Oh that you would believe me! Ibid. Cf. alsothe familiar ¡Acabaras! to a child, Hush up!
185. [185] Angustias: he omits señorita this time.
186. [186] la primera vez de su vida, the first time in his life;so in Alarcón often: first tears, first smile, last time in hislife, and others.
187. [187] carne de perro: a compliment about like strong as ahorse. The doctor falls into the captain's style.
188. [188] matasanos, killer of well men: humorous here, but acommon type: cf.
curaperros, quitasol, parasol, sacamuelas ( dentist), perdona-vidas ( bully), picaporte. All like our pick-pocket, turnkey, cureall, forget-me-not.
189. [189] Cuando salga, When I get out: there is hardly a wordthat occurs oftener with the present subjunctive than cuando.
190. [190] todo un hombre, a whole man: cf. toda una obra maestra, a real masterpiece; todo un capitán, a real captain.
191. [191] ¡Cuidado si tiene hígados para remendar cuerpos rotos! It's a caution what a nerve you have for mending broken bodies:cuidado has become a disguised oath (for emphasis) with its k sound; cf. ¡Cuidado si está el chico que da gloria verlo! I'll declare the littlefellow is a fine sight. Niño de la Bola, p. 174. Cf. also
¡Cuidadoque aquel dichoso año hizo calor! That blessed year was plenty hotenough! Viva el Papa, p. 43. It is a year that I have been grumblingabout an overcoat, y cuidado que me hace falta, and gracious howawfully I need it. Núñez.
¡Cuidado que a mí me encantan Horacio yVirgilio y los Gracos y...! I do like H.
and V..., though. Valera, Cartas Americanas, p. 92.
192. [192] había oído citar, had heard some one mention.
193. [193] al cabecilla, the leader (cabeza): grammar gender andsex go together when speaking of persons: so el cura, el corneta, unoscanallas, some scamps.
194. [194] Era de notar, It was noticeable: cf. es de ver, it isworth seeing.
195. [195] el pícaro de D. Jorge, that rogue Don Jorge: soEnglish, that dog of a landlord; but Spanish uses a substantivizedadjective so, e.g. la necia de mi tía, my silly aunt. Common.
196. [196] que ha: after a relative the verb could be the firstperson he, as in older English (e.g. who art in heaven).
197. [197] por hacer, because it was.
198. [198] Si fuera, If you were ( but you are not) ... , habíamos, we should have to... .
Note here and in the following twospeeches the condition (si-clause) and the conclusion (with theimperfect indicative or the conditional). Angustias: Si yo fuese hombre,me reiría... seríamos. El Capitán: siendo usted hombre, yo nollegaría... le propondría.... So si fuese = si fuera = si era = siendo =a ser = de ser = si es, all forms the condition might take.
199. [199] mocosilla, snotnose: Jorge is not trying to be elegant;not an uncommon word. Spanish uses a moco tendido, tragar saliva, andmany such phrases that we avoid. Moratín (père) uses the word mocofreely. Victor Hugo calls the starry skies God's spittle.
200. [200] puesta en sus puntos, very correct and proper, asthough cut to a pattern.
201. [201] hago: this is as near as Spanish comes to our do as anauxiliary.
Agradecer and sonreír are infinitives in apposition with thephrase lo que yo hago, what I do: say thank you and smile. Cf. ¿Quéhizo?—Lo mismo que su merced: reírse a todo trapo. What did hedo?—The same as you: laugh with all his might.
Alarcón, LaBuenaventura, p. 4.
202. [202] cocodrilo, crocodile: the eager student can findabundant examples in Spanish (and English, too) where r has changed itsposition in the word: bergante ( brigand), propósito ( purpose), corbata ( cravat).
203. [203] respuesta no la: the pronoun is regularly given after anoun (object) standing before the verb; but cf. the rhetorical ¡Rubor mecausa hablar... , It makes me blush to speak... , 97, 25.
204. [204] mismísimos diablos: just a new kind of emphasis, notparlor language even in Spanish, where oaths are so common as to belargely colorless.
205. [205] Conozco, I see, perceive: an inchoative here.
206. [206] en mitad for en medio, and so, like medio, it has noarticle. We meet mitad sordo, mitad artista, half deaf, halfartist.
207. [207] Casino de mi alma, my darling Casino: a parallelEnglish (Irish) expression is Peg o' my heart.
208. [208] de on account of días: noun needs de before itsdescriptive infinitive; cf.
noches de no dormir.
209. [209] embozo, covers ( at the head): cf. verb embozarse, towrap up neck and face.
210. [210] sobre otra (silla), on another ( chair): not one legover the other.
211. [211] sillón-cama: the adjective element last, as invagón-cama, bed-wagon, sleeping-car.
212. [212] enfermos como los sanos, the sick the same as the well:the meaning and order for us is: the well the same as the sick.
213. [213] confianza y benevolencia que ya le merecía, theconfidence and goodwill which she (la señora) had already won fromhim: verbs that formerly governed various cases have been leveled downto the construction of dar, and take a dative and an accusative (ordirect and indirect object); so pagar, comprar, agradecer, oír (oírlelas razones, hear his reasons), llamar (llamarle la atención).
214. [214] la, it: the usual feminine for our indefinite it: let it go; now you've done it.
215. [215] santa: euphemism again; the whole blessed night.
216. [216] impenitente: the 10th edition has impertinente.
217. [217] no... ya, no longer.
218. [218] doblemos = volvamos, let us turn.
219. [219] arrepentida, repentant: -ido forms often have -ing sense: dormido, sleeping; colgado, hanging; sufrido, patient; callado, silent. The changed meaning is often only apparent, as inagradecido, grateful; complacido, pleasant. Sometimes the sense islittle different between the past and present participles, e.g. hung onthe wall or hanging on the wall.
220. [220] que le he oído cantar, I have heard you sing; hacermedecir, make me say; se dejó fusilar, let himself get shot; noticethat in the first, le is the object of oído; in the second, -me is theobject of hacer; but in the last, se is the object of fusilar.
221. [221] caramba: this is the commonest oath = heavens; itexpresses surprise or anger in various degrees, and often is virtuallycolorless.
222. [222] Peripecia, Sudden Change in the Situation; mudanzarepentina de situación, Diccionario de la Academia.
223. [223] y que, and that: this que is used here after y becausethe following dependent clause, instead of continuing the infinitiveconstruction sonar (dependent on oyó), is going to introduce a newpersonal subject.
224. [224] a estas horas: plural in keeping with a las dos, etc.Common.
225. [225] oyose al mismo: se here is equivalent to "one" assubject: one heard, etc.
226. [226] sentirse: from feel the meaning passes to hear.
227. [227] Conoció, Saw, perceived.
228. [228] del cuello: al cuello in several editions.
229. [229] Me he puesto mala: Spanish has no independent word for become, but uses ponerse, hacerse, volverse, ser, and others.
230. [230] Ya se me va pasando, I am getting over it now.
231. [231] Llegado que hubo, When ( the doctor) had come: huboas auxiliary instead of había, always in this phrase; the sense of exacttime is felt more when time is marked by an adverb; and so hubo, asidefrom this use with que after the past participle, is seldom foundwithout an adverb apenas, luego que, no bien, or cuando.
232. [232] angelical: the double ending -ic-al, so common inEnglish, is little used in Spanish.
233. [233] despierte: subject follows.
234. [234] ¡Dios querrá dejarme vivir hasta que amanezca...! thefuture used like an imperative: God grant that I may live tillmorning.
235. [235] la chica, the little one = Angustias. Like estachiquilla, 86, 14.
236. [236] ¡Estaría escrito! It surely was written: referring tobiblical it is written, está escrito. Estaría de Dios, same sense. In La Pródiga: sic fata voluerunt, so the fates decreed, p. 208; andera fatalidad de mi estrella, it was in my stars, p. 227. Cf.
Vendránel día que esté escrito, They will come in due time.
237. [237] hasta la consumación de los siglos, till the end oftime.
238. [238] de pedirme, [ the pleasure] of having you ask me: thewhole sentence is poor rhetoric and syntax (the infinitives areconfused); but the meaning is What can I do for you then? For it isplain you would not be passing through so much distress to do me thehonor of asking me, or having me ask my cousin, for the miserable filthcalled lucre—for you know how much we both esteem both of you.
239. [239] tengo... a quien encomendársela: cf. tengo algo quehacer, tengo que ir, and English hath not where to lay his head; tenercon quien pelear.
240. [240] sea, haya, sea, muera: four differently construedsubjunctives.
241. [241] sea, haya, sea, muera: four differently construedsubjunctives.
242. [242] sea, haya, sea, muera: four differently construedsubjunctives.
243. [243] sea, haya, sea, muera: four differently construedsubjunctives.
244. [244] para que me amen = para ser amado: a good example ofsubstitute for the passive. Cf. Escándalo, p. 176: no quiero matarteni que tú me mates a mí, I don't want to kill you nor to be killed byyou: and in La Pródiga, p. 75: No; yo no he nacido para odiar ni serodiado, I was not born to hate or to be hated.
245. [245] desde que soy, since I have been: good example ofSpanish present tense for our present perfect.
246. [246] estos primeros besos: but they are not the first. Seeback one page.
Alarcón often uses a phrase like "for the first time inhis life".
247. [247] a quien: direct object of three verbs and indirect objectof deber. No wonder that even the grammarians cannot always agree on thecases.
248. [248] ha muerto: thus commonly when the body is still present; murió would not be natural.
249. [249] ¡En buena...! In a pretty fix! feminine form, adverbial= buenamente.
250. [250] de rodillas, on the knees: Spanish de occurs inadverbial expressions of time, place, and manner. English uses thecorresponding of in expressions of time ( of a morning, of a summerafternoon, all of a sudden); and we do hear such use as fell of aheap; but of old, of a truth, of a child (Mark 10:21), ofnecessity, etc., are growing quaint.
251. [251] ¡Llora [tú] ...! Weep...! English loses here the forceof the thou form. In Jorge's last speech, he called her Angustiaswithout the usual señorita, but used entre (usted). Afterwards he willgo on again with formal usted.
252. [252] acariciándole el pelo, caressing her hair: the dativeof interest, le instead of the possessive adjective.
253. [253] no pudo menos de significarle aprecio, y gratitud,poniéndole una mano sobre el corazón, she could do no less than showhim some appreciation and gratitude by placing her hand on his heart.In one edition we read poniéndose una mano, etc. But this is a manifesterror, since despite the frequency of the phrase ponerse la mano sobreel corazón, as a phrase of cogitation or of asseveration, those passageslack the essential element of this passage, which is the showing ofappreciation and gratitude by a gentle caress: placing her hand on hisheart.
254. [254] De Potencia a Potencia, Might against Might, or TheFinal Struggle. Cf.
moviéronse ambos campos decididos a perecer otriunfar, y diose la batalla de poder a poder. Nuevo Diccionario, CasaBouret, México, 1887, p. 969. Salvá translates the expression into Latin summis utrimque viribus.
255. [255] desiguales muletas, a crutch and a cane.
256. [256] resoplido, a snort: in keeping: Alarcón speaks ofresoplido que da su caballo ( Diario I, 79) and de la locomotora, andde un toro cuando fenece, of a dying bull ( ibid. , p. 10).
257. [257] Pícaras: Alarcón in the Diario says: ¡pícaro Alah! roguish Allah!
258. [258] años mil, a thousand years: this order is poetical, andusually occurs with some pleasant word (virtudes mil, gracias mil, vergüenzas mil).
259. [259] estoy levantado: estoy with an -ado form, felt as apresent: I am up, have been up; as often with verbs of motion: estállegado, has arrived.
260. [260] ¡Reventada...! a coarse word burst for die, likeFrench crever. We sometimes find this usage imitated in English, wherean author knows French.
261. [261] la de Dios es Cristo: allusion to the fierce oldreligious disputes as to the character of the Trinity.
262. [262] ¿Se puede entrar? May one enter? May I come in? Thisuse of se is more and more felt as a nominative or subject: se ha dicho, it has been said, felt as one has said. Intransitive verbs startedthe fashion (or carried it on from the Latin type secutus est): estáamándose being se está amando; and thus sound and use of intransitiveswith se became familiar through the very frequent verbs (intransitive)estar and ir, and spread till se, like que, has many shades offunction.
263. [263] con cinco mil [diablos] de a caballo, with 5000[ devils] on horseback: Jorge is using up oaths. Later he orders Rosacon cinco mil demonios. Alarcón uses con mil santos,: and in LaPródiga, p. 243, when the horse comes back without Julia:
¡Jesús,Jesús, mil veces! It is striking how frequently numbers are used inoaths. In Villaseñor's Guillermo we have 200,000 demonios. Frequentlythe oath has the addition "mounted on horseback". The numbers occur alsoin magic and charms and in church literature. Laval quotes:
Ave
María,
santa
y
sagrada,
quince
mil
veces
seáis alabada.
It is little different from English "No, a thousand times no".
264. [264] Sentémonos for -mos-nos, as always nowadays.
265. [265] Batalla Campal, Pitched Battle: this chapter is thelongest in the book, and a good short story of itself.