Espantos de agosto (The Ghosts of August) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I read this story as part of my Spanish Challenge. It is a classical ghost story like those of Charles Dickens or MR James.  It comes from his collection Strange Pilgrims / Doce Cuentos Peregrinos. Reading these Marquez’s short stories for the first time, I conclude that they are probably more accessible than his magical realism novels to many readers.

One Sunday in early August, a family seek out The Renaissance castle of Venezuelan writer Miguel Otero Silva for a visit in the Tuscan countryside. They have difficultly locating it and on asking directions are warned that the house is haunted and not to stay overnight. Inevitably they do. But before retiring to their modernised ground floor room, they are shown the rest of the house including the unchanged room where the original owner, Ludovic, killed his wife and set his own dogs upon himself. .All seems well when the man of the family wakes up the following morning. His wife is still sleeping soundly and his children are in the adjacent room. But all is not well. 

Marquez hardly builds any tension in the story, but lays the foundation simply in the warning and in the description of Ludovic’s room.

“Era el dormitorio de Ludovico.
Fue un instante mágico. Allí estaba la cama de cortinas bordadas con hilos de oro, y el sobrecama de prodigios de pasamanería todavía acartonado por la sangre seca de la amante sacrificada. Estaba la chimenea con las cenizas heladas y el último leño convertido en piedra, el armario con sus armas bien cebadas, y el retrato al óleo del caballero pensativo en un marco de oro, pintado por alguno de los maestros florentinos que no tuvieron la fortuna de sobrevivir a su tiempo. Sin embargo, lo que más me impresionó fue el olor de fresas recientes que permanecía estancado sin explicación posible en el ámbito del dormitorio. “

Subtle and not over the top. No blood and gore. Just well drawn. Note: pasamanería  - I had to look this up even in English which uses the term passementerie for the art of making fancy trimmings and edgings for clothing or furnishings using gold or silver braid,cord, silk threads, or beads.

Un día de éstos – One of those days by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Continuing on with My Spanish Challenge and reading this one by one of my favourite authors. It is part of the collection entitled Las Funerales de Mamá Grande / Big Mama’s Funeral and is also reproduced on Collected Stories. The Spanish version I worked with is found here.

It is the story of Aurelio Escovar, a dentist, who finds himself with the mayor as his patient. The unnamed mayor has had a damaged molar for five days and has a swollen face and is in lots of pain. Initially the dentist refuses to attend to him, but is then threatened by the mayor, a military man clearly used to getting his own way. Time therefore for the dentist to extract comeuppance for the mayor’s activities around the town “Tiene que ser sin anestesia” “¿Por qué?” “Porque tiene un absceco” Great excuse! The dentists extracts the tooth murmuring “ Aqui nos paga veinte muertos, teniente” Here you pay as for 20 deaths, lieutenant.

The Big Crunch

When I was small

my world was.

Mum, dad and me.

I explored the garden

and as it grew

I did too.

I ventured forth

down the lane exploring

to the next village courting

School and uni

meeting the new, the different, the unexpected.

 

When I was small

I was besotted with space

a universe beckoning

From “Thunderbirds are Go” and Marvel Comics

a girl’s own adventure story

for real as Tereshkova circled my earth.

Sci-fi became sci-fact

with non stick Teflon pans in the kitchen

with televisions in every house, in every room, in every hand

miniaturised open access to all, for all.

 

When I was small

my world was.

Now, the coin has flipped

the world wide womb,

a net of time

fast folding over me,

shrinking my view,

constraining my movements,

the black hole weighs in on me

“Beam me up Scottie”

for today is a good day to…..

 

Note: The Big Crunch is the term used in cosmology for one possible ultimate fate scenario where/when the expansion of space reverses and the Universe re-collapses back on itself, ending in a Black Hole or another Big Bang beginning.

It seems to me that life’s path is somewhat analogous to this, and if one believes in reincarnation or has a faith in the hereafter this moment of recycling is similarly comparable.

© Sheila Ash, 23^rd February 2015