El diccionario de Huckleberry Finn

Capítulo 3

	I got a good going over	Going over: Informal. A check, examination, investigation. A castigation or trashing. Collins.
	to scold	To find fault with or reprimand (a person) harshly. Collins.
	I set down, one time, in the woods	Ver Capítulos 1 y 2. Lo pongo otra vez porque es una de las veces en que más claramente me parece que significa "sentarse" (I sat down…)
	The money he lost on pork	El dinero que perdió con la carne de cerdo, en el negocio de la carne de cerdo.
	To fat up. Why can't Miss Watson fat up?	Engordar. "Up" enfatiza la intensidad o el buen término de la acción.
	Snuff-box	Cajita para tabaco de esnifar
	Miss Watson would take hold, to take hold	Hacerse con el mando o el control
	A poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow's providence.	"Show" significa aquí "oportunidad" (tener una oportunidad). "To stand a chance" es precisamente tener una oportunidad.
	kind of low-down and ornery	Ornery fue una de las primeras palabras que me provocaron una gran curiosidad al leer el libro. Según Collins: Ornery. Dialect or informal: U.S. Stubborn or vile tempered. U.S.: Low, treacherous, an ornery trick. Ordinary (alteration of the word). Low-down: Informal. Mean, underhand or despicable.
	he used to whale me	To beat or trash soundly. (Pegar una paliza, vamos).
	take to (the woods)	To make for. To flee to. (Irse, escapar a algún sitio concreto, aquí es el bosque).
	hog-drovers	Drover es quien se ocupa de conducir el ganado, especialmente al mercado. Aquí se trata de ganado porcino (como más arriba).
	hived, we never hived any of them	To hive es almacenar, guardar para después. Debe referirse a que nunca los encerraron (a los campesinos que iban al mercado) en cuevas para pedir rescate, como había dicho Tom que harían.
	we would go to the cave and pow-wow over what we had done	Esto es muy bueno y pongo todo lo que dice el Collins: pow+wow: Nombre. 1. A talk, conference, or meeting. 2. A magical ceremony of certain North American Indians, ususally accompanied by festing and dancing. 3. (Among certain North American Indians) a medicine man. 4. a meeting of or negotiation with North American Indians. Verbo. 5. Intransitivo. To hold a powwow (From Algonquian; related to Natick "pauwau" one who practices magic, Narrangsett "powwaw".
	Esto es raro: a thousand 'sumter' mules	Tendrá que ser "Sumpter", término arcaico para caballo de tiro, mula y otros animales usados para cargar.
	(to) scoop the things	Scoop es una palita pequeña y honda para coger harina y otras cosas de ese tipo. Tambien es coger con ese utensilio o de forma similar. Y, entre otras sentidos, tiene el de obtener un repentinamente un gran beneficio.
	He said we must slick up our swords and guns, and get ready	Slick up : to make smooth and glossy. Sacar brillo a las espadas y pistolas.
	have the swords and guns all scoured up for it	clean or polish by washing and rubbing. To remove dirt from. Limpiar frotando y lavando. Quitar la suciedad.
	lath	Listones de madera
	to be on hand	Estar presente, estar localizable o cerca.
	a tract	Tract: a treatise or pamphlet, especially a religious or moralistic one. Del latín tractatus, tratado. (Collins). Un panfleto de tipo religioso o moralista. (según la RAE, la palabra española –libelo difamatorio, opúsculo agresivo– deriva de la inglesa pamphlet)..
	The teacher made us drop everything and cut	Cut aquí es irse, desaparecer de allí.
	just out of spite	Cuando haces algo out of spite (respecto de alguien), significa que lo haces porque odias a esta persona o para vengarte de ella.
	numskull	O numbskull: stupid person, dolt, blockhead.
	hash you up like nothing	Hash you up: te hacen picadillo (como si nada)
	they come tearing in	Que irrumpen a toda velocidad o con gran furia.
	who makes them tear around so?	Similar, supongo.
	I lay I'd make that man climb the highest tree	To lay es aquí hacer una apuesta. Más adelante en el libro, Jim enfadado usa de nuevo esa expresión: "I lay I make you mine!" (la cursiva es del texto original)
	Sap-head	a simpleton, idiot, or fool.
	an Injun	Indian. Un indio.
	flatheads	Aquí sin duda es otra forma más de decir "estúpido" pero además es un pez: any Pacific sorpaenoid food fish of the family Platycephalidae, which resemble gurnards (Collins). La escorpina, por ejemplo.
	shot-tower	Según Collins, una torre que se usaba para producir la munición, enfriando el plomo fundido en agua para ello.

Incluyo aquí algunas expresiones que no viene a cuento traducir pero que resultan interesantes por su fuerza expresiva. Hago algún comentario pero el significado viene dado por sí mismo.

If a body can get anything…	Body usado como individuo. "Si un tipo puede conseguir…" Es muy común en el libro.
No, says I to myself.	No, me dije…
As I took it.	Tal como yo lo ví.
To hop out of the woods
you might scour at them till you rotted	Me gusta esta frase por lo bruta que es en cierta forma y me pregunto si el "at them" es correcto o añade algo de vehemencia al asunto.
They warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more than what they was before
hash you up like nothing before you could say Jack Robinson
as big around as a church
they come tearing in
They up and do it
If i was one of them I would see a man in Jericho before I drop my business
I sweat like an Injun
They've got to do it before sun-up next morning, too

Aquí reproduzco un pasaje de obligadísima lectura.

Tom y su banda han asaltado una caravana de españoles y árabes con camellos y elefantes cargados de diamantes. Huck, después de la batalla, sostiene que la tal caravana le pareció a él un grupo de escolares de pic-nic. Tom le habla de Don Quijote y sugiere a Huck que ha sido víctima de un encantamiento. La conversación siguiente versa sobre magos y genios encerrados en lámparas.

– Why, they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring and then the genies come tearing in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the smoke a-rolling, and everything they are told to, they up and do it. They don't think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with it – or any other man.
– Who makes them tear around so?
– Why, whoever rubs the lamp or the ring. They belong to whoever rubs the lamp or the ring, and they've got to do whatever he says.If he tells them to build a palace forty miles long, out of di'monds, and fill it full of chewing-gum, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor's daughter from China for you to marry, they've got to do it – and they've got to do it before sun-up next morning too. And more – they've got to waltz the palace around over the country wherever you want it, you understand.
– Well, says I, i think they are a pack of flatheads for not keeping the palace to themselves 'stead of fooling them away like that. And what's more – if I was one of them I would see a man in Jericho before I would drop my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp.
– How you talk, Huck Finn.Why, you'd have to come when he rubbed it, wether you wanted to or not.
– What, and I as high as a tree and as big as a church? All right, then: would come; but I lay I'd make that man climb the highest tree there was in the country.
– Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn. You don't seem to know anything, somehow – perfect sap-head
I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckoned I would see if there was anything in it. I got an old tin lamp and an iron ring and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn't no use, none of the genies come. So then I judged that all that stuff was only just one of Tom Sawyer's lies. I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different. It had all the marks of a Sunday-school.

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