Spanish · Part Two

Trabajo de la angustia

The Labor of Anguish

68 sentences · 66 notes

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1
That night he did not sleep.
EsaThatese · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of noche
nochenightnoche · noun, feminine, singularoblique complement of durmió
nonotno · adverbmodifies durmió
durmiósleptdormir · verb, past, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
GrammarPreterite of «dormir» «durmió» is the third-person preterite of «dormir» ('to sleep'). The preterite reports a single, bounded fact about the night: the sleeping simply did not happen. Note the stem change «o»→«u» in the third person («durmió», «durmieron»), typical of «-ir» verbs like «dormir» and «morir».
He was extremely tired.
Nor was he thinking of anything.
Grammar«tampoco» — 'neither / not either' «tampoco» is the negative counterpart of «también» ('also'): it adds a further negative, 'neither / not... either'. Spanish freely doubles negatives, so «no pensaba en nada» ('he wasn't thinking of anything') is fully grammatical, with «nada» reinforcing the negation rather than cancelling it.
He tried to give me a definition of that state in these terms:
Word«pretender» — to attempt, not 'pretend' «pretender» is a false friend: it means 'to attempt / try to' or 'to aspire to', not English 'to pretend'. «Pretendió darme una definición» = 'he tried to give me a definition'. The narrator's «me» ('me') is the frame: this whole chapter is Erdosain's account, retold to the narrator.
2
—The soul is as if it had slipped half a meter out of the body.
Grammar«como si» + past subjunctive «como si» ('as if') always takes the subjunctive, here the pluperfect subjunctive «se hubiera salido» ('as if it had left'). The construction frames an unreal comparison — the soul has not really left the body, it only feels that way. The «se» makes «salir» pronominal, stressing the soul's own movement outward.
An extraordinary muscular annihilation, an anxiety that never ends.
You close your eyes and it seems the body dissolves into nothingness; suddenly some lost detail surfaces, out of the thousands of days you have lived; never commit a crime, because that, more than horrible, is sad.
GrammarNegative «usted» command «no cometa usted» is a negative command addressed formally to «usted» ('you'). The verb takes its subjunctive form («cometa», not «comete»), the standard way to form polite commands. The whole chapter is spoken in this respectful «usted» register, which gives Erdosain's confession a strange, formal courtesy.
You feel that you are cutting, one after another, the moorings that bound you to civilization, that you are about to enter the dark world of barbarism, that you will lose the helm — one tells oneself, and I said this to the Astrologer too, that it came from a lack of training in crime, but that is not it, no.
Grammar«ir» + gerund — gradual action «ir» plus a gerund («va cortando») expresses an action unfolding bit by bit: 'you go on cutting / you are cutting one after another'. It stresses progression over time, perfect for the slow severing of «las amarras» (the mooring ropes) tying him to civilization.
In truth, you would like to live like everyone else, to be honest like everyone else, to have a home, a wife, to lean out the window to watch the passersby go by, and yet, there is no longer a single cell in your body that is not steeped in the doom locked inside these words: I have to kill him.
Grammar«quisiera» — softened wish «quisiera» is the imperfect subjunctive of «querer» used as a courteous, tentative 'I/you would like'. It softens a raw desire into a wistful one: «usted quisiera vivir como los demás» = 'you would like to live like everyone else'. The mood matches the impossibility he feels around that ordinary life.
GrammarSubjunctive after a negated existence «no hay una sola célula... que no esté impregnada» uses the subjunctive «esté» because the cell is described inside a negated, hypothetical frame ('there is no cell that is not steeped...'). When the antecedent is denied or unknown, the relative clause shifts to the subjunctive.
You will say that I reason out my hatred.
How could I not reason it out.
GrammarEnclitic «lo» on the infinitive «razonarlo» is «razonar» ('to reason out') with the object pronoun «lo» ('it') attached to the end — standard with infinitives. «Cómo no razonarlo» is an exclamatory rhetorical question, 'how could one not reason it out', expecting no answer.
Why, I have the impression that I am living as in a dream.
GrammarEmphatic «si» — not 'if' Sentence-initial «si» here is not conditional 'if'; it is an emphatic, almost protesting opener, 'why, but, after all': «Si tengo la impresión...» = 'why, I have the impression...'. It is very common in spoken River Plate Spanish to justify or insist on a point.
I even realize that I talk so much in order to convince myself that I am not dead — not because of what happened, but because of the state a thing like this leaves you in.
Word«darse cuenta» — to realize «darse cuenta de» is the fixed pronominal idiom for 'to realize / become aware of': «me doy cuenta de que hablo tanto» = 'I realize that I talk so much'. Note «no... sino» ('not... but rather'), which corrects one cause for another: not the deed itself, but the state it leaves behind.
It is just like skin after a burn.
It heals — but have you seen how it ends up?, wrinkled, dry, taut, shiny.
GrammarPreterite «vio» mid-sentence «vio» is the preterite of «ver» ('to see'): «¿pero vio usted cómo queda?» = 'but have you seen how it ends up?'. River Plate Spanish often uses the simple preterite where European Spanish would reach for the present perfect ('have you seen'). «queda» here means 'turns out / ends up looking'.
That is how the soul ends up for you.
GrammarImpersonal «uno» + indirect «le» «a uno» is the impersonal 'one / you (in general)', doubled by the indirect pronoun «le»: «así le queda el alma a uno» = 'that is how the soul is left for a person'. Spanish often pairs the pronoun «le» with its full phrase «a uno» for emphasis — and «uno» lets Erdosain generalize his own ruin onto everyone.
And the gleam that flashes off it at moments burns your eyes.
And the wrinkles it has disgust you.
Grammar«repugnar» — verb like «gustar» «repugnar» works backwards like «gustar»: the thing that disgusts is the subject and the person is the indirect object «le». «las arrugas... le repugnan» literally is 'the wrinkles are repugnant to you' = 'the wrinkles disgust you'. The verb agrees with «las arrugas» (plural), not with the person.
You know that you carry inside you a monster that at any moment will break loose, and you don't know in what direction.
GrammarFuture of «desatarse» «se desatará» is the future of the pronominal «desatarse» ('to come untied, to break loose'). The «se» makes the monster break loose on its own, of its own accord. Here the future tense is a genuine prediction — the threat is still to come.
3
"A monster!
Many times I stayed lost in thought about it.
Grammar«quedarse» + gerund «quedarse» plus a gerund means to remain doing something, to be left in an ongoing state: «me quedé pensando» = 'I stayed (there) thinking, I went on thinking'. The preterite «quedé» bounds the episode, while the gerund «pensando» holds the lingering action inside it.
A calm, elastic, indecipherable monster that will take even you yourself by surprise with the violence of its impulses, with the satanic obliquities it discovers in the recesses of life, which let it make out infamies from every angle.
Word«recovecos» — nooks, hidden bends «recovecos» are 'nooks, twists, hidden bends, recesses' — of a place, or figuratively of life or the mind. «los recovecos de la vida» = 'the recesses / dark corners of life'. The word returns later in the chapter («un recoveco monstruoso»), one of Arlt's images for the maze Erdosain feels trapped inside.
How many times I have paused on myself, on the mystery of myself, and envied the life of the humblest man!
GrammarPresent perfect beside imperfect Arlt pairs «me he detenido» (present perfect, 'I have paused') with «envidiaba» (imperfect, 'I used to envy / kept envying'). The perfect ties the act to the speaking present; the imperfect spreads the envy out as a recurring habit. The shift mid-sentence is loose, spoken grammar.
Ah!, never commit a crime.
Look at me, the state I'm in.
GrammarCommand + enclitic + emphatic «a mí» «Véame» is the «usted» command of «ver» ('look') with «me» attached: 'look at me'. The added «a mí» ('at me') is redundant but emphatic, throwing the stress onto Erdosain himself — 'look at me, see what I've become'. Doubling the pronoun this way is standard for emphasis.
And I confess to you just because, perhaps because you understand me…
Word«porque sí» — 'just because' «porque sí» is a set phrase meaning 'just because, for no particular reason' (its opposite is «porque no»). «me confieso con usted porque sí» = 'I confess to you just because'. It admits the confession has no clear motive — then he immediately guesses at one with «quizá» ('perhaps').
4
"And the night?…
I got home late.
I threw myself, still dressed, on top of the bed.
GrammarAdjective for a state — 'still dressed' «vestido» is a past participle ('dressed') used here as an adjective describing how he did the action: «me tiré vestido» = 'I threw myself down (while still) dressed'. Spanish often slips such a participle in to say in what state the subject was, where English needs 'still dressed' or 'with his clothes on'.
The emotion a gambler can feel, I felt it in the anxious pounding of my heart.
GrammarFronted object + clitic «la» The object «la emoción» is moved to the front for emphasis and then echoed by the pronoun «la» before the verb: «La emoción... la sentía yo» = 'The emotion... I felt it'. This fronting-and-doubling is a normal Spanish way to spotlight the object; «jugador» here means 'gambler', not 'player'.
In truth I was not thinking of the events that would follow the crime, but rather kept hovering at the edge of it the curiosity of knowing how I would behave, what Barsut would do, in what way the Astrologer would abduct him; and the crime I had read of in certain novels presented itself as interesting; I saw now that it was something mechanical, that committing a crime is simple, and that it seems complicated to us only because we lack the habit of it.
GrammarConditional as future-in-the-past «comportaría», «haría», «secuestraría» are conditional forms used as a 'future seen from the past': from the vantage of that night, these were things still to come — 'how I would behave, what he would do, how he would abduct him'. Spanish uses the conditional for anything future relative to a past moment.
Word«carecer de» — to lack «carecer de» means 'to lack, be without': «carecemos de la costumbre de él» = 'we lack the habit of it'. It always takes the preposition «de». The cool, almost clinical claim — that murder feels hard only from inexperience — is pure Erdosain.
5
"So much is this so that I remember I lay there, my gaze fixed on a corner of the darkened room.
Word«pieza» — room (River Plate) In River Plate Spanish «pieza» commonly means 'room / bedroom' (elsewhere often «habitación» or «cuarto»). «la pieza a oscuras» = 'the darkened room'. «a oscuras» is a fixed phrase, 'in the dark'. «Tan es así que» opens the sentence as 'so much is this so that...', insisting on the previous claim.
Fragments of an old existence, but disconnected, passed before my eyes as if driven by a wind.
Grammar«como» + participle — 'as if' «como» before a past participle compresses an 'as if' clause: «como empujados por un viento» = 'as if driven by a wind'. The participle «empujados» agrees in number and gender with «pedazos» (masculine plural). It is a compact, painterly way to add a simile without a full verb.
I never managed to explain to myself the mysterious mechanism of memory, which causes some insignificant detail, and an image that for years and years lay buried in our memory beneath the present of life, suddenly to take on an almost extraordinary importance in the exceptional circumstances of our life.
Grammar«llegar a» + infinitive «llegar a» plus an infinitive means 'to manage to, to get as far as, to come to': «nunca llegué a explicarme» = 'I never managed to explain to myself'. It marks reaching (or here failing to reach) a point. «explicarme» carries the reflexive «me» — to explain something to oneself.
Grammar«hacer que» + subjunctive «hacer que» ('to make / cause that') triggers the subjunctive in what follows: «hace que... adquiera... importancia» = 'causes... to take on importance'. Whenever one thing makes another happen, Spanish puts the result clause in the subjunctive («adquiera», not «adquiere»).
We did not know those inner photographs existed, and suddenly the thick veil that covers them tears, and so, that night, instead of thinking about Barsut, I let myself stay there, in that sad boarding-house room, in the posture of a man awaiting the arrival of something — of that something I have spoken of so many times, which to my mind was to give my life an unexpected turn, to destroy the past entirely, to reveal to myself a man absolutely different from what I was.
Grammar«dejarse» + infinitive — let oneself «dejarse» plus an infinitive means to let oneself do or be something, to surrender to it: «me dejé estar allí» = 'I let myself stay there, I just remained there'. It conveys passivity, abandoning resistance — exactly his state, sinking into the room instead of acting.
Word«pensión» — boarding house A «pensión» is a cheap boarding house or lodging house; «cuarto de pensión» is a rented room in one. These shabby rented rooms are the recurring habitat of Arlt's characters, the rootless lower-middle class of 1920s Buenos Aires drifting through furnished rooms.
6
"In truth, the crime did not worry me much, but rather another curiosity: in what way would I show myself after the crime?
GrammarConditional of «manifestarse» «me manifestaría» is the conditional of the pronominal «manifestarse» ('to reveal / show oneself'): 'how would I show myself / turn out'. The conditional asks about something then still in the future, viewed from that past night. «¿de qué forma?» = 'in what way?'.
Would I suffer remorse?
Would I go mad, would I end up turning myself in?
Grammar«terminar por» + infinitive «terminar por» plus an infinitive means 'to end up (doing something)': «terminaría por irme a denunciar» = 'I would end up turning myself in'. «denunciar» normally means 'to report / inform on' someone; with reflexive «irme a denunciar» it is 'to go and report myself, to give myself up'.
Or would I simply go on living as up to now, aching from that strange impotence which gave all the acts of my life an incoherence that now you say are the symptoms of my madness?
Word«adolorido» — aching, sore «adolorido» means 'aching, sore, in pain' — physically or, as here, of the spirit: «adolorido de esa impotencia» = 'aching from that impotence'. Arlt gives the abstract failing («impotencia», his sense of being unable to act) a bodily soreness, fusing mental and physical anguish.
7
"The curious thing is that at moments I felt great surges of joy, an urge to laugh in order to feign a paroxysm of madness that did not exist in me; but, the impulse once broken, I would try to picture in what way we would abduct Barsut.
Grammar«lo» + adjective — the abstract noun «lo» before an adjective makes an abstract noun: «lo curioso» = 'the curious thing, what is curious'. Spanish builds these freely — «lo difícil» ('the hard part'), «lo importante» ('what matters'). «mas» (no accent) is a literary 'but', equal to «pero».
GrammarAbsolute participle clause «quebrantado el impulso» is an absolute construction: a past participle plus its noun, with no conjugated verb, meaning 'once the impulse was broken / the impulse having broken'. It compactly sets the stage for the next clause, a favorite move of formal, literary Spanish.
I was sure he would defend himself, but the Astrologer was not a man to step into an undertaking without foresight.
Grammar«ser hombre de» + infinitive «ser hombre de» plus an infinitive characterizes someone by what they would or would not do: «no era hombre de intervenir sin previsión» = 'he was not a man to get involved without foresight'. The phrase paints a settled trait rather than a single act, so the verb stays imperfect («era»).
Other times I would set myself the problem of how Barsut had guessed that the circular from the Ministry of War was forged, and I marveled at having kept that perfect presence of mind, when, turning his soaped face toward me, he said almost ironically:
GrammarPluperfect «había adivinado» «había adivinado» is the pluperfect (past perfect): «haber» in the imperfect plus a participle, marking an action completed before another past moment — Barsut had already guessed before this remembered scene. «la cara jabonada» ('the soaped face') tells us Barsut was shaving as he spoke.
8
"—Look, how curious it would be if the circular were forged.
Grammar«vos» imperative «mirá» «mirá» is the «vos» command of «mirar» ('look') — Buenos Aires Spanish uses «vos» instead of «tú», with its own stressed endings: «mirá», «vení», «decí». The condition «si la circular estuviera falsificada» uses the imperfect subjunctive «estuviera» for an unreal 'if it were forged' — Barsut is needling Erdosain, who knows it is.
9
"In truth he was a scoundrel, but I was not far behind; the difference perhaps consisted in that he felt no curiosity about his base passions, the way I would.
Word«ir a la zaga» — to lag behind «ir a la zaga (de)» is an idiom, 'to lag behind, fall short of': «yo no le iba a la zaga» = 'I was not far behind him, I was every bit as bad'. «zaga» is the rear of something. «canalla» is a strong word for a scoundrel or swine, a key term of contempt in this novel.
Besides, nothing mattered to me in those circumstances.
Grammar«importar» like «gustar» + emphatic «a mí» «importar» ('to matter') takes the person as an indirect object: «no me importaba nada» = 'nothing mattered to me'. The fronted «a mí» merely emphasizes the «me» — 'to me, nothing mattered'. «nada» here is the subject ('nothing'), so the verb stays singular.
Perhaps it would be I who killed him, perhaps it would be the Astrologer; the fact is that I had hurled my life into a monstrous recess, where demons played with my senses as with dice rattled in a cup.
Grammar«quizá» + subjunctive for doubt «quizá» ('perhaps') invites the subjunctive when the outcome is genuinely uncertain: «quizá fuera yo el que lo matara» = 'perhaps it would be I who killed him', with both «fuera» and «matara» in the imperfect subjunctive. The double subjunctive deepens the hesitation over who will do the deed.
Word«cubilete» — dice cup A «cubilete» is the cup used to shake and throw dice. The image — demons rattling his senses like «los dados metidos en un cubilete» ('dice put in a dice cup') — makes his fate a gamble out of his hands, picking up the gambler («jugador») of an earlier paragraph.
10
"Distant noises reached me; the weariness seeped in through my joints; at moments it seemed to me that the flesh, like a sponge, sucked up the silence and the rest.
GrammarImperfect of pronominal «infiltrarse» «se infiltraba» is the imperfect of «infiltrarse» ('to seep in, filter through'). The «se» makes the weariness move into the joints on its own. The imperfect draws the slow, continuous seeping rather than a single moment — fatigue gradually permeating the body.
Grim ideas occurred to me about Elsa; a sullen rancor stiffened the muscles of my jaws; I even felt the sorrow of my poor life.
Grammar«ocurrírsele» — to occur to one «ocurrírsele algo a alguien» means an idea 'occurs to / pops into someone's head': «ideas torvas se me ocurrían» = 'grim ideas kept occurring to me'. The «se» plus the indirect «me» frame the thoughts as arriving on their own, unbidden. «torvas» = 'grim, fierce, baleful'.
11
"And yet, the only way to redeem myself in my own eyes was by murdering Barsut, and suddenly I saw myself standing beside him; he was bound with thick ropes and thrown on a heap of sacks; of him only the green outline of the eye and the pale nose were distinct; I would lean gently over his body, brandish a revolver, softly part the hair from his temples, and say to him in a very low voice:
GrammarGerund of means + redundant «lo» The gerund «asesinándolo» states the means — 'by murdering him'. The object pronoun «lo» is then echoed by the full «a Barsut», a typical River Plate doubling ('by murdering him, Barsut'). «Sin embargo» ('and yet') is the hinge that keeps swinging Erdosain between revulsion and resolve.
GrammarImperfect for an imagined scene The chain of imperfects («me inclinaba», «esgrimía», «apartaba», «decía») renders an imagined, repeated mental film rather than a single real event: 'I would lean..., brandish..., part..., say...'. The imperfect is the tense of fantasy and habit, so the whole murder plays out as a rehearsal in his head.
12
"—You are going to die, you swine.
Grammar«ir a» + infinitive — near future «ir a» plus an infinitive is the everyday near future, 'going to': «vas a morir» = 'you are going to die'. Note he uses «vos»/«tú» «vas» here, the intimate form, to taunt his bound victim, after addressing the narrator throughout with formal «usted». «canalla» is a venomous 'swine, scoundrel'.
13
"The shape shuddered, I would raise the revolver, press the barrel against the skin over the temple, and again repeat in a very low voice:
Word«caño» — barrel of a gun «caño» literally means 'pipe / tube'; of a firearm it is the 'barrel': «apoyaba el caño en la piel» = 'I pressed the barrel against the skin'. (The source's «Los bulto se estremecía» is an irregular agreement in Arlt's text, kept verbatim; «bulto» means a 'shape, bundle, indistinct mass' — Barsut reduced to a thing.)
14
"—You are going to die, you swine.
15
"The arms writhed under the thick bindings; it was a desperate labor of bones and terrified muscles.
Word«faena» — toil, hard labor «faena» means 'task, toil, hard physical labor' (it is also the bullfighter's work in the ring). «una desesperada faena de huesos y de músculos» casts the body's writhing as grueling work — bones and muscles laboring to escape. The word feeds the chapter's title, «Trabajo de la angustia», 'the labor of anguish'.
16
"—Do you remember, you swine, do you remember the potatoes, the salad spilled across the table?
Grammar«vos» form «te acordás» «acordarse de» is 'to remember', and «te acordás» is its «vos» form (where «tú» Spanish says «te acuerdas»). The «vos» ending keeps the stress on the last syllable, «-ás». «papas» is the River Plate word for 'potatoes' (Spain uses «patatas').
Do I have now that wretched look that worried you?
Word«infeliz» — wretch, hapless soul «infeliz» literally is 'unhappy', but as a noun it means a 'poor wretch, hapless / pathetic person'. «esa cara de infeliz» = 'that wretched, hangdog look'. Erdosain throws back at Barsut the contempt Barsut once showed him — the humiliation that set the whole plot in motion.
17
"But abruptly I would feel ashamed to say such vile things to him, and so I would say to him — no, no, I would say nothing to him; I would take a sack and cover his head: under the thick burlap the head writhed furiously; I tried to press it against the floor to secure the effectiveness of the shot and the steady position of the revolver's barrel, and the burlap slid over the hair, and all my efforts were useless to tame the fury of that beast, which now snorted dully to escape from death.
Word«arpillera» — burlap, sacking «arpillera» is 'burlap / sacking', the coarse cloth of «bolsas» (sacks). «la arpillera tupida» = 'the thick, dense burlap'. The grimy, ordinary material — sacks, burlap, a dirt floor — grounds the fevered murder fantasy in shabby, concrete things, Arlt's way of making the nightmare physical.
GrammarSelf-correction in the imperfect «le decía, o no, no le decía nada» = 'I would say to him — no, I would say nothing to him', the narrator revising himself mid-sentence. The imperfect «decía» again marks the action as part of the looping, rehearsed daydream rather than a fixed event; «mas» is the literary 'but'.
18
If this dream faded, I would imagine myself traveling through the Malay archipelago, aboard a sailing ship on the Indian Ocean; I had changed my name, I mumbled English, my sadness was perhaps the same, but now I had strong arms and the calmest of gazes; perhaps in Borneo, perhaps in Calcutta or beyond the Red Sea, or on the far side of the Taiga, in Korea or in Manchuria, my life will be rebuilt."
GrammarShift into the future tense After a string of imperfect daydreaming verbs («me imaginaba», «mascullaba», «tenía»), the sentence jolts into the future «se reedificará» ('my life will be rebuilt'). The tense break makes the fantasy suddenly feel real and promised — the only forward-looking hope in a chapter otherwise sealed in memory. The closing » shuts the long quotation.
Grammar«-ísimo» — the absolute superlative «serenísima» is «serena» ('calm, serene') plus the suffix «-ísima», the absolute superlative: 'extremely calm, the calmest'. It expresses a high degree without comparison to anyone else — his imagined new self has a gaze 'utterly serene'.
19
True, these were no longer the dreams of the inventor, nor of the man who discovered electric rays powerful enough to melt masses of steel as if they were lentils of wax, nor would he preside over the glass table of the League of Nations.
Grammar«tan... como para» — enough to «tan... como para» plus an infinitive expresses sufficiency, 'so... as to / enough to': «tan poderosos como para fundir moles de acero» = 'powerful enough to melt masses of steel'. «como si fueran» ('as if they were') again pairs «como si» with the imperfect subjunctive for an unreal comparison.
20
At other moments the terror advanced in Erdosain: he had the sensation of being shackled, terrible civilization had stuffed him inside a straitjacket from which there was no escape.
Word«chaleco de fuerza» — straitjacket «chaleco de fuerza» (literally 'force / strength vest') is a 'straitjacket'. Note the shift here from Erdosain's own voice back to the narrator's third person ('the terror advanced in Erdosain'). «del que no se podía escapar» = 'from which one could not escape', the impersonal «se» making the entrapment universal.
He saw himself in chains and in the striped uniform, crossing slowly in a column of convicts, among dunes of snow, toward the forests of Ushuaia.
GrammarEnclitic «se» on «veía» «Veíase» is «se veía» ('he saw himself') with the pronoun «se» attached after the verb — a literary, slightly archaic word order Arlt favors at sentence openings. «el traje de rayadillo» is the striped cloth uniform of a convict; «médanos» are 'dunes'.
The sky overhead was white like a sheet of tin.
Word«chapa de estaño» — sheet of tin «chapa» is a 'sheet / plate' of metal and «estaño» is 'tin': «una chapa de estaño» = 'a sheet of tin'. The cold, industrial simile for the sky is signature Arlt — the natural world rendered in the dull metal of a workshop.
21
This vision inflamed him; blinded by a slow fury, he rose, pacing back and forth across the room; he had a mind to strike the walls with his fists, he could have wished to bore through the walls with his bones; then he stopped at the doorjamb, crossed his arms, and once more the grief climbed up to his throat; whatever he did was useless, in his life there was one plain reality, single, absolute.
GrammarPluperfect subjunctive as a wish «hubiera querido horadar los muros» = 'he could have / would have wished to bore through the walls'. The pluperfect subjunctive «hubiera querido» expresses an impossible, frustrated desire — a longing for something that cannot be done, intensifying his impotent rage.
Grammar«cuanto» + subjunctive — 'whatever' «cuanto hiciera» means 'whatever he might do, however much he did', with «hiciera» in the imperfect subjunctive because the action is indefinite. «era inútil cuanto hiciera» = 'whatever he did was useless'. «cuanto» alone serves as 'all that, as much as'.
He and the others.
Between him and the others a distance came between them; it was perhaps the others' failure to understand, or perhaps his own madness.
GrammarImperfect of «interponerse» «se interponía una distancia» = 'a distance interposed itself / came between'. The pronominal «interponerse» means 'to come between, stand in the way'; the imperfect frames the distance as a permanent, standing condition. «los demás» = 'the others, everyone else', echoing «los otros».
In any case, he was no less wretched for that.
Word«no por eso menos» — none the less «no por eso era menos desdichado» = 'he was not for that reason any less wretched, he was no less wretched for it'. The frame «no por eso... menos» concedes a cause yet denies it lessens the result. «desdichado» = 'wretched, unfortunate', a key note of Erdosain's self-image.
And once more the past rose up in pieces before his eyes; the truth is he would have wished to escape from himself, to abandon for good that life which contained his body and was poisoning him.
Grammar«sí mismo» — oneself «sí mismo» is the reflexive 'himself / oneself' after a preposition: «escaparse de sí mismo» = 'to escape from himself'. The doubly reflexive image — escaping oneself — captures the core of Erdosain's anguish: the self is the trap he cannot leave.
22
Ah!, to enter a newer world with great roads through the forests, where the stench of wild beasts would be incomparably sweeter than the horrible presence of man.
GrammarSubjunctive in a wished-for world «donde el hedor de las fieras fuera más dulce» = 'where the stench of beasts would be sweeter'. The relative clause uses the imperfect subjunctive «fuera» because this world is only wished for, not real — the subjunctive marks the whole longed-for place as hypothetical. «hedor» = 'stench'; «fieras» = 'wild beasts'.
23
And he walked, he wanted to exhaust his body, to wear it out completely, to crush it with weariness to such a degree that forming a single idea would be impossible for him.
GrammarClitic «lo» doubling the object «extenuarlo a su cuerpo» repeats the object: the pronoun «lo» plus the full «a su cuerpo» ('to wear it out, his body'). The same doubling runs through «agotarlo», «aplastarlo» — a very River Plate habit. «hasta tal grado que... fuera imposible» uses the subjunctive «fuera» for an intended result ('to such a degree that... would be impossible').

The particulars

The text: Los siete locos, Roberto Arlt. Part Two.
Reading aloud: Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
Data: JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents