Project 5A: Literary Translation

Esteban propuso llevar a toda la familia al campo, para preservarla del contagio, pero Clara no quiso oír hablar del asunto. Estaba muy ocupada socorriendo a los pobres en una tarea que no tenía principio ni fin. Salía muy temprano y a veces llegaba cerca de la medianoche. Vació los armarios de la casa, quitó la ropa a los niños, las frazadas de las camas, las chaquetas a su marido. Sacaba la comida de la despensa y estableció un sistema de envíos con Pedro Segundo García, quien mandaba desde Las Tres Marías quesos, huevos, cecinas, frutas, gallinas, que ella distribuía entre sus necesitados. Adelgazó y se veía demacrada. En las noches volvió a caminar sonámbula.

La ausencia de Férula se sintió como un cataclismo en la casa y hasta la Nana, que siempre había deseado que ese momento llegara algún día, se conmovió. Cuando comenzó la primavera y Clara pudo descansar un poco, aumentó su tendencia a evadir la realidad y perderse en el ensueño. Aunque ya no contaba con la impecable organización de su cuñada para barajar el caos de la gran casa de la esquina, se despreocupó de las cosas domésticas. Delegó todo en manos de la Nana y de los otros empleados y se sumió en el mundo de los aparecidos y de los experimentos psíquicos. Los cuadernos de anotar la vida se embrollaron, su caligrafía perdió la elegancia de convento, que siempre tuvo, y degeneró en unos trazos despachurrados que a veces eran tan minúsculos que no se podían leer y otras tan grandes que tres palabras llenaban la página.

Esteban suggested taking the whole family to the countryside to protect them from infection, but Clara wouldn't hear of it. She was too busy helping the poor, a task that seemed to have no beginning and no end. She would leave very early and sometimes return close to midnight. She emptied the house's closets, took the children's clothes, the blankets from the beds, and her husband's jackets. She took the food from the pantry and set up a delivery system with Pedro Segundo García, who sent cheese, eggs, cured meats, fruit, and chickens from Las Tres Marías, which she distributed among those in need. She grew thin and looked emaciated. At night, she began to sleepwalk again.

Férula's absence felt like a cataclysm in the house, and even Nana, who had always longed for this moment, was shaken. When spring arrived and Clara was finally able to rest a little, her tendency to escape reality and lose herself in daydreams increased. Although she no longer had her sister-in-law's impeccable organization to manage the chaos of the large corner house, she neglected domestic matters. She delegated everything to Nana and the other servants and immersed herself in the world of apparitions and psychic experiments. Her notebooks for recording her life became tangled, her handwriting lost its once-elegant, convent-like elegance, and degenerated into scraggly strokes that were sometimes so minuscule they were illegible and other times so large that three words filled the page.

Esteban suggested taking the whole family to the countryside to protect them from infection, but Clara would not hear of it. She was too busy helping the poor in a task that had no beginning and no end. She left very early and sometimes returned close to midnight. She emptied the cupboards in the house, took the children's clothes, the blankets from the beds, and her husband's jackets. She took the food out of the pantry and set up a delivery system with Pedro Segundo García, who sent cheese, eggs, cured meats, fruit, and chickens from Las Tres Marías, which she distributed among the needy. She lost weight and looked haggard. At night, she began sleepwalking again.

Férula's absence felt like a cataclysm in the house, and even Nana, who had always wished for that moment to come someday, was moved. When spring began and Clara was able to rest a little, her tendency to escape reality and lose herself in daydreams increased. Although she no longer had her sister-in-law's impeccable organization to manage the chaos of the large house on the corner, she stopped worrying about domestic matters. She delegated everything to the nanny and the other employees and immersed herself in the world of apparitions and psychic experiments. The notebooks in which she recorded her life became jumbled, her handwriting lost the convent-like elegance it had always had and degenerated into squashed strokes that were sometimes so tiny they were unreadable and sometimes so large that three words filled the page.