That Gay, Grey Gang

How to be a difficult old man in spite of your age

That Gay, Grey Gang es una historia que apareció en la revista Esquire, en la edición de mayo de 1954. La historia es corta, pero efectiva. Un hombre cuenta su idea sobre los años, la gente mayor. Señala que puede excusarse de hacer muchas cosas de la casa con la idea de que es demasiado viejo, está enfermo o no escucha bien. Con mucho humor el cuento, That Gay, Grey Gang (en inglés), de Grady Johnson, se desarrolla en pocas páginas. Al final algo sobre josh…

In the space of ten seconds the other afternoon I became an old man. This unforeseen incredible event occurred, fortunately, in the presence of an understanding older person who assures me that it´s not bad at all. In fact, to hear him tell it, I should have got old years ago.

I was downtown and I had just bumped into my grey-haired neighbor, Mr. Calhoun, and he had asked me to carry some packages for him, when several pretty college girls, capering through a sorority initiation, approached us. From long habit I squared my shoulders and tried to catch their laughing eyes, but instead of receiving any pulse-quickening glances I heard one of them say, “Hiya, grandpa.” Sure that she was addressing Mr. Calhoun. I turned to josh him and saw that he had been standing out of their sight looking in the window of a sporting-goods store.

The Country of the Blind

Los sabios del lugar aconsejan que Nunez sea operado para extraerle los ojos, ya que estos interferían en la vida normal del recién llegado. Se le comunica esta sugerencia al protagonista quien por momentos siente que debe someterse para ser feliz con su nuevo amor. The Country of the Blind, de H. G. Wells…

But Nunez's manner of receiving the good news struck him as being cold and disappointing.

"One might think," he said, "from the tone you take, that you did not care for my daughter."

It was Medina-saroté who persuaded Nunez to face the blind surgeons.

"You do not want me," he said, "to lose my gift of sight?"

She shook her head.

"My world is sight."

Her head drooped lower.

"There are the beautiful things, the beautiful little things—the flowers, the lichens among the rocks, the lightness and softness on a piece of fur, the far sky with its drifting down of clouds, the sunsets and the stars. And there is you. For you alone it is good to have sight, to see your sweet, serene face, your kindly lips, your dear, beautiful hands folded together… It is these eyes of mine you won, these eyes that hold me to you, that these idiots seek. Instead, I must touch you, hear you, and never see you again. I must come under that roof of rock and stone and darkness, that horrible roof under which your imagination stoops… No; you would not have me do that?"

An upheaval

An upheaval (Un escándalo) es la historia de una dama rusa muy rica que revisa toda la casa en busca de su broche que se ha extraviado y de los sentimientos heridos de una gobernanta que siente que se ha invadido sin piedad su intimidad. An upheaval es un cuento de Anton Chekhov

"But, Liza, it's vile ... it's insulting," said Mashenka, breathless with indignation. "It's so mean, so low! What right had she to suspect me and to rummage in my things?"

"You are living with strangers, miss," sighed Liza. "Though you are a young lady, still you are ... as it were ... a servant.... It's not like living with your papa and mamma."

Mashenka threw herself on the bed and sobbed bitterly. Never in her life had she been subjected to such an outrage, never had she been so deeply insulted.... She, well-educated, refined, the daughter of a teacher, was suspected of theft; she had been searched like a street-walker! She could not imagine a greater insult. And to this feeling of resentment was added an oppressive dread of what would come next. All sorts of absurd ideas came into her mind. If they could suspect her of theft, then they might arrest her, strip her naked, and search her, then lead her through the street with an escort of soldiers, cast her into a cold, dark cell with mice and woodlice, exactly like the dungeon in which Princess Tarakanov was imprisoned. Who would stand up for her? Her parents lived far away in the provinces; they had not the money to come to her. In the capital she was as solitary as in a desert, without friends or kindred. They could do what they liked with her.

The Autobiography of J. G. Ballard

The Autobiography of J. G. Ballard es un excelente cuento dentro del género de ficción del británico J. G. Ballard, quien también fue autor de Crash y Empire of the Sun y del cuento "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan".

La idea es que alguien despierta una mañana para encontrarse solo en su casa, en su barrio y en su ciudad, sin luz eléctrica. Todos han desaparecido.

Nadie está en Shepperton, o Walton, o Londres. Aún en casa de su amiga no hay nadie. ¿Será el resultado de una epidemia? ¿Se habrá perdido la comunicación? Pasó por la desierta Piccadilly, atravesó Trafalgar Square en silencio, y se detuvo fuera de Buckingham Palace, que permanecía sin guardias.

Buscamos sobre Shepperton y en vocabulario encontramos power failure y mishap. Fijáte.

Unexpected Results

Donde Wooster se entera de algo aún más terrible que el casamiento entre Muriel y Alexander. ¿Y qué es esto de tomarse un stiff b.-and-s.? Al final se aclara un poco. De la pluma del británico P. G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Jeeves

I spun round. A chappie with a lot of stiff grey hair and a red sort of healthy face was standing there. Rather a formidable Johnnie, he looked, though quite peaceful at the moment.

"I want you to meet my husband, Mr. Wooster. Mr. Wooster is a friend of Bruce's, Alexander."

The old boy grasped my hand warmly, and that was all that kept me from hitting the floor in a heap. The place was rocking. Absolutely.

"So you know my nephew, Mr. Wooster," I heard him say. "I wish you would try to knock a little sense into him and make him quit this playing at painting. But I have an idea that he is steadying down. I noticed it first that night he came to dinner with us, my dear, to be introduced to you. He seemed altogether quieter and more serious. Something seemed to have sobered him. Perhaps you will give us the pleasure of your company at dinner to-night, Mr. Wooster? Or have you dined?"

I said I had. What I needed then was air, not dinner. I felt that I wanted to get into the open and think this thing out.

When I reached my apartment I heard Jeeves moving about in his lair. I called him.

"Jeeves," I said, "now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party. A stiff b.-and-s. first of all, and then I've a bit of news for you."

He came back with a tray and a long glass.

"Better have one yourself, Jeeves. You'll need it."

Dracula's Guest

Donde el protagonista, Jonathan Harker, observa el temor en los que lo rodean y se pregunta qué es Walpurgis nacht. Se encontrará envuelto en una aventura relacionada con el conde Drácula.

Dracula's Guest es un cuento que luego el autor, Bram Stoker, desarrollaría en su novela Drácula.

En vocabulario encontramos turnip.

The Nightingale and the Rose

El estudiante llora pues no puede conseguir una rosa roja para regalar a su novia. Algunos se burlan de él pero para el ruiseñor es un tema de vida o muerte. Conseguirá la rosa como sea aun arriesgando su propia vida.

De Oscar Wilde un hermoso cuento, The Nightingale and the Rose. En pocas páginas el autor logra llegar al corazón…

En vocabulario buscamos Nightingale, holm-oak tree, hyacinth, pomegranate, y daisy.

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 Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi es un cuento escrito por O. Henry (seudónimo de William Sydney Porter). Se trata de una joven pareja y sus intentos de comprar regalos para navidad con poca plata.

ONE dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by forcing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but fall down down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, cries, and smiles, with cries predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could try a ring. Also belonging to that was a card bearing the name “Mr. James Dillingham Young.”