A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Stephen juega al futbol con sus compañeros, controlados por los prefectos. El día está frío. Se siente pequeño y débil. Sus compañeros le habían preguntado qué clase de nombre era Dedalus. Mamá le aconsejó no hablar con los chicos malos y había llorado al besarlo…

En vocabulario encontramos thud, feign, stink y peach (como verbo).

Para saber investigamos sobre los prefects.

De la mano de James Joyce vemos unos párrafos de A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

 

He kept on the fringe of his line, out of sight of his prefect, out of the reach of the rude feet, feigning to run now and then. He…

 

Introducción

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man es la primera novela del irlandés James Joyce.

Muestra el despertar religioso e intelectual de Stephen Dedalus. Stephen cuestiona las convenciones católicas e irlandesas bajo las cuales ha crecido. Se recuerda la infancia de Stephen. El lector experimenta sus miedos en una serie de episodios separados. Stephen asiste a un colegio manejado por jesuitas, donde el muchacho sufre el ridículo de sus compañeros.

Ezra Pound la serializó en The Egoist en 1914.

 

Paragraphs

… The wide playgrounds were swarming with boys. All were shouting and the prefects urged them on with strong cries. The evening air was pale and chilly and after every charge and thud of the footballers the greasy leather orb flew like a heavy bird through the grey light. He kept on the fringe of his line, out of sight of his prefect, out of the reach of the rude feet, feigning to run now and then. He felt his body small and weak amid the throng of the players and his eyes were weak and watery. Rody Kickham was not like that: he would be captain of the third line all the fellows said.

Rody Kickham was a decent fellow but Nasty Roche was a stink. Rody Kickham had greaves in his number and a hamper in the refectory. Nasty Roche had big hands. He called the Friday pudding dog-in-the-blanket. And one day he had asked:

—What is your name?

Stephen had answered: Stephen Dedalus.

Then Nasty Roche had said:

—What kind of a name is that?

And when Stephen had not been able to answer Nasty Roche had asked:

—What is your father?

Stephen had answered:

—A gentleman.

Then Nasty Roche had asked:

—Is he a magistrate?

He crept about from point to point on the fringe of his line, making little runs now and then. But his hands were bluish with cold. He kept his hands in the side pockets of his belted grey suit...

His mother had told him not to speak with the rough boys in the college. Nice mother! The first day in the hall of the castle when she had said goodbye she had put up her veil double to her nose to kiss him: and her nose and eyes were red. But he had pretended not to see that she was going to cry. She was a nice mother but she was not so nice when she cried. And his father had given him two five-shilling pieces for pocket money. And his father had told him if he wanted anything to write home to him and, whatever he did, never to peach on a fellow. Then at the door of the castle the rector had shaken hands with his father and mother, his soutane fluttering in the breeze, and the car had driven off with his father and mother on it. They had cried to him from the car, waving their hands... (From A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.)

Castigos, caricatura de Cruikshank

Vocabulario

Thud: a blow.

The book fell to the ground with a thud.

Feign: to pretend to have a particular feeling, problem, etc.

You know how everyone feigns surprise when you tell them how old you are.

Stink: to be extremely bad.

Peach: to inform against, betray.

The verb blossomed from Middle English apechen ("to accuse"), itself an offspring of the Anglo-French verbs apecher and empecher, both meaning "to ensnare."

 

Para saber

Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area.

In the context of schools, a prefect is a pupil who has been given certain responsibilities in the school, similar to the responsibilities given to a hall monitor.

In some British, Irish and Commonwealth schools, prefects, usually students in fifth to seventh years, have considerable power. They were once allowed to administer school corporal punishment in some schools.

 

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