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Yo torné a jurar y perjurar que estaba libre de aquel trueco y cambio,
mas poco me aprovechó, pues a las astucias del maldito ciego nada
se le escondía. Se levantó y me asió por la cabeza
y se llegó a olerme. Y como debío sentir el huelgo, a uso
de buen podenco, por mejor satisfacerse de la verdad. Con la gran agonía
que llevaba, asiéndome con las manos, me abría la boca más
de su derecho y desatentademente metía la nariz, la cual él
tenía luenga y afilada, y a aquella sazón, con el enojo, se
había aumentado un palmo, con el pico de la cual me llegó
al gollete.
Y con esto, y con el gran miedo que tenía, y con la brevedad del
tiempo, la negra longaniza aún no había hecho asiento en el
estómago. Lo más principal, con el destiento de la cumplidísima
nariz medio casi ahogándome, todas estas cosas se juntaron, y fueron
causa que el hecho y golosina se manifestase. A lo suyo fuese devuelto a
su dueño. De manera que antes que el mal ciego sacase de mi boca
su trompa, tal alteración sintió mi estómago, que le
dio con el hurto en ella. De suerte que su nariz y la negra mal mascada
longaniza a un tiempo salieron de mi boca.
¡O gran Dios, quien estuviera a aquella hora sepultado, que muerto
ya lo estaba! Fue tal el coraje del perverso ciego, que, si al ruido no
acudieran, pienso no dejara con la vida. Me sacaron de entre sus manos,
dejándoselas llenas de aquellos pocos cabellos que tenía.
Arañada la cara y rascuñado el pescuezo y la garganta. Y esto
bien lo merecía, pues por su maldad me venían tantas persecuciones.
Contaba el mal ciego a todos cuantos allí se llegaban mis desastres.
Les daba cuenta una y otra vez, así de la del jarro como de la del
racimo, y ahora de lo presente. Era la risa de todos tan grande, que toda
la gente que por la calle pasaba entraba a ver la fiesta. Con tanta gracia
y donaire contaba el ciego mis hazañas,
que aunque yo estaba tan maltratado y llorando, me parecía que hacía
injusticia en no se las reír.
Y en cuanto esto pasaba, a la memoria me vino una cobardía y flojedad
que hice por que me maldecía, y fue no dejarle sin narices. Pues
tan buen tiempo tuve para ello que la mitad del camino estaba andado,
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I swore again and again that I had been isolated from
this alteration and
exchange, but shortly he made good use of me, for nothing could be hidden
from the craftiness of the evil blind man. He got up, seized me by the head
and drew near to smell me. And, according to the habit of a good hound, he
caught a whiff of my breath, for the sake of better satisfying himself
of the truth. Seizing me in his hands, in the great anguish driving him,
he opened my mouth farther than it ought to go and thoughtlessly stuck in
his nose, the one he had being long and sharp and by that time, in anger,
had grown by leaps-and-bounds, reaching the point of it unto my back teeth.
And with the great fright I'd had in so short a time, the blackened sausage
had not yet taken seat in my stomach. Most importantly, with the prying
of his ample nose almost half-choking me, these things all came together
and were the cause of my deed and gluttony manifesting themselves. I would
send back to its rightful owner what was his. In this manner, before the
evil blind man might remove his snout from my mouth, my stomach sensed such
an upset that it offered up to him what was stolen from within. As fortune
would have it, his nose and the black, poorly-chewed sausage cleared my
mouth at the same time.
Oh, great God, would I at that hour have been buried, in that I was already
dead! Such was the vexation of the perverse blind man, that if people hadn't
rushed to the racket, I don't think I would have been left alive. They pulled
me out from among his hands, leaving them full of the few locks of hair
I had. My face scratched, my neck and throat, scraped. And this my throat
deserved, since by its wickedness came so many of my persecutions.
The evil blind man related to all who arrived
there of my disasters. Once again gave them an account of the story of the
jar as well as the bunch of grapes and now about the present case. It was of
such great amusement to all, that all who passed by came by to see the
festivities. With such grace and wittiness did the blind man tell of my
exploits that, although I was so mistreated and crying, it seemed to me an
injustice in not laughing over them.
And as soon as this crossed my mind, the memory
came to me of the cowardly, feeble part I played wherefore I was
accursed-and that was to leave him with a nose. I had had such a good
opportunity, having come more
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