# The Seven Madmen, The Labor of Anguish

Los siete locos · Roberto Arlt · Part Two

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


Esa noche no durmió.  
That night he did not sleep.
> Preterite 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».
Estaba sumamente cansado.  
He was extremely tired.
Tampoco pensaba en nada.  
Nor was he thinking of anything.
> «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.
Pretendió darme una definición de aquel estado con estos términos:  
He tried to give me a definition of that state in these terms:
> «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.

–El alma está como si se hubiera salido medio metro del cuerpo.  
—The soul is as if it had slipped half a meter out of the body.
> «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.
Un aniquilamiento muscular extraordinario, una ansiedad que no termina nunca.  
An extraordinary muscular annihilation, an anxiety that never ends.
Usted cierra los ojos y parece que el cuerpo se disuelve en la nada, de pronto se recuerda un detalle perdido, entre los millares de días que ha vivido; no cometa usted nunca un crimen, porque eso más que horrible es triste.  
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.
> Negative «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.
Usted siente que va cortando una tras otra las amarras que lo ataban a la civilización, que va a entrar en el oscuro mundo de la barbarie, que perderá el timón, se dice y eso también se lo dije al Astrólogo, que provenía de una falta de training en la delincuencia, pero no es eso, no.  
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.
> «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.
En realidad, usted quisiera vivir como los demás, ser honrado como los demás, tener un hogar, una mujer, asomarse a la ventana para mirar los transeúntes que pasan, y sin embargo, ya no hay una sola célula de su organismo que no esté impregnada de la fatalidad que encierran esas palabras: tengo que matarlo.  
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.
> «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.
> Subjunctive 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.
Usted dirá que razono mi odio.  
You will say that I reason out my hatred.
Cómo no razonarlo.  
How could I not reason it out.
> Enclitic «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.
Si tengo la impresión de que vivo soñando.  
Why, I have the impression that I am living as in a dream.
> Emphatic «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.
Hasta me doy cuenta de que hablo tanto para convencerme de que no estoy muerto, no por lo sucedido sino por el estado en que lo deja un hecho así.  
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.
> «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.
Es igual que la piel después de una quemadura.  
It is just like skin after a burn.
Se cura, ¿pero vio usted cómo queda?, arrugada, seca, tensa, brillante.  
It heals — but have you seen how it ends up?, wrinkled, dry, taut, shiny.
> Preterite «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'.
Así le queda el alma a uno.  
That is how the soul ends up for you.
> Impersonal «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.
Y el brillo que a momentos se refleja le quema los ojos.  
And the gleam that flashes off it at moments burns your eyes.
Y las arrugas que tiene le repugnan.  
And the wrinkles it has disgust you.
> «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.
Usted sabe que lleva en su interior un monstruo que en cualquier momento se desatará y no sabe en qué dirección.  
You know that you carry inside you a monster that at any moment will break loose, and you don't know in what direction.
> Future 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.

«¡Un monstruo!  
"A monster!
Muchas veces me quedé pensando en eso.  
Many times I stayed lost in thought about it.
> «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.
Un monstruo calmoso, elástico, indescifrable, que lo sorprenderá a usted mismo con la violencia de sus impulsos, con las oblicuas satánicas que descubre en los recovecos de la vida y que le permiten discernir infamias desde todos los ángulos.  
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.
> «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.
¡Cuántas veces me he detenido en mí mismo, en el misterio de mí mismo y envidiaba la vida del hombre más humilde!  
How many times I have paused on myself, on the mystery of myself, and envied the life of the humblest man!
> Present 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!, no cometa nunca un crimen.  
Ah!, never commit a crime.
Véame a mí cómo estoy.  
Look at me, the state I'm in.
> Command + 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.
Y me confieso con usted porque sí, quizá porque usted me comprende...  
And I confess to you just because, perhaps because you understand me…
> «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').

«¿Y la noche?...  
"And the night?…
Llegué tarde a casa.  
I got home late.
Me tiré vestido encima de la cama.  
I threw myself, still dressed, on top of the bed.
> Adjective 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'.
La emoción que puede experimentar un jugador la sentía yo en los afanosos latidos de mi corazón.  
The emotion a gambler can feel, I felt it in the anxious pounding of my heart.
> Fronted 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'.
En realidad no pensaba en los sucesos posteriores al delito, sino que mantenía al borde del mismo la curiosidad de saber cómo me comportaría, qué es lo que haría Barsut, de qué forma lo secuestraría el Astrólogo, y el crimen que en algunas novelas había leído se presentaba interesante; veía yo ahora que era algo mecánico, que cometer un crimen es sencillo, y que nos parece complicado a nosotros debido a que carecemos de la costumbre de él.  
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.
> Conditional 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.
> «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.

«Tan es así que recuerdo que me quedé acostado con la mirada fija en un ángulo de la pieza a oscuras.  
"So much is this so that I remember I lay there, my gaze fixed on a corner of the darkened room.
> «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.
Pedazos de antigua existencia, pero inconexos, pasaban como empujados por un viento, ante mis ojos.  
Fragments of an old existence, but disconnected, passed before my eyes as if driven by a wind.
> «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.
Nunca llegué a explicarme el misterioso mecanismo del recuerdo, que hace que en las circunstancias excepcionales de nuestra vida, de pronto adquiera una importancia casi extraordinaria el detalle insignificante y la imagen que durante años y años ha estado cubierta en nuestra memoria por el presente de la vida.  
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.
> «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.
> «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»).
Ignorábamos que existían aquellas fotografías interiores y de pronto el espeso velo que las cubre se rompe, y así, esa noche, en vez de pensar en Barsut me dejé estar allí, en ese triste cuarto de pensión, en la actitud de un hombre que espera la llegada de algo, de ese algo de que he hablado tantas veces, y que a mi modo de ver debía darle un giro inesperado a mi vida, destruir por completo el pasado, revelarme a mí mismo un hombre absolutamente distinto de lo que yo era.  
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.
> «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.
> «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.

«En realidad, el crimen no me preocupaba mucho, sino otra curiosidad: ¿de qué forma me manifestaría después del crimen?  
"In truth, the crime did not worry me much, but rather another curiosity: in what way would I show myself after the crime?
> Conditional 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?'.
¿Sufriría remordimientos?  
Would I suffer remorse?
¿Enloquecería, terminaría por irme a denunciar?  
Would I go mad, would I end up turning myself in?
> «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'.
¿O sencillamente viviría como hasta el presente, adolorido de esa impotencia singular que le daba a todos los actos de mi vida una incoherencia que ahora usted dice son los síntomas de mi locura?  
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?
> «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.

«Lo curioso es que a momentos sentía grandes impulsos de alegría, deseos de reírme para simular un paroxismo de locura que no existía en mí; mas quebrantado el impulso trataba de figurarme de qué forma lo secuestraríamos a Barsut.  
"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.
> «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».
> Absolute 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.
Estaba seguro de que se defendería, pero el Astrólogo no era hombre de intervenir sin previsión en una empresa.  
I was sure he would defend himself, but the Astrologer was not a man to step into an undertaking without foresight.
> «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»).
Otras veces me planteaba el problema mediante qué forma Barsut había adivinado que la circular del Ministerio de Guerra estaba falsificada y me admiraba de haber conseguido aquella perfecta presencia de espíritu, cuando volviendo hacia mí la cara jabonada, dijo casi irónicamente:  
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:
> Pluperfect «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.

«–Mirá qué curioso si la circular estuviera falsificada.  
"—Look, how curious it would be if the circular were forged.
> «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.

«En realidad él era un canalla, pero yo no le iba a la zaga; la diferencia quizá consistiría en que él no experimentaba curiosidad por sus bajas pasiones como la sentiría yo.  
"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.
> «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.
Además, a mí no me importaba nada en aquellas circunstancias.  
Besides, nothing mattered to me in those circumstances.
> «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.
Quizá fuera yo el que lo matara, quizá fuera el Astrólogo, el caso es que había arrojado mi vida a un recoveco monstruoso, en el que los demonios jugaban con mis sentidos como con los dados metidos en un cubilete.  
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.
> «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.
> «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.

«Llegaban ruidos lejanos: el cansancio se infiltraba por mis articulaciones; a momentos me parecía que la carne, como una esponja, chupaba el silencio y el reposo.  
"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.
> Imperfect 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.
Ideas torvas se me ocurrían respecto a Elsa, un rencor taciturno me enrigecía los músculos en los maxilares; hasta sentía la pena de mi pobre vida.  
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.
> «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'.

«Sin embargo, la única forma de rehabilitarme ante mí era asesinándolo a Barsut, y de pronto me veía de pie junto a él; estaba atado con sogas gruesas y echado sobre un montón de bolsas; de él sólo era nítido el verde perfil del ojo y la nariz pálida; yo me inclinaba suavemente encima de su cuerpo, esgrimía un revólver, le apartaba dulcemente el cabello de las sienes y le decía en voz muy baja:  
"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:
> Gerund 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.
> Imperfect 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.

«–Vas a morir, canalla.  
"—You are going to die, you swine.
> «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'.

«Los bulto se estremecía, yo levantaba el revólver, apoyaba el caño en la piel sobre la sien y nuevamente repetía en voz muy baja:  
"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:
> «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.)

«–Vas a morir, canalla.  
"—You are going to die, you swine.

«Los brazos se removían bajo las gruesas ligaduras, era una desesperada faena de huesos y de músculos espantados.  
"The arms writhed under the thick bindings; it was a desperate labor of bones and terrified muscles.
> «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'.

«–¿Te acordás, canalla, te acordás de las papas, de la ensalada volcada encima de la mesa?  
"—Do you remember, you swine, do you remember the potatoes, the salad spilled across the table?
> «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').
¿Tengo ahora esa cara de infeliz que te preocupaba?  
Do I have now that wretched look that worried you?
> «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.

«Mas intempestivamente sentía vergüenza de decirle esas villanías, y entonces le decía, o no, no le decía nada, tomaba una bolsa y le cubría la cabeza: bajo la arpillera tupida, la cabeza se removía furiosamente; yo trataba de apretarla contra el piso para asegurar la eficacia del balazo y la posición segura del caño del revólver, y la arpillera resbalaba sobre los cabellos y todos mis esfuerzos eran inútiles para domar el coraje de esa fiera, que ahora resoplaba sordamente para escapar de la muerte.  
"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.
> «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.
> Self-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'.

Si se desvanecía este sueño, me imaginaba viajando por el archipiélago de la Malasia, a bordo de un velero en el océano Indico; había cambiado de nombre, mascullaba inglés, mi tristeza era quizá la misma, pero ahora tenía brazos fuertes, la mirada serenísima; quizás en Borneo, quizás en Calcuta o más allá del mar Rojo, o al otro lado de la Taiga, en Corea o en Manchuria, mi vida se reedificará».  
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."
> Shift 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.
> «-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'.

Cierto es que ya no eran los sueños del inventor ni del nombre que descubría unos rayos eléctricos, tan poderosos como para fundir moles de acero como si fueran lentejas de cera, ni presidiría la mesa vidriada de la Liga de las Naciones.  
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.
> «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.

En otros momentos el terror avanzaba en Erdosain: tenía la sensación de estar engrilletado, la terrible civilización lo había metido dentro de un chaleco de fuerza del que no se podía escapar.  
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.
> «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.
Veíase encadenado y con el traje de rayadillo, cruzando lentamente en una columna presidiaría, entre médanos de nieve, hacía los bosques de Ushuaia.  
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.
> Enclitic «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'.
El cielo estaba arriba blanco como una chapa de estaño.  
The sky overhead was white like a sheet of tin.
> «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.

Esta visión le enardeció; aciegado del furor lento, se levantó, caminando de una parte a otra del cuarto, tenía intenciones de golpear las paredes con los puños, hubiera querido horadar los muros con los huesos; luego se detuvo en la jamba de la puerta, se cruzó de brazos, nuevamente la pena retrepó hasta su garganta, era inútil cuanto hiciera, en su vida había una realidad ostensible, única, absoluta.  
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.
> Pluperfect 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.
> «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'.
El y los otros.  
He and the others.
Entre él y los otros se interponía una distancia, era quizá la incomprensión de los demás, o quizá su locura.  
Between him and the others a distance came between them; it was perhaps the others' failure to understand, or perhaps his own madness.
> Imperfect 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».
De cualquier forma, no por eso era menos desdichado.  
In any case, he was no less wretched for that.
> «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.
Y nuevamente el pasado se levantó por pedazos ante sus ojos; la verdad es que hubiera deseado escaparse de sí mismo, abandonar definitivamente aquella vida que contenía su cuerpo y que lo envenenaba.  
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.
> «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.

¡Ah!, entrar a un mundo más nuevo con grandes caminos en los bosques, y donde el hedor de las fieras fuera más incomparablemente dulce que la horrible presencia del hombre.  
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.
> Subjunctive 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'.

Y caminaba, quería extenuarlo a su cuerpo, agotarlo definitivamente, aplastarlo por el cansancio hasta tal grado que le fuera imposible modular una sola idea.  
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.
> Clitic «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').
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Source text: public domain (Roberto Arlt, d. 1942). English translation: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC — original draft, pending editorial review. NOTE: this is a minimal seed excerpt to make the app target runnable; full verified content is authored through the content pipeline.