.
Sólo sorpresa simultánea en todo el país, diez hombres por pueblo y la Argentina es nuestra.  
Just a simultaneous surprise across the whole country, ten men per town, and Argentina is ours.
Los soldados son jóvenes y nos seguirán.  
The soldiers are young and will follow us.
A los cabos los ascenderemos a oficiales y tendremos el más inverosímil ejército rojo que haya conocido la América.  
The corporals we will promote to officers, and we will have the most improbable red army that America has ever known.
> Subjunctive after a superlative: «El más inverosímil ejército rojo que haya conocido la América» = 'the most improbable red army America has ever known'. A relative clause after a superlative («el más…») typically takes the subjunctive «haya conocido» to stress the uniqueness of the claim.

¿Por qué no?  
Why not?
¿Qué es el asalto al banco de San Martín, el asalto del hospital Rawson, el asalto de la agencia Martelli en Montevideo?  
What is the robbery of the bank in San Martín, the raid on the Rawson hospital, the raid on the Martelli agency in Montevideo?
Tres diarieros audaces y se terminó una ciudad.  
Three bold newspaper boys, and a city is finished.
> «diariero»: A «diariero» is a newspaper seller/boy (from «diario», 'newspaper'), a Río de la Plata word. «Se terminó una ciudad» = 'a city is done for'. The throwaway line — three cheeky paperboys could topple a city — is the Astrologer's gospel of audacity.

Un rencor sordo hace latir apresuradamente sus venas.  
A dull rancor makes his veins beat hurriedly.
> «hacer» + infinitive (causative): «Hace latir… sus venas» = 'makes his veins beat'. «Hacer» + infinitive is the causative ('to make/cause something to happen'). «Sordo» here means 'dull, muffled, deaf' — a rancor without a clear object.
La sangre corre en tumulto por su cuerpo recio y tenso en una posición de asalto.  
The blood runs in tumult through his sturdy body, tensed in a posture of assault.
> «recio»: «Recio» = robust, sturdy, vigorous, tough. «Su cuerpo recio» = 'his sturdy/powerful body'. It is a recurring epithet for the physically strong, animal Astrologer, set against his stalled, anxious mind.
Se siente más fuerte que nunca, la fuerza del que puede hacer fusilar.  
He feels stronger than ever — the strength of the one who can have men shot.
> «hacer fusilar» — causative again: «El que puede hacer fusilar» = 'the one who can have [people] shot'. «Hacer» + infinitive again is causative: not 'to shoot' oneself, but 'to have shot' — the power to order executions. «Más fuerte que nunca» = 'stronger than ever'.

Oscilaba la luz eléctrica bajo las sonoras descargas de la tempestad, pero el Astrólogo sentado de espaldas a la cama, sobre el baúl, con las piernas cruzadas, el mentón clavado en la palma de la mano y con el codo apoyado en la rodilla, no apartaba los ojos de sus cinco peleles cuyas sombras andrajosas temblaban en el muro enrosado.  
The electric light flickered under the resounding crashes of the storm, but the Astrologer, seated with his back to the bed, on the trunk, his legs crossed, his chin driven into the palm of his hand and his elbow propped on his knee, did not take his eyes off his five puppets, whose ragged shadows trembled on the pinkish wall.
> «pelele»: A «pelele» is a rag doll, a stuffed figure (and, figuratively, a spineless puppet of a person). It joins «fantoche», «muñeco», and «títere» as one of Arlt's words for the five hanged dolls the Astrologer now interrogates in silence.

Tras él la lluvia que entraba por el ventanillo hacía un charco en el piso, las preguntas y respuestas se cruzaban en silencio, a momentos una arruga enfoscaba la frente del astrólogo, luego sus ojos inmóviles, en su rostro romboidal, asentían con un parpadeo lento a una contestación en acuerdo con sus deseos, y así permaneció hasta el amanecer, hora en que, levantándose del baúl, irónicamente les volvió la espalda a los cinco muñecos que permanecieron en la soledad del cuartujo, bamboleándose bajo la banderola, como cinco ahorcados.  
Behind him the rain coming in through the little window made a puddle on the floor; the questions and answers crossed in silence; at moments a wrinkle darkened the Astrologer's brow; then his motionless eyes, in his rhomboid face, assented with a slow blink to an answer in keeping with his desires; and so he remained until dawn, the hour at which, rising from the trunk, he ironically turned his back on the five dolls, which stayed behind in the solitude of the squalid little room, swaying beneath the transom, like five hanged men.
> «cuartujo»: «Cuartujo» is «cuarto» ('room') with the pejorative suffix «-ujo»: a wretched, squalid little room. Spanish loads nouns with such suffixes to color them — «-ucho», «-ujo», «-aco» all add scorn. The grand visions end in a mean garret.
> «bambolearse» (gerund): «Bamboleándose bajo la banderola» = 'swaying beneath the transom'. The pronominal «bambolearse» = 'to sway, wobble, dangle'; the gerund leaves the dolls in continuous motion as he leaves — 'like five hanged men'. «Banderola» = a transom/fanlight window.

Caviló un instante, luego apresuradamente bajó las escaleras, dejó el portal, y a grandes pasos se dirigió entre las tinieblas a la cochera donde se encontraba Barsut.  
He brooded for an instant, then hurriedly went down the stairs, left the doorway, and with great strides made his way through the gloom to the coach house where Barsut was being kept.
> «dirigirse a»: «Se dirigió… a la cochera» = 'he made his way / headed to the coach house'. The pronominal «dirigirse a» = 'to head toward, make for' a place (or 'to address' a person). «A grandes pasos» = 'with great strides'.

Ya no llovía.  
It was no longer raining.
> «ya no» = 'no longer': «Ya no llovía» = 'it was no longer raining'. «Ya no» + verb means 'not anymore, no longer'. (Its mirror, «todavía / aún + verb», means 'still'.) The all-night storm has finally stopped at dawn.
Las nubes se habían resquebrajado, dejando ver en un claro celeste un pedazo amarillo de luna.  
The clouds had cracked open, revealing in a patch of sky-blue a yellow piece of moon.
> «celeste»: «Celeste» = sky-blue, light blue (literally 'of the sky', «cielo»). «Un claro celeste» = 'a sky-blue clearing' in the clouds. It is also, famously, the pale blue of the Argentine flag — a quietly national color to end the storm on.
---

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.