Sredni Vashtar

Conradin tenía diez años, y el médico había emitido su opinión profesional de que el niño no viviría otros cinco años.

Conradin was ten years old, and the doctor had pronounced his professional opinion that the boy would not live another five years.

El médico era afeminado y afectado, y no contaba mucho, pero su opinión fue respaldada por la señora de Ropp, quien contaba para casi todo.

The doctor was silky and effete, and counted for little, but his opinion was endorsed by Mrs. de Ropp, who counted for nearly everything.

La señora de Ropp era prima y tutora de Conradin, y a sus ojos ella representaba esas tres quintas partes del mundo que son necesarias, desagradables y reales; las otras dos quintas partes, en perpetuo antagonismo con lo anterior, se resumían en él mismo y en su imaginación.

Mrs. De Ropp was Conradin’s cousin and guardian, and in his eyes she represented those three-fifths of the world that are necessary and disagreeable and real; the other two-fifths, in perpetual antagonism to the foregoing, were summed up in himself and his imagination.

Uno de estos días, Conradin suponía que sucumbiría a la presión dominante de las tediosas cosas necesarias, como enfermedades, restricciones mimadas y un aburrimiento prolongado.

One of these days Conradin supposed he would succumb to the mastering pressure of wearisome necessary things--such as illnesses and coddling restrictions and drawn-out dullness.

Sin su imaginación, que estaba desenfrenada bajo el estímulo de la soledad, habría sucumbido hace mucho tiempo.

Without his imagination, which was rampant under the spur of loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago.

La señora de Ropp nunca, en sus momentos más honestos, se habría confesado a sí misma que le desagradaba Conradin, aunque podría haber sido vagamente consciente de que contrariarlo “por su bien” era un deber que no le resultaba particularmente molesto.

Mrs. de Ropp would never, in her honestest moments, have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him “for his good” was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome.

Conradin la odiaba con una sinceridad desesperada que era perfectamente capaz de ocultar.

Conradin hated her with a desperate sincerity which he was perfectly able to mask.

Los pocos placeres que podía ingeniar para sí mismo ganaban un sabor añadido por la probabilidad de que fueran desagradables para su tutora, y del reino de su imaginación ella estaba excluida: una cosa impura, que no debería encontrar entrada.

Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained an added relish from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian, and from the realm of his imagination she was locked out--an unclean thing, which should find no entrance.

En el jardín soso y sin alegría, dominado por tantas ventanas que estaban listas para abrirse con un mensaje de no hacer esto o aquello, o un recordatorio de que las medicinas estaban pendientes, encontró poca atracción.

In the dull, cheerless garden, overlooked by so many windows that were ready to open with a message not to do this or that, or a reminder that medicines were due, he found little attraction.

Los pocos árboles frutales que contenía estaban apartados celosamente de su alcance, como si fueran especímenes raros de su especie floreciendo en un páramo árido; probablemente habría sido difícil encontrar un jardinero de mercado que hubiera ofrecido diez chelines por su producción anual completa.

The few fruit-trees that it contained were set jealously apart from his plucking, as though they were rare specimens of their kind blooming in an arid waste; it would probably have been difficult to find a market-gardener who would have offered ten shillings for their entire yearly produce.

En un rincón olvidado, sin embargo, casi escondido detrás de un arbusto lúgubre, había un cobertizo de herramientas en desuso de proporciones respetables, y dentro de sus paredes Conradin encontró un refugio, algo que tomaba los aspectos variables de una sala de juegos y una catedral.

In a forgotten corner, however, almost hidden behind a dismal shrubbery, was a disused tool-shed of respectable proportions, and within its walls Conradin found a haven, something that took on the varying aspects of a playroom and a cathedral.

Lo había poblado con una legión de fantasmas familiares, evocados en parte de fragmentos de historia y en parte de su propio cerebro, pero también contaba con dos inquilinos de carne y hueso.

He had peopled it with a legion of familiar phantoms, evoked partly from fragments of history and partly from his own brain, but it also boasted two inmates of flesh and blood.

En un rincón vivía una gallina Houdan de plumaje harapiento, en la que el niño derrochaba un afecto que apenas tenía otra salida. Más atrás, en la penumbra, se alzaba una gran conejera, dividida en dos compartimentos, uno de los cuales estaba cerrado con barrotes de hierro.

In one corner lived a ragged-plumaged Houdan hen, on which the boy lavished an affection that had scarcely another outlet. Further back in the gloom stood a large hutch, divided into two compartments, one of which was fronted with close iron bars.

Esta era la morada de un gran turón, que un amable aprendiz de carnicero había introducido una vez de contrabando, jaula y todo, en sus aposentos actuales, a cambio de un tesoro de plata pequeña largamente escondido.

This was the abode of a large polecat-ferret, which a friendly butcher-boy had once smuggled, cage and all, into its present quarters, in exchange for a long-secreted hoard of small silver.