The
Death of Ivan Ilyich (La
muerte de Ivan Ilyich), es una novela corta del ruso León Tolstoi,
escrita después de su conversión religiosa a fines de la década de 1870.
Cuenta la historia de un juez, y sus sufrimientos y
muerte, de una enfermedad terminal, en la
Rusia del siglo 19.
Ponemos unos
párrafos (en inglés) de la novela y buscamos los términos piquancy y obeisance. También investigamos
sobre los Piccadilly whiskers.
Paragraphs
… At the entrance stood a carriage and two cabs.
Leaning against the wall in the hall downstairs near the cloakstand was a
coffin-lid covered with cloth of gold, ornamented with gold cord and tassels,
that had been polished up with metal powder. Two ladies in black were taking
off their fur cloaks. Peter Ivanovich recognized one of them as Ivan Ilych's
sister, but the other was a stranger to him. His colleague Schwartz was just
coming downstairs, but on seeing Peter Ivanovich enter he stopped and winked at
him, as if to say: "Ivan Ilych has made a mess of things --not like you
and me."
Schwartz's face with his Piccadilly whiskers, and his slim figure in evening dress,
had as usual an air of elegant solemnity which contrasted with the playfulness
of his character and had a special piquancy here, or so
it seemed to Peter Ivanovich.
Peter Ivanovich allowed the ladies to precede him
and slowly followed them upstairs. Schwartz did not come down but remained
where he was, and Peter Ivanovich understood that he wanted to arrange where
they should play bridge that evening. The ladies went upstairs to the widow's
room, and Schwartz with seriously compressed lips but a playful look in his
eyes, indicated by a twist of his eyebrows the room to the right where the body
lay.
Peter Ivanovich, like everyone else on such
occasions, entered feeling uncertain what he would have to do. All he knew was
that at such times it is always safe to cross oneself. But he was not quite
sure whether one should make obseisances while
doing so. He therefore adopted a middle course. On entering the room he began
crossing himself and made a slight movement resembling a bow. At the same time,
as far as the motion of his head and arm allowed, he surveyed the room. Two
young men --apparently nephews, one of whom was a high-school pupil --were
leaving the room, crossing themselves as they did so. An old woman was standing
motionless, and a lady with strangely arched eyebrows was saying something to
her in a whisper. A vigorous, resolute Church Reader, in a frock-coat, was
reading something in a loud voice with an expression that precluded any
contradiction. The butler's assistant, Gerasim, stepping lightly in front of
Peter Ivanovich, was strewing something on the floor. Noticing this, Peter
Ivanovich was immediately aware of a faint odour of a decomposing body.
The last time he had called on Ivan Ilych, Peter
Ivanovich had seen Gerasim in the study. Ivan Ilych had been particularly fond
of him and he was performing the duty of a sick nurse.
Peter Ivanovich continued to make the sign of the
cross slightly inclining his head in an intermediate direction between the
coffin, the Reader, and the icons on the table in a corner of the room.
Afterwards, when it seemed to him that this movement of his arm in crossing
himself had gone on too long, he stopped and began to look at the corpse.
The dead man lay, as dead men always lie, in a
specially heavy way, his rigid limbs sunk in the soft cushions of the coffin,
with the head forever bowed on the pillow. His yellow waxen brow with bald
patches over his sunken temples was thrust up in the way peculiar to the dead,
the protruding nose seeming to press on the upper lip. He was much changed and
grown even thinner since Peter Ivanovich had last seen him, but, as is always
the case with the dead, his face was handsomer and above all more dignified
than when he was alive. The expression on the face said that what was necessary
had been accomplished, and accomplished rightly. Besides this there was in that
expression a reproach and a warning to the living. This warning seemed to Peter
Ivanovich out of place, or at least not applicable to him. He felt a certain
discomfort and so he hurriedly crossed himself once more and turned and went
out of the door --too hurriedly and too regardless of propriety, as he himself
was aware.
Schwartz was waiting for him in the adjoining room
with legs spread wide apart and both hands toying with his top-hat behind his
back. The mere sight of that playful, well-groomed, and elegant figure
refreshed Peter Ivanovich. He felt that Schwartz was above all these happenings
and would not surrender to any depressing influences… (The Death of Ivan Ilyich,
to listen to the story from LibriVox)
Vocabulario
Piquancy:
interest and excitement, especially because of being mysterious.
He ended the relationship, which lends a certain piquancy to her new status as his boss.
Obeisance /obísans/:
a movement of the body made in token of respect or submission. Bow.
After making his obeisances he
approached the altar.
Whisker:
a hair of the beard. Mustache.
Bigotes, patillas, barba.
¡Hermosos Piccadilly whiskers! |
Para saber
Durante el siglo 19 se hicieron populares los Piccadilly weepers. Estos eran
pelos a los costados de la cara, muy largos y cuidadosamente peinados, usados
sin barba.
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