Desiree´s Baby

Désirée’s Baby es un cuento de Kate Chopin, publicado en 1893 en la revista Vogue. “It is about miscegenation in Creole Louisiana during the antebellum period”, dice la descripción del cuento (Miscegenation es la mezcla de grupos raciales).

Más abajo algo sobre Louisiana, y algunos términos usados en el cuento (corbeille, shudder, yellow nurse). Tienen que leer sobre corbeille porque es un término que ya casi no se usa más y es una lectura casi obligada para los investigadores del corazón.

Al final un video para no perderse, sobre la vida de la autora, Kate Chopin.

El cuento de Chopin en Bayou Folk, 1894

Paragraphs

As the day was pleasant, Madame Valmonde drove over to L'Abri to see Desiree and the baby.

It made her laugh to think of Desiree with a baby. Why, it seemed but yesterday that Desiree was little more than a baby herself; when Monsieur in riding through the gateway of Valmonde had found her lying asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar.

The little one awoke in his arms and began to cry for "Dada." That was as much as she could do or say. Some people thought she might have got lost there of her own accord, for she was of the toddling age. The prevailing belief was that she had been purposely left by a party of Texans, whose canvas-covered wagon, late in the day, had crossed the ferry that Coton Mais kept, just below the plantation. In time Madame Valmonde abandoned every speculation but the one that Desiree had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of the flesh. For the girl grew to be beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere,—the idol of Valmonde.

It was no wonder, when she stood one day against the stone pillar in whose shadow she had lain asleep, eighteen years before, that Armand Aubigny riding by and seeing her there, had fallen in love with her. That was the way all the Aubignys fell in love, as if struck by a pistol shot. The wonder was that he had not loved her before; for he had known her since his father brought him home from Paris, a boy of eight, after his mother died there. The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles.

Monsieur Valmonde grew practical and wanted things well considered: that is, the girl's obscure origin. Armand looked into her eyes and did not care. He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana? He ordered the corbeille from Paris, and contained himself with what patience he could until it arrived; then they were married.

Madame Valmonde had not seen Desiree and the baby for four weeks. When she reached L'Abri she shuddered at the first sight of it, as she always did. It was a sad looking place, which for many years had not known the gentle presence of a mistress, old Monsieur Aubigny having married and buried his wife in France, and she having loved her own land too well ever to leave it. The roof came down steep and black like a hood, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that encircled the yellow stuccoed house. Big, solemn oaks grew close to it, and their thick-leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it like a blanket. Young Aubigny's rule was a strict one, too, and under it his negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they had been during the old master's easy-going and indulgent lifetime.

The young mother was recovering slowly, and lay full length, in her soft white muslins and laces, upon a couch. The baby was beside her, upon her arm, where he had fallen asleep, at her breast. The yellow nurse woman sat beside a window fanning herself.

Madame Valmonde bent her portly figure over Desiree and kissed her, holding her an instant tenderly in her arms. Then she turned to the child.

"This is not the baby!" she exclaimed, in startled tones. French was the language spoken at Valmonde in those days.

"I knew you would be astonished," laughed Desiree, "at the way he has grown. The little cochon de lait! Look at his legs, mamma, and his hands and fingernails, —real finger-nails. Zandrine had to cut them this morning. Isn't it true, Zandrine?"

The woman bowed her turbaned head majestically, "Mais si, Madame."…

Para saber

Louisiana está situado en el sur de los Estados Unidos. Su capital es Baton Rouge y su ciudad más grande Nueva Orleans.

 

 “Mourners held a candlelight vigil Wednesday outside the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, convenience store where police had shot and killed an African American man just 24 hours earlier - an incident captured on cellphone video that rekindled national outrage over alleged use of excessive force against African Americans and other minorities…” (latest news)

 

Vocabulario

Unpacking the Corbeille de mariage: los Corbeille consistían en diamantes y joyas para toda ocasión, encajes finos de gran variedad, abanicos exquisitamente pintados, chales de cashmere, guantes y otros accesorios trabajados con superlativa destreza de los más finos materiales.

Armand ordenó el Corbeille desde Francia, siguiendo la tradición francesa del siglo 19. Los Corbeille funcionaban como dotes pero regalados por el novio a la novia. Sin estos ítems en la canasta una novia no se hubiera considerado casada. Mientras más lujosa la canasta más riqueza reflejaba por parte del novio.

 

“In September 1874, in the first issue of the fashion magazine La Dernière Mode, Marguerite de Ponty wrote ecstatically and meticulously about the ideal corbeille de mariage. Her fantasy corbeille would contain diamonds and other jewels to befit every social occasion; fine laces to provide trim for gowns, handkerchiefs, parasols, and other accessories; exquisitely painted fans…”

Shudder: (of a person) tremble convulsively, typically as a result of fear or revulsion.

"I shuddered with horror"

Yellow nurse: a light skinned black person, maybe octoroon or quadroon. Enfermera negra de color de piel más blanca.

Recursos

En este video pueden practicar inglés y a la vez enterarse más sobre Kate Chopin. ¡Excelente!

Kate Chopin and Feminism

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