| Capítulo 14 |
| Spy-glass | Pequeño telescopio, catalejo. | |
| Seegars | Cigars, cigarros | |
| It was all up with him | Que todo se había terminado para él | |
| Anyway it could be fixed | Como quiera que se resolviera o decidiera la cosa.
Apareció en el capítulo 13 con más significados. |
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| A level-head | To be level-headed: "ser tranquilo, equilibrado, bien dispuesto". | |
| Gaudy | Alegre, colorido, llamativo y vulgar, chillón. Hortera. | |
| Jim's eyes bugged out. | Bug en EE UU y dicho de los ojos: saltones, que sobresalen. | |
| Gay | Alegre y descuidado, dado a los placeres. | |
| Hawking | Falconry, cetrería. | |
| We skipped out | To skip out: to spring or move lightly. Se asomaron de un salto, ágilmente. | |
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Bo'd'n-house | Podría ser boarding-house, "pensión, casa de huéspedes (EE UU)" |
| Rackety times | Racket: alboroto, jaleo. | |
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Nussery | ¿Será nursery? Más adelante en el capítulo Jim parece dar por hecho que muchas mujeres significan aún más niños, "'bout five million chillen runnin' roun' de house". |
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Blimblammin' | Debe ser barullo, jaleo, alboroto. |
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Biler-factry | Aquí sí que me han pillado. Lo único que puedo apuntar es que en el capítulo 12 quedamos de acuerdo que "bile" es "boil" en dialecto. Pero boiler puede ser muchas cosas, desde un calentador a una tina para hervir la ropa y lavarla. Esto es seguramente una metáfora para mencionar algo muy ruidoso o que causa gran alboroto. Pero no sé más. |
| Dad-fetched(dest) | Dad debe ser aquí "Dios" (después dice Dad
blame it). Es un intensificador como goddamned. "El comportamiento
más alucinante, más raro, etc.".
La terminación -est es un superlativo, probablemente no muy correcto: the most fetched ways. Para más significados de to fetch, ver capítulo 11. |
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| Stump | El muñón de árbol que queda en el suelo cuando se corta el resto. | |
| Gumption | Coraje, valor para hacer algo. | |
| Dern | Damn. I wouldn't give a damn / a dern. "No daría nada
por ello, no me interesa para nada.
Not to give a damn: No interesarse o preocuparse. |
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Blame the pint
Pint |
Blame the pint! es una maldición: "¡Maldita sea!".
Pint parece ser equivalente a "historia": Don't tell me about your pints! The real pint is down further. Posiblemente sea la pronunciación de Jim para point, ya que ambos términos siempre aparecen juntos en el tema. |
| (I) let Solomon slide | To let it slide: Pasar del tema, "dejé que Salomón siguiera su camino". | |
| Jabber | Parlotear, hablar muy rápido y sin sentido. | |
| Incluyo aquí algunas expresiones que
no siempre viene a cuento traducir pero que resultan interesantes por su
fuerza expresiva.
El significado suele ser más o menos evidente. |
| (He) doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain | ||
| He as soon chop a chile in two as a cat | Igual le da cortar en dos a un niño que a un gato | |
| I be ding-busted | Otra maldición, "¡maldita sea!", "¡que me aspen!", etc. | |
| Aquí reproduzco un pasaje de obligadísima lectura. |
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Aquí va el capítulo entero. |
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By-and-by, when we got up, we turned over the truck the gang had stole off the wreck, and found boots, and blankets, and clothes, and all sorts of other things, and a lot of books, and a spyglass, and three boxes of seegars. We hadn't ever been this rich before, in neither of our lives. The seegars was prime. We laid off all the afternoon in the woods talking, and me reading the books, and having a general good time. I told Jim all about what happened inside the wreck, and at the ferryboat; and I said these kinds of things was adventures; but he said he didn't want no more adventures. He said that when I went in the texas, and he crawled back to get on the raft and found her gone, he nearly died, because he judged it was all up with him, anyway it could be fixed; for if he didn't get saved he would get drownded; and if he did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back home so as to get the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him South, sure. Well, he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head, for a nigger. I read considerable to Jim about kings, and dukes, and earls, and such, and how gaudy they dressed, and how much style they put on, and called each other your majesty, and your grace, and your lordship, and so on, 'stead of mister; and Jim's eyes bugged out, and he was interested. He says: "I didn't know dey was so many un um. I hain't hearn 'bout none un um, skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat's in a pack er k'yards. How much do a king git?" "Get?" I says; "why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to them." "Ain't dat gay? En what dey got to do, Huck?" "They don't do nothing! Why, how you talk! They just set around." "No - is dat so?" "Of course it is. They just set around. Except maybe when there's a war; then they go to the war. But other times they just lazy around; or go hawking - just hawking and sp - Sh! - d' you hear a noise?" We skipped out and looked; but it warn't nothing but the flutter of a steamboat's wheel, away down coming around the point; so we come back. "Yes," says I, "and other times, when things is dull, they fuss with the parlyment; and if everybody don't go just so he whacks their heads off. But mostly they hang round the harem." "Roun' de which?" "Harem." "What's de harem?" "The place where he keeps his wives. Don't you know about the harem? Solomon had one; he had about a million wives." "Why, yes, dat's so; I - I'd done forgot it. A harem's a bo'd'n-house, I reck'n. Mos' likely dey has rackety times in de nussery. En I reck'n de wives quarrels considable; en dat 'crease de racket. Yit dey say Sollermun de wises' man dat ever live'. I doan' take no stock in dat. Bekase why: would a wise man want to live in de mids' er sich a blimblammin' all de time? No - 'deed he wouldn't. A wise man 'ud take en buil' a biler-factry; en den he could shet down de biler-factry when he want to res'." "Well, but he was the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told me so her own self." "I doan k'yer what de widder say, he warn't no wise man, nuther. He had some er de dad-fetchedes' ways I ever see. Does you know 'bout dat chile dat he 'uz gwyne to chop in two?" "Yes, the widow told me all about it." "Well, den! Warn' dat de beatenes' notion in de worl'? You jes' take en look at it a minute. Dah's de stump, dah - dat's one er de women; heah's you - dat's de yuther one; I's Sollermun; en dish-yer dollar bill's de chile. Bofe un you claims it. What does I do? Does I shin aroun' mongs' de neighbours en fine out which un you de bill do b'long to, en han' it over to de right one, all safe en soun', de way dat anybody dat had any gumption would? No - I take en whack de bill in two, en give half un it to you, en de yuther half to de yuther woman. Dat's de way Sollermun was gwyne to do wid de chile. Now I want to ast you: what's de use er dat half a bill? - can't buy noth'n wid it. En what use is a half a chile? I wouldn' give a dern for a million un um." "But hang it, Jim, you've clean missed the point - blame it, you've missed it a thousand mile." "Who? Me? Go 'long. Doan' talk to me 'bout yo' pints. I reck'n I knows sense when I sees it; en dey ain' no sense in sich doin's as dat. De 'spute warn't 'bout a half a chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole chile; en de man dat think he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole chile wid a half a chile, doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain. Doan' talk to me 'bout Sollermun, Huck. I knows him by de back." "But I tell you you don't get the point." "Blame de pint! I reck'n I knows what I knows. En mine you, de real pint is down furder - it's down deeper. It lays in de way Sollermun was raised. You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man gwyne to be waseful o' chillen? No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it. He know how to value 'em. But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt. He as soon chop a chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'. A chile er two, mo' er less, warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fetch him!" I never see such a nigger. If he got a notion in his head once, there warn't no getting it out again. He was the most down on Solomon of any nigger I ever see. So I went to talking about other kings, and let Solomon slide. I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that would a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say he died there. "Po' little chap." "But some says he got out and got away, and come to America." "Dat's good! But he'll be pooty lonesome - dey ain' no kings here, is dey, Huck?" "No." "Den he cain't git no situation. What he gwyne to do?" "Well, I don't know. Some of them gets on the police, and some of them learns people how to talk French." "Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?" "No, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said - not a single word." "Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?" "I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy - what would you think?" "I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head. Dat is, if he warn't white. I wouldn' 'low no nigger to call me dat." "Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying, do you know how to talk French" "Well, den, why couldn't he say it?" "Why, he is a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's way of saying it." "Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it." "Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?" "No, a cat don't." "Well, does a cow?" "No, a cow don't, nuther." "Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?" "No, dey don't." "It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?" "Course." "And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?" "Why, mos' sholy it is." "Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that." "Is a cat a man, Huck?" "No." "Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a man? - er is a cow a cat?" "No, she ain't either of them." "Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?" "Yes." "Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he talk like a man? You answer me dat!" I see it warn't no use wasting words - you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit. |
Algunos ejemplos del "Missouri Negro Dialect" |
Pongo aquí algunas equivalencias con el inglés standard. Ast, I want to ast you: Ask, I want to ask you. Bekase: Because. Bofe un you: Both of you. Chile: Child. (Mira, ya sabes lo que dice Hendrix cuando canta "Voodoo chile" y Highway chile"). Dish-yer: This here (forma no muy correcta de decir "éste que está aquí"). He'uz gwyne to: He was going to. K'yards: Cards (naipes). K'yer, I doan' k'yer: Care, I don't care. Mine you: Mind you. Nuff'n: Nothing. Pooty lonesome: Pretty lonesome. Sholy: Surely. So many un um: So many of them. Skasely: Scarcely. Yuther: Other. |
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