Page 274 - Orwell, George - Nineteen eighty-four -bilingüe [pdf]

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bone at the base of his spine. There were times costillas, en el vientre, en los codos, en las
when it went on and on until the cruel, wicked, espinillas, en los testículos y en la base de la
unforgivable thing seemed to him not that the columna vertebral. A veces gritaba pidiendo
guards continued to beat him but that he could not misericordia incluso antes de que empezaran a
force himself into losing consciousness. There were pegarle y bastaba con que un puño hiciera el
times when his nerve so forsook him that he began movimiento de retroceso precursor del golpe para
shouting for mercy even before the beating began, que confesara todos los delitos, verdaderos o
when the mere sight of a fist drawn back for a blow imaginarios, de que le acusaban. Otras veces,
was enough to make him pour forth a confession of cuando se decidía a no contestar nada, tenían que
real and imaginary crimes. There were other times sacarle las palabras entre alaridos de dolor y en
when he started out with the resolve of confessing otras ocasiones se decía a sí mismo, dispuesto a
nothing, when every word had to be forced out of transigir: «Confesaré, pero todavía no. Tengo que
him between gasps of pain, and there were times resistir hasta que el dolor sea insoportable. Tres
when he feebly tried to compromise, when he said golpes más, dos golpes más y les diré lo que
to himself: ‘I will confess, but not yet. I must hold quieran». Cuando te golpeaban hasta dejarlo tirado
out till the pain becomes unbearable. Three more como un saco de patatas en el suelo de piedra para
kicks, two more kicks, and then I will tell them que recobrara alguna energía, al cabo de varias
what they want.’ Sometimes he was beaten till he horas volvían a buscarlo y le pegaban otra vez.
could hardly stand, then flung like a sack of También había períodos más largos de descanso.
potatoes on to the stone floor of a cell, left to Los recordaba confusamente porque los pasaba
recuperate for a few hours, and then taken out and adormilado o con el conocimiento casi perdido. Se
beaten again. There were also longer periods of acordaba de que un barbero había ido a afeitarle la
recovery. He remembered them dimly, because barba al rape y algunos hombres de actitud
they were spent chiefly in sleep or stupor. He profesional, con batas blancas, le tomaban el pulso,
remembered a cell with a plank bed, a sort of shelf le observaban sus movimientos reflejos, le
sticking out from the wall, and a tin wash-basin, levantaban los párpados y le recorrían el cuerpo
and meals of hot soup and bread and sometimes con dedos rudos en busca de huesos rotos o le
coffee. He remembered a surly barber arriving to ponían inyecciones en el brazo para hacerle
scrape his chin and crop his hair, and businesslike, dormir.
unsympathetic men in white coats feeling his pulse,
tapping his reflexes, turning up his eyelids, running
harsh fingers over him in search for broken bones,
and shooting needles into his arm to make him
sleep.

The beatings grew less frequent, and became Las palizas se hicieron menos frecuentes y
mainly a threat, a horror to which he could be sent quedaron reducidas casi únicamente a amenazas, a
back at any moment when his answers were anunciarle un horror al que le enviarían en cuanto
unsatisfactory. His questioners now were not sus respuestas no fueran satisfactorias. Los que le
ruffians in black uniforms but Party intellectuals, interrogaban no eran ya rufianes con uniformes
little rotund men with quick movements and negros, sino intelectuales del Partido, hombrecillos
flashing spectacles, who worked on him in relays regordetes con movimientos rápidos y gafas
over periods which lasted—he thought, he could brillantes que se relevaban para «trabajarlo» en
not be sure—ten or twelve hours at a stretch. These turnos que duraban — no estaba seguro — diez o
other questioners saw to it that he was in constant doce horas. Estos otros interrogadores procuraban
slight pain, but it was not chiefly pain that they que se hallase sometido a un dolor leve, pero
relied on. They slapped his face, wrung his ears, constante, aunque ellos no se basaban en el dolor
pulled his hair, made him stand on one leg, refused para hacerle confesar. Le daban bofetadas, le
him leave to urinate, shone glaring lights in his face retorcían las orejas, le tiraban del pelo, le hacían
until his eyes ran with water; but the aim of this sostenerse en una sola pierna, le negaban el