A Chameleon

A Chameleon (Un camaleón) es un cuento de Anton Chekhov. El oficial cambia de opinión de acuerdo a la conveniencia del momento. Todo un camaleón.

En vocabulario buscamos muzzle y reemplazamos forementioned para facilitar la lectura.

Más abajo ponemos una foto de la década de 1870 de un cargamento de madera.

 

… and sees a dog, moving on three legs and looking about her, run out of Pitchugin's timber-yard.

 

Transporte de madera en Albany

 

Introducción

The Chameleon es un cuento de Anton Chekhov, publicado en 1884 en la revista Oskolki.

Khryukin es mordido en el dedo (según un testigo, después de tirarle una colilla de cigarrillo). La actitud del policía Ochyumelov hacia el asunto y el destino futuro del perro fluctúa dependiendo de la información que llegue sobre quién podría ser el dueño del culpable.

Paragraphs

… THE police superintendent Otchumyelov is walking across the market square wearing a new overcoat and carrying a parcel under his arm. A red-haired policeman strides after him with a sieve full of confiscated gooseberries in his hands. There is silence all around. Not a soul in the square... The open doors of the shops and taverns look out upon God's world disconsolately, like hungry mouths; there is not even a beggar near them.

"So you bite, you damned brute?" Otchumyelov hears suddenly. "Lads, don't let him go! Biting is prohibited nowadays! Hold him! ah... ah!"

There is the sound of a dog yelping. Otchumyelov looks in the direction of the sound and sees a dog, moving on three legs and looking about her, run out of Pitchugin's timber-yard. A man in a correct cotton shirt, with his waistcoat unbuttoned, is chasing her. He runs after her, and throwing his body forward falls down and seizes the dog by her hind legs. Once more there is a yelping and a shout of "Don't let go!" Sleepy countenances are protruded from the shops, and soon a crowd, which seems to have sprung out of the earth, is gathered round the timber-yard.

"It looks like a row, your honour..." says the policeman.

Otchumyelov makes a half turn to the left and strides towards the crowd.

He sees the said man in the unbuttoned waistcoat standing close by the gate of the timber-yard, holding his right hand in the air and displaying a bleeding finger to the crowd. On his half-drunken face there is plainly written: "I'll pay you out, you rogue!" and indeed the very finger has the look of a flag of victory. In this man Otchumyelov recognises Hryukin, the goldsmith. The offender who has caused the sensation, a white borzoy puppy with a sharp muzzle and a yellow patch on her back, is sitting on the ground with her fore-paws outstretched in the middle of the crowd, trembling all over. There is an expression of misery and terror in her tearful eyes.

"What's it all about?" Otchumyelov inquires, pushing his way through the crowd. "What are you here for? Why are you waving your finger...? Who was it shouted?"

"I was walking along here, not interfering with anyone, your honour," Hryukin begins, coughing into his fist. "I was talking about firewood to Mitry Mitritch, when this low brute for no rhyme or reason bit my finger... You must excuse me, I am a working man... Mine is fine work. I must have damages, for I shan't be able to use this finger for a week, may be... It's not even the law, your honour, that one should put up with it from a beast... If everyone is going to be bitten, life won't be worth living...” (A Chameleon, by Anton Chekhov in easier English.)

Vocabulario

Muzzle: the mouth and nose of an animal, especially a dog.

Muzzle: hocico.

The dog is white with a black muzzle and ears.

Palabras reemplazadas

Said: Aforementioned.

Artículos relacionados

Las calles de Moscú fueron testigos del pequeño mendigo que junto a su padre pedían algunas monedas para sobrevivir. Al acomodarse… Oysters

Se opuso al régimen zarista y por un tiempo estuvo asociado con Vladimir Lenin… Máximo Gorki

El carpintero, que había sido soldado en la guerra civil, habló sobre construir una plataforma para… El libro de lo grotesco