Indian Camp

Indian Camp es un cuento escrito por Ernest Hemingway. Fue publicado por primera vez en 1924 en la revista literaria de Ford Madox Ford Transatlantic Review en París.

Más abajo buscamos la palabra stern y también aclaramos sobre el cuento de Hemingway.

 

At the lake shore there was another rowboat drawn up. The two Indians stood waiting. Nick and his father got in the stern of the boat and the Indians pushed it off and one of them got in to row. Uncle George sat in the stern of the camp rowboat. The young Indian pushed the camp boat off and got in to row Uncle George.

The two boats started off in the dark. Nick heard the oar-locks of the other boat quite a way ahead of them in the mist. The Indians rowed with quick variable strokes. Nick lay back with his father's arm around him. It was cold on the water. The Indian who was rowing them was working very hard, but the other boat moved farther ahead in the mist all the time.

'Where are we going, Dad? Nick asked.

'Over to the Indian camp. There is an Indian lady very sick.'

'Oh, said Nick.                                                             

Across the bay they found the other boat beached. Uncle George was smoking a cigar in the dark. The young Indian pulled the boat way up on the beach. Uncle George gave both the Indians cigars.

They walked up from the beach through a pasture that was soaking wet with dew, following the young Indian who carried a lantern. Then they went into the woods and followed a trail that led to the logging road that ran back into the hills. It was much lighter on the logging road as the timber was cut away on both sides. The young Indian stopped and blew out his lantern and they all walked on along the road.

They came around a bend and a dog came out barking. Ahead were the lights of the huts where the Indian bark- peelers lived. More dogs rushed out at them. The two Indians sent them back to the huts. In the hut nearest the road there was a light in the window. An old woman stood in the doorway holding a lamp.

Inside on a wooden bunk lay a young Indian woman. She had been trying to have her baby for two days. All the old women in the camp had been helping her. The men had moved off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke out of range of the noise she made. She screamed just as Nick and the two Indians followed his father and Uncle George into the hut. She lay in the lower bunk, very big under a quilt. Her head was turned to one side. In the upper bunk was her husband. He had cut his foot very badly with an axe three days before. He was smoking a pipe. The room smelled very bad.

Nick's father ordered some water to be put on the stove, and while it was heating he spoke to Nick.

'This lady is going to have a baby, Nick,' he said.

'I know,' said Nick.

'You don't know,' said his father. 'Listen to me. What she is going through is called being in labour. The baby wants to be born and she wants it to be born. All her muscles are trying to get the baby born. That is what is happening when she screams.'

'I see,' Nick said.

Just then the woman cried out.

'Oh, Daddy, can't you give her something to make her stop screaming?' asked Nick.

'No. I haven't any anaesthetic,' his father said. 'But her screams are not important. I don't hear them because they are not important.'

The husband in the upper bunk rolled over against the wall… (Indian Camp, by Ernest Hemingway, adapted to an Easier English)

 

Hemingway y su esposa Hadley en Montreaux

Para saber

En Indian Camp el padre de Nick, doctor, tiene que asistir a una parturienta en un campamento indígena. Al terminar el doctor se dirige al marido de la mujer que está en otra cama y lo encuentra muerto, con su garganta seccionada.

 

Vocabulario

Stern: the rear part of a ship

 

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