Polk Street

Marcus es mencionado como el mejor amigo de McTeague.

Al final un tranvía de fines del siglo 19 usado como transporte público. Averiguamos sobre Polk Street, que es en realidad una calle en San Francisco. En vocabulario encontramos wiping y wilting poppies y si querés escuchar la historia te dejamos un link para practicar el escuchar con una buena historia

De Frank Norris, McTeague:

 

Then, little by little, Polk Street dropped back to solitude. Eleven o'clock struck from the power-house clock. Lights were extinguished. At one o'clock the cable stopped, leaving an abrupt silence in the air. All at once it seemed very still. The ugly noises were the occasional footfalls of a policeman and the persistent calling of ducks and geese in the closed market. The street was asleep.

Day after day, McTeague saw the same panorama unroll itself. The bay window of his "Dental Parlors" was for him a point of vantage from which he watched the world go past.

On Sundays, however, all was changed. As he stood in the bay window, after finishing his beer, wiping his lips, and looking out into the street, McTeague was conscious of the difference. Nearly all the stores were closed. No wagons passed. A few people hurried up and down the sidewalks, dressed in cheap Sunday finery. A cable car went by; on the outside seats were a party of returning picnickers. The mother, the father, a young man, and a young girl, and three children. The two older people held empty lunch baskets in their laps, while the bands of the children's hats were stuck full of oak leaves. The girl carried a huge bunch of wilting poppies and wild flowers.

As the car approached McTeague's window the young man got up and swung himself off the platform, waving goodby to the party. Suddenly McTeague recognized him.

Un tranvía en Seattle en 1940, antes que el servicio terminara

"There's Marcus Schouler," he muttered behind his mustache.

Marcus Schouler was the dentist's one intimate friend. The acquaintance had begun at the car conductors' coffee-joint, where the two occupied the same table and met at every meal. Then they made the discovery that they both lived in the same flat, Marcus occupying a room on the floor above McTeague. On different occasions McTeague had treated Marcus for an ulcerated tooth and had refused to accept payment. Soon it came to be an understood thing between them. They were "pals."

McTeague, listening, heard Marcus go up-stairs to his room above. In a few minutes his door opened again. McTeague knew that he had come out into the hall and was leaning over the banisters.

"Oh, Mac!" he called. McTeague came to his door… (Paragraphs from McTeague, chapter 1, by Frank Norris)

 

Vocabulario

Wiping: cleaning or drying (something) by using a towel, your hand, etc.

Wilting poppies: (español) amapolas marchitas.

Para saber

Polk Street es una calle en San Francisco, California, que va hacia el norte desde Market Street hasta Beach Street y es una de las principales vías del vecindario Polk Gulch, que atraviesa los vecindarios Tenderloin, Nob Hill y Russian Hill.

La calle también tiene carriles para bicicletas, que fueron aprobados en 2002.

Polk Street lleva el nombre de James Knox Polk, el undécimo presidente de los Estados Unidos (1845-1849).

De la web

McTeague, to listen from Librivox

McTeague, un resumen de la historia de Frank Norris que cualquier director quisiera filmar.

Artículos relacionados

… recibió su nombre en 1849 durante la fiebre del oro, después que 13 pioneros murieran en una expedición… McTeague

… la vida no es tanto un inevitable progreso hacia la muerte sino más bien una serie de constantes renacimientos… Henderson the Rain King

No podía ir a la universidad, así que fui a la biblioteca tres días a la semana durante 10 años… Adiós a Ray Bradbury

Fuentes

Polk Street, Wikipedia