cuentos de barro - DSpace Universidad Don Bosco
cuentos de barro - DSpace Universidad Don Bosco
cuentos de barro - DSpace Universidad Don Bosco
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el MaISHTro 298<br />
Terminada la faena <strong>de</strong> escuela, don<br />
Tacho cerraba el zaguán. Un frescor<br />
oloroso a tierra <strong>de</strong> rincón barrido,<br />
llenaba el sombrío portalón. Apretaba<br />
la tranca; y, ya solo, aislado en la frescura<br />
<strong>de</strong> las cuatro <strong>de</strong> la tar<strong>de</strong> —tar<strong>de</strong> <strong>de</strong><br />
pueblo encumbrado y ñeblinoso—, iba<br />
por las poda<strong>de</strong> ras y entraba al jardín.<br />
El jardín estaba en el traspatio. Junto al<br />
tapial <strong>de</strong> la casa vecina, cre cía la parra<br />
<strong>de</strong> jazmín, anidada toda ella, anidada y<br />
dormida en el tapexco <strong>de</strong> bambú. Dos<br />
rosales, una gemela, un matocho <strong>de</strong><br />
jacintos, unos platanillos pringados;<br />
unas chinas, dos naranjitos; un icaco,<br />
un borbollón <strong>de</strong> zacatelimón y uno<br />
quiotro montecito, no arrancado por<br />
no i<strong>de</strong>ntificado. En un barril, hundido<br />
hasta la mitad en el suelo, estaba el<br />
agua llovida para el riego.<br />
<strong>Don</strong> Tacho sabía bien qué hacer. Iba<br />
y venía; se acucharaba; se ponía en<br />
puntillas, aterraba o escarbaba según<br />
el caso. En la galera aledaña, la mula<br />
zonta299 le miraba trabajar, con un<br />
placer rayano300 en amor. Se sacudía<br />
las ancas, flacas y canosas, y se dormía<br />
viendo al amo en su tarea.<br />
154<br />
THe TeacHer<br />
Having finished his work at school,<br />
Señor Tancho closed the gate. An<br />
aromatic freshness like dirt from a<br />
recently swept dirt floor filled the dark<br />
entry way. He barred the door. It was<br />
four in the afternoon. He was now alone<br />
in the freshness of it. The afternoon,<br />
high and cloudy, crept by the gar<strong>de</strong>n<br />
shears and entered his gar<strong>de</strong>n.<br />
His gar<strong>de</strong>n was in the backyard. The<br />
jasmine bush grew next to the fence<br />
of the neighboring house. It nestled in<br />
the bamboo fence, sleeping. Two rose<br />
bushes, a twinflower, a hyacinth bush,<br />
a scarlet milkwood, a China pink, two<br />
small orange trees, a cocoplum bush,<br />
a clump of lemon grass, and some<br />
wild bushes here and there that were<br />
left untouched. A barrel, half buried in<br />
the ground, contained rain water for<br />
irrigation.<br />
Señor Tacho knew well what to do.<br />
He went back and forth around his<br />
gar<strong>de</strong>n. He bent over. He knelt on<br />
tiptoe and scratched or covered the<br />
ground <strong>de</strong>pending on the situation. In<br />
the nearby barn, the one-eared mule<br />
watched him work, with a pleasure<br />
that was almost love. It shook its skinny<br />
and gray haired haunch and fell asleep<br />
looking at its master as he worked.<br />
298. Representing the Nahuat pronunciation.<br />
299. RAE: zonto, ta. (Del nahua cuatezontic, cabeza rapada). 1. adj. El Salv. y Hond. Dicho <strong>de</strong> una persona<br />
o <strong>de</strong> un animal: Que le han cortado una o las dos orejas.<br />
300. RAE: rayano, na. 1. adj. Que confina o linda con algo. 2. adj. Que está en la raya que divi<strong>de</strong> dos<br />
territorios. 3. adj. Cercano, con semejanza que se aproxima a igualdad.