bilingüe [pdf] - Blog de Javier Smaldone
bilingüe [pdf] - Blog de Javier Smaldone
bilingüe [pdf] - Blog de Javier Smaldone
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George Orwell 1 9 8 4<br />
in the twenty-four, with two three-hour snatches of<br />
sleep. Mattresses were brought up from the cellars<br />
and pitched all over the corridors: meals consisted<br />
of sandwiches and Victory Coffee wheeled round<br />
on trolleys by attendants from the canteen. Each<br />
time that Winston broke off for one of his spells of<br />
sleep he tried to leave his <strong>de</strong>sk clear of work, and<br />
each time that he crawled back sticky-eyed and<br />
aching, it was to find that another shower of paper<br />
cylin<strong>de</strong>rs had covered the <strong>de</strong>sk like a snowdrift,<br />
half-burying the speakwrite and overflowing on to<br />
the floor, so that the first job was always to stack<br />
them into a neat enough pile to give him room to<br />
work. What was worst of all was that the work was<br />
by no means purely mechanical. Often it was<br />
enough merely to substitute one name for another,<br />
but any <strong>de</strong>tailed report of events <strong>de</strong>man<strong>de</strong>d care<br />
and imagination. Even the geographical<br />
knowledge that one nee<strong>de</strong>d in transferring the war<br />
from one part of the world to another was<br />
consi<strong>de</strong>rable.<br />
By the third day his eyes ached unbearably and his<br />
spectacles nee<strong>de</strong>d wiping every few minutes. It<br />
was like struggling with some crushing physical<br />
task, something which one had the right to refuse<br />
and which one was nevertheless neurotically<br />
anxious to accomplish. In so far as he had time to<br />
remember it, he was not troubled by the fact that<br />
every word he murmured into the speakwrite,<br />
every stroke of his ink-pencil, was a <strong>de</strong>liberate lie.<br />
He was as anxious as anyone else in the<br />
Department that the forgery should be perfect. On<br />
the morning of the sixth day the dribble of<br />
cylin<strong>de</strong>rs slowed down. For as much as half an<br />
hour nothing came out of the tube; then one more<br />
cylin<strong>de</strong>r, then nothing. Everywhere at about the<br />
same time the work was easing off. A <strong>de</strong>ep and as<br />
it were secret sigh went through the Department. A<br />
mighty <strong>de</strong>ed, which could never be mentioned, had<br />
been achieved. It was now impossible for any<br />
human being to prove by documentary evi<strong>de</strong>nce<br />
that the war with Eurasia had ever happened. At<br />
twelve hundred it was unexpectedly announced<br />
that all workers in the Ministry were free till<br />
tomorrow morning. Winston, still carrying the<br />
brief-case containing the book, which had<br />
214<br />
realizarlo no se llamaban por sus nombres<br />
verda<strong>de</strong>ros. En el Departamento <strong>de</strong> Registro todos<br />
trabajaban dieciocho horas <strong>de</strong> las veinticuatro con<br />
dos turnos <strong>de</strong> tres horas cada uno para dormir.<br />
Bajaron colchones y los pusieron por los pasillos.<br />
Las comidas se componían <strong>de</strong> sandwiches y café <strong>de</strong><br />
la Victoria traído en carritos por los camareros <strong>de</strong> la<br />
cantina —. Cada vez que Winston interrumpía el<br />
trabajo para uno <strong>de</strong> sus dos <strong>de</strong>scansos diarios,<br />
procuraba <strong>de</strong>jarlo todo terminado y que en su mesa<br />
no quedaran papeles. Pero cuando volvía al cabo <strong>de</strong><br />
tres horas, con el cuerpo dolorido y los ojos<br />
hinchados, se encontraba con que otra lluvia <strong>de</strong><br />
cilindros <strong>de</strong> papel le había cubierto la mesa como<br />
una nevada, casi enterrando el hablescribe y<br />
esparciéndose por el suelo, <strong>de</strong> modo que su primer<br />
trabajo consistía en or<strong>de</strong>nar todo aquello para tener<br />
sitio don<strong>de</strong> moverse. Lo peor <strong>de</strong> todo era que no se<br />
trataba <strong>de</strong> un trabajo mecánico. A veces bastaba<br />
con sustituir un nombre por otro, pero los informes<br />
<strong>de</strong>tallados <strong>de</strong> acontecimientos exigían mucho<br />
cuidado e imaginación. Incluso los conocimientos<br />
geográficos necesarios para trasladar la guerra <strong>de</strong><br />
una parte <strong>de</strong>l mundo a otra eran consi<strong>de</strong>rables.<br />
Al tercer día le dolían los ojos insoportablemente y<br />
tenía que limpiarse las gafas cada cinco minutos.<br />
Era como luchar contra alguna tarea física<br />
aplastante, algo que uno tenía <strong>de</strong>recho a negarse a<br />
realizar y que sin embargo se hacía por una<br />
impaciencia neurótica <strong>de</strong> verlo terminado. Es<br />
curioso que no le preocupara el hecho <strong>de</strong> que todas<br />
las palabras que iba murmurando en el hablescribe,<br />
así como cada línea escrita con su lápiz — pluma,<br />
era una mentira <strong>de</strong>liberada. Lo único que le<br />
angustiaba era el temor <strong>de</strong> que la falsificación no<br />
fuera perfecta, y esto mismo les ocurría a todos sus<br />
compañeros. En la mañana <strong>de</strong>l sexto día el aluvión<br />
<strong>de</strong> cilindros <strong>de</strong> papel fue disminuyendo. Pasó<br />
media hora sin que saliera ninguno por el tubo;<br />
luego salió otro rollo y <strong>de</strong>spués nada<br />
absolutamente. Por todas partes ocurría igual. Un<br />
hondo y secreto suspiro recorrió el Ministerio. Se<br />
acababa <strong>de</strong> realizar una hazaña que nadie podría<br />
mencionar nunca. Era imposible ya que ningún ser<br />
humano pudiera probar documentalmente que la<br />
guerra con Eurasia había sucedido.<br />
Inesperadamente, se anunció que todos los<br />
trabajadores <strong>de</strong>l Ministerio estaban libres hasta el<br />
día siguiente por la mañana. Era mediodía.