How
the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed Himself es parte de una
serie de cuentos de Carl Sandburg, llamados
Rootabaga Stories (1922). El libro tiene
cuentos interrelacionados para chicos. En el cuento Sandburg algunas veces usa lenguaje sin sentido. Originalmente fue creado
para sus hijas.
En vocabulario encontramos yodeling, yister, lingering, thimble.
Some of the people who pass by here going into the postoffice and coming out, they have eyes—but they see nothing with their eyes. They look where they are going and they get where they wish to get, but they forget why they came and they do not know how to come away…
Párrafos
On a Friday morning when the flummywisters were yodeling yisters
high in the elm trees, the Potato Face Blind Man came down to his work sitting
at the corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of Liver-and-Onions and
playing his gold-that-used-to-be accordion for the pleasure of the ears of the
people going into the postoffice to see if they got any letters for themselves
or their families.
“It is a good day, a lucky day,” said the Potato
Face Blind Man, “because for a beginning I have heard high in the elm trees the
flummywisters yodeling their yisters in the long branches of the lingering leaves. So—so—I am going to listen to myself
playing on my accordion the same yisters, the same yodels, drawing them like
long glad breathings out of my glad accordion, long breathings of the branches
of the lingering leaves.”
And he sat down in his chair. On the sleeve of his
coat he tied a sign, “I Am Blind Too.” On the top button of his coat he hung a
little thimble. On the bottom button of his coat he
hung a tin copper cup. On the middle button he hung a wooden mug. By the side
of him on the left side on the sidewalk he put a galvanized iron washtub, and on
the right side an aluminum dishpan.
“It is a good day, a lucky day, and I am sure many
people will stop and remember the Potato Face Blind Man,” he sang to himself
like a little song as he began running his fingers up and down the keys of the
accordion like the yisters of the lingering leaves in the elm trees.
Then came Pick Ups. Always it happened Pick Ups
asked questions and wished to know. And so this is how the questions and
answers ran when the Potato Face filled the ears of Pick Ups with explanations.
“What is the piece you are playing on the keys of
your accordion so fast sometimes, so slow sometimes, so sad some of the
moments, so glad some of the moments?”
“It is the song the mama flummywisters sing when
they button loose the winter underwear of the baby flummywisters and sing:
“Fly, you little flummies,
Sing, you little wisters.”
“And why do you have a little thimble on the top
button of your coat?”
“That is for the dimes to be put in. Some people see
it and say, ‘Oh, I must put in a whole thimbleful of dimes.’”
“And the tin copper cup?”
“That is for the baseball players to stand off ten
feet and throw in nickels and pennies. The one who throws the most into the cup
will be the most lucky.”
“And the wooden mug?”
“There is a hole in the bottom of it. The hole is as
big as the bottom. The nickel goes in and comes out again. It is for the very
poor people who wish to give me a nickel and yet get the nickel back.”
“The aluminum dishpan and the galvanized iron
washtub—what are they doing by the side of you on both sides on the sidewalk?”
“Sometime maybe it will happen everybody who goes
into the postoffice and comes out will stop and pour out all their money,
because they might get afraid their money is no good any more. If such a
happening ever happens then it will be nice for the people to have some place
to pour their money. Such is the explanation why you see the aluminum dishpan
and galvanized iron tub.”
“Explain your sign—why is it, ‘I Am Blind Too.’”
“Oh, I am sorry to explain to you, Pick Ups, why
this is so which. Some of the people who pass by here going into the
postoffice and coming out, they have eyes—but they see nothing with their eyes.
They look where they are going and they get where they wish to get, but they
forget why they came and they do not know how to come away. They are my
blind brothers. It is for them I have the sign that reads, ‘I Am Blind Too.’”…
(Paragraphs from Rootabaga Stories,
by Carl Sandburg)
Vocabulario
Lingering:
surviving.
Yodeling:
When
a singer holds a long note while wavering between their regular voice and their
high falsetto voice, they’re yodeling.
Yister:
The one sock that falls on the ground while you are transferring your laundry
from the washer to the dryer, and has to be rewashed by itself.
Thimble:
a small metal or plastic cap with a closed end, worn to protect the finger and
push the needle in sewing.
De la web
Rootabaga Stories,
to read more about Rootabaga Stories
from Wikipedia
Rootabaga Stories,
audio from Librivox
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