Page 96 - Orwell, George - Nineteen eighty-four -bilingüe [pdf]

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horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was hijos, las mezquinas peleas entre vecinos, el cine,
not difficult. A few agents of the Thought Police el fútbol, la cerveza y sobre todo, el juego,
moved always among them, spreading false llenaban su horizonte mental. No era difícil
rumours and marking down and eliminating the few mantenerlos a raya. Unos cuantos agentes de la
individuals who were judged capable of becoming Policía del Pensamiento circulaban entre ellos,
dangerous; but no attempt was made to indoctrinate esparciendo rumores falsos y eliminando a los
them with the ideology of the Party. It was not pocos considerados capaces de convertirse en
desirable that the proles should have strong political peligrosos; pero no se intentaba adoctrinarlos con
feelings. All that was required of them was a la ideología del Partido. No era deseable que los
primitive patriotism which could be appealed to proles tuvieran sentimientos políticos intensos.
whenever it was necessary to make them accept Todo lo que se les pedía era un patriotismo
longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even primitivo al que se recurría en caso de necesidad
when they became discontented, as they sometimes para que trabajaran horas extraordinarias o
did, their discontent led nowhere, because being aceptaran raciones más pequeñas. E incluso
without general ideas, they could only focus it on cuando cundía entre ellos el descontento, como
petty specific grievances. The larger evils ocurría a veces, era un descontento que no servía
invariably escaped their notice. The great majority para nada porque, por carecer de ideas generales,
of proles did not even have telescreens in their concentraban su instinto de rebeldía en quejas
homes. Even the civil police interfered with them sobre minucias de la vida corriente. Los grandes
very little. There was a vast amount of criminality males, ni los olían. La mayoría de los proles ni
in London, a whole world-within-a-world of siquiera era vigilada con telepantallas. La policía
thieves, bandits, prostitutes, drug-peddlers, and los molestaba muy poco. En Londres había mucha
racketeers of every description; but since it all criminalidad, un mundo revuelto de ladrones,
happened among the proles themselves, it was of no bandidos, prostitutas, traficantes en drogas y
importance. In all questions of morals they were maleantes de toda clase; pero como sus
allowed to follow their ancestral code. The sexual actividades tenían lugar entre los mismos proles,
puritanism of the Party was not imposed upon them. daba igual que existieran o no. En todas las
Promiscuity went unpunished, divorce was cuestiones de moral se les permitía a los proles
permitted. For that matter, even religious worship que siguieran su código ancestral. No se les
would have been permitted if the proles had shown imponía el puritanismo sexual del Partido. No se
any sign of needing or wanting it. They were castigaba su promiscuidad y se permitía el
beneath suspicion. As the Party slogan put it: divorcio. Incluso el culto religioso se les habría
'Proles and animals are free.' permitido si los proles hubieran manifestado la
menor inclinación a él. Como decía el Partido:
«los proles y los animales son libres».

Winston reached down and cautiously scratched his Winston se rascó con precaución sus varices.
varicose ulcer. It had begun itching again. The thing Habían empezado a picarle otra vez. Siempre
you invariably came back to was the impossibility volvía a preocuparle saber qué habría sido la vida
of knowing what life before the Revolution had anterior a la Revolución. Sacó del cajón un
really been like. He took out of the drawer a copy ejemplar del libro de historia infantil que le había
of a children's history textbook which he had prestado la señora Parsons y empezó a copiar un
borrowed from Mrs Parsons, and began copying a trozo en su diario:
passage into the diary:

In the old days (it ran), before the glorious En los antiguos tiempos (decía el libro de texto)
Revolution, London was not the beautiful city that antes de la gloriosa Revolución, no era Londres la
we know today. It was a dark, dirty, miserable place hermosa ciudad que hoy conocemos. Era un lugar
where hardly anybody had enough to eat and where tenebroso, sucio y miserable donde casi nadie
hundreds and thousands of poor people had no tenía nada que comer y donde centenares y