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 />
era hablar en sueños. Contra eso no había<br />
remedio.<br />
He drew his breath and went on writing: Contuvo la respiración y siguió escribiendo:<br />
I went with her through the doorway and across a<br />
backyard into a basement kitchen. There was a bed<br />
against the wall, and a lamp on the table, turned<br />
down very low. She—<br />
His teeth were set on edge. He would have liked to<br />
spit. Simultaneously with the woman in the<br />
basement kitchen he thought of Katharine, his<br />
wife. Winston was married—had been married, at<br />
any rate: probably he still was married, so far as he<br />
knew his wife was not <strong>de</strong>ad. He seemed to breathe<br />
again the warm stuffy odour of the basement<br />
kitchen, an odour compoun<strong>de</strong>d of bugs and dirty<br />
clothes and villainous cheap scent, but<br />
nevertheless alluring, because no woman of the<br />
Party ever used scent, or could be imagined as<br />
doing so. Only the proles used scent. In his mind<br />
the smell of it was inextricably mixed up with<br />
fornication.<br />
When he had gone with that woman it had been his<br />
first lapse in two years or thereabouts. Consorting<br />
with prostitutes was forbid<strong>de</strong>n, of course, but it<br />
was one of those rules that you could occasionally<br />
nerve yourself to break. It was dangerous, but it<br />
was not a life-and-<strong>de</strong>ath matter. To be caught with<br />
a prostitute might mean five years in a forcedlabour<br />
camp: not more, if you had committed no<br />
other offence. And it was easy enough, provi<strong>de</strong>d<br />
that you could avoid being caught in the act. The<br />
poorer quarters swarmed with women who were<br />
ready to sell themselves. Some could even be<br />
purchased for a bottle of gin, which the proles<br />
were not supposed to drink. Tacitly the Party was<br />
even inclined to encourage prostitution, as an<br />
outlet for instincts which could not be altogether<br />
suppressed. Mere <strong>de</strong>bauchery did not matter very<br />
much, so long as it was furtive and joyless and<br />
only involved the women of a submerged and<br />
<strong>de</strong>spised class. The unforgivable crime was<br />
promiscuity between Party members. But—though<br />
this was one of the crimes that the accused in the<br />
great purges invariably confessed to—it was<br />
Entré con ella en el portal y cruzamos un patio<br />
para bajar luego a una cocina que estaba en los<br />
sótanos. Había una cama contra la pared, y una<br />
lámpara en la mesilla con muy poca luz. Ella...<br />
Le rechinaban los dientes. Le hubiera gustado<br />
escupir. A la vez que en la mujer <strong>de</strong>l sótano,<br />
pensó Winston en Katharine, su esposa. Winston<br />
estaba casado; es <strong>de</strong>cir, había estado casado.<br />
Probablemente seguía estándolo, pues no sabía<br />
que su mujer hubiera muerto. Le pareció volver a<br />
aspirar el insoportable olor <strong>de</strong> la cocina <strong>de</strong>l<br />
sótano, un olor a insectos, ropa sucia y perfume<br />
baratísimo; pero, sin embargo, atraía, ya que<br />
ninguna mujer <strong>de</strong>l Partido usaba perfume ni podía<br />
uno imaginársela perfumándose. Solamente los<br />
proles se perfumaban, y ese olor evocaba en la<br />
mente, <strong>de</strong> un modo inevitable, la fornicación.<br />
Cuando estuvo con aquella mujer, fue la primera<br />
vez que había caído Winston en dos años<br />
aproximadamente. Por supuesto, toda relación<br />
con prostitutas estaba prohibida, pero se admitía<br />
que alguna vez, mediante un acto <strong>de</strong> gran<br />
valentía, se permitiera uno infringir la ley. Era<br />
peligroso pero no un asunto <strong>de</strong> vida o muerte,<br />
porque ser sorprendido con una prostituta sólo<br />
significaba cinco años <strong>de</strong> trabajos forzados.<br />
Nunca más <strong>de</strong> cinco años con tal <strong>de</strong> que no se<br />
hubiera cometido otro <strong>de</strong>lito a la vez. Lo cual<br />
resultaba estupendo ya que había la posibilidad<br />
<strong>de</strong> que no le <strong>de</strong>scubrieran a uno. Los barrios<br />
pobres abundaban en mujeres dispuestas a<br />
ven<strong>de</strong>rse. El precio <strong>de</strong> algunas era una botella <strong>de</strong><br />
ginebra, bebida que se suministraba a los proles.<br />
Tácitamente, el Partido se inclinaba a estimular la<br />
prostitución como salida <strong>de</strong> los instintos que no<br />
podían suprimirse. Esas juergas no importaban<br />
políticamente ya que eran furtivas y tristes y sólo<br />
implicaban a mujeres <strong>de</strong> una clase sumergida y<br />
<strong>de</strong>spreciada. El crimen imperdonable era la<br />
promiscuidad entre miembros <strong>de</strong>l Partido. Pero<br />
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