Page 89 - Orwell, George - Nineteen eighty-four -bilingüe [pdf]

George Orwell 1 9 8 4 88

era hablar en sueños. Contra eso no había
remedio.

He drew his breath and went on writing: Contuvo la respiración y siguió escribiendo:

I went with her through the doorway and across a Entré con ella en el portal y cruzamos un patio
backyard into a basement kitchen. There was a bed para bajar luego a una cocina que estaba en los
against the wall, and a lamp on the table, turned sótanos. Había una cama contra la pared, y una
down very low. She— lámpara en la mesilla con muy poca luz. Ella...

His teeth were set on edge. He would have liked to Le rechinaban los dientes. Le hubiera gustado
spit. Simultaneously with the woman in the escupir. A la vez que en la mujer del sótano,
basement kitchen he thought of Katharine, his pensó Winston en Katharine, su esposa. Winston
wife. Winston was married—had been married, at estaba casado; es decir, había estado casado.
any rate: probably he still was married, so far as he Probablemente seguía estándolo, pues no sabía
knew his wife was not dead. He seemed to breathe que su mujer hubiera muerto. Le pareció volver a
again the warm stuffy odour of the basement aspirar el insoportable olor de la cocina del
kitchen, an odour compounded of bugs and dirty sótano, un olor a insectos, ropa sucia y perfume
clothes and villainous cheap scent, but baratísimo; pero, sin embargo, atraía, ya que
nevertheless alluring, because no woman of the ninguna mujer del Partido usaba perfume ni podía
Party ever used scent, or could be imagined as uno imaginársela perfumándose. Solamente los
doing so. Only the proles used scent. In his mind proles se perfumaban, y ese olor evocaba en la
the smell of it was inextricably mixed up with mente, de un modo inevitable, la fornicación.
fornication.

When he had gone with that woman it had been his Cuando estuvo con aquella mujer, fue la primera
first lapse in two years or thereabouts. Consorting vez que había caído Winston en dos años
with prostitutes was forbidden, of course, but it aproximadamente. Por supuesto, toda relación
was one of those rules that you could occasionally con prostitutas estaba prohibida, pero se admitía
nerve yourself to break. It was dangerous, but it que alguna vez, mediante un acto de gran
was not a life-and-death matter. To be caught with valentía, se permitiera uno infringir la ley. Era
a prostitute might mean five years in a forced- peligroso pero no un asunto de vida o muerte,
labour camp: not more, if you had committed no porque ser sorprendido con una prostituta sólo
other offence. And it was easy enough, provided significaba cinco años de trabajos forzados.
that you could avoid being caught in the act. The Nunca más de cinco años con tal de que no se
poorer quarters swarmed with women who were hubiera cometido otro delito a la vez. Lo cual
ready to sell themselves. Some could even be resultaba estupendo ya que había la posibilidad
purchased for a bottle of gin, which the proles de que no le descubrieran a uno. Los barrios
were not supposed to drink. Tacitly the Party was pobres abundaban en mujeres dispuestas a
even inclined to encourage prostitution, as an venderse. El precio de algunas era una botella de
outlet for instincts which could not be altogether ginebra, bebida que se suministraba a los proles.
suppressed. Mere debauchery did not matter very Tácitamente, el Partido se inclinaba a estimular la
much, so long as it was furtive and joyless and prostitución como salida de los instintos que no
only involved the women of a submerged and podían suprimirse. Esas juergas no importaban
despised class. The unforgivable crime was políticamente ya que eran furtivas y tristes y sólo
promiscuity between Party members. But—though implicaban a mujeres de una clase sumergida y
this was one of the crimes that the accused in the despreciada. El crimen imperdonable era la
great purges invariably confessed to—it was promiscuidad entre miembros del Partido. Pero