Fitzgeral, FS ''This Side of Paradise'
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xxx Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise tr. de Juan Benet Goitia This Side of Paradise [1920] A este lado del paraíso 5 by de F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) Scott Fitzgerald tr. Juan Benet Goitia 10 NEW YORK: SCRIBNER, 1920 Alianza Editorial, S. A. NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 1999 Madrid, 1968, 1971, 1981, 1984 15 …Well this side of Paradise!… «A este lado del paraíso...! There’s little comfort in the wise. Poco consuelo da el saber..» —Rupert Brooke. Rupert Brooke EXPLANATORY NOTES 20 Experience is the name so many people «Experiencia es el nombre con que give to their mistakes. la gente designa sus errores.» This Side of Paradise contains hundreds of —Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde references to cultural and historical circumstances and events of the period, undergraduate life at Princeton, and other literary works; in the case of To SIGOURNEY FAY A Sigourney Fay the latter, the novel reflects Fitzgerald’s omnivorous 25 reading habits while at Princeton. These notes explicate a scattering of the novel’s cultural references and a selection of its literary references relevant to the novel’s themes or those works and literary movements that were important to Fitzgerald. As Fitzgerald refers to several authors and works numerous times in the text, the notes usually cite 30 BOOK ONE [7] Libro primero only the first mention of these. The Romantic Egotist El ególatra romántico 1 The Romantic Egotist: The title of Book One was originally the title of the first version of This Side of Paradise; it suggests the combination of romanticism and narcissism that defines Amory’s character before 35 CHAPTER 1 1. he becomes a “personage.” Fitzgerald may have been echoing the title of George Meredith’s (1828-1909) The Egoist (1879), an ironic portrait of Amory, Son of Beatrice Amory, hijo de Beatrice a man who is gradually compelled to shed his egotistical nature. AMORY BLAINE inherited from his Amory Blaine había heredado de su madre 40 mother every trait, except the stray todos los rasgos que, con excepción de unos po- inexpressible few, that made him worth cos inoperantes y pasajeros, hicieron de él una while. His father, an ineffectual, persona de valía. Su padre, un caballero inútil y inarticulate 1 a of a sound : uttered or formed without the inarticulate man with a taste for Byron desgarbado que unía la afición a Byron a la definite articulations of intelligible speech b (1) : incapable of speech especially under stress of emotion : mute (2) and a habit of drowsing over the costumbre de dormitar sobre la Enciclopedia : incapable of being expressed by speech <inarticulate fear> (3) : not voiced or expressed : unspoken <society 45 Encyclopædia Britannica, grew wealthy Británica, se hizo rico a los treinta años gracias functions on many inarticulate premises>2 : incapable of giving coherent, clear, or effective expression to one’s at thirty through the death of two elder a la muerte de sus dos hermanos mayores, afortu- ideas or feelings3 [New Latin inarticulatus, from Latin in- + New Latin articulatus articulate] : relating to, brothers, successful Chicago brokers, nados agentes de Bolsa de Chicago; en su primera characteristic of, or being an inarticulate or its shell and in the first flush of feeling that the explosión de vanidad, creyéndose el dueño del world was his, went to Bar Harbor and mundo, se fue a Bar Harbor, donde conoció a 50 met Beatrice O’Hara. In consequence, Beatrice O’Hara. Fruto de tal encuentro, Stephen Stephen Blaine handed down to posterity Blaine legó a la posteridad toda su altura —un his height of just under six feet and his poco menos de un metro ochenta— y su ten- tendency to waver at crucial moments, dencia a vacilar en los momentos cruciales, dos these two abstractions appearing in his abstracciones que se hicieron carne en su hijo 55 son Amory. For many years he hovered Amory. D urante años revoloteó al- in the background of his family’s life, an rededor de la familia: un perso- unassertive figure with a face half- naje dubitativo, una cara obliterated by lifeless, silky hair, difuminada bajo un pelo gris continually occupied in “taking care” of mortecino, siempre pendiente de harass v.tr. 1 trouble and annoy continually or repeatedly. 60 his wife, continually harassed by the su mujer y atormentado por la 2 make repeated attacks on (an enemy or opponent). agobiar, hostigar, presionar, acosar idea that he didn’t and couldn’t idea de que no sabía ni podía com- understand her. prenderla... But Beatrice Blaine! There was a [8] En cuanto a Beatrice Blaine..., ¡vaya mu- 65 woman! Early pictures taken on her father’s jer! Unas viejas fotografías tomadas en la finca estate at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, or in de sus padres en Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, o en Rome at the Sacred Heart Convent—an el Colegio del Sagrado Corazón de Roma —lle- educational extravagance that in her youth vada allí por esa extravagancia pedagógica re- was only for the daughters of the servada, en su juventud, a las hijas de la gente 70 exceptionally wealthy—showed the muy adinerada— ponían de manifiesto la exqui- exquisite delicacy of her features, the sita delicadeza de sus rasgos, el arte sencillo y consummate art and simplicity of her consumado de su atuendo. Tuvo una educación clothes. A brilliant education she had—her esmerada; su juventud transcurrió entre las glo- youth passed in renaissance glory, she rias del Renacimiento; estaba versada en todas 75 was versed in the latest gossip of the Older las comidillas de las familias romanas de alcur- Roman Families; known by name as a nia y era conocida, como una joven americana fabulously wealthy American girl to fabulosamente rica, del cardenal Vitori, de la rei- Cardinal Vitori and Queen Margherita and na Margherita y de otras personalidades más su- more subtle celebrities that one must have tiles de las que uno habría oído hablar de haber 80 had some culture even to have heard of. tenido más mundo. She learned in England to prefer whiskey En Inglaterra la apartaron del vino y le en- and soda to wine, and her small talk was señaron a beber whisky con soda; y su escasa broadened in two senses during a winter conversación se amplió —en más de un senti- in Vienna. All in all Beatrice O’Hara do— durante un invierno en Viena. En 85 absorbed the sort of education that will suma, Beatrice O’Hara asimiló esa clase 2 xxx Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise tr. de Juan Benet Goitia be quite impossible ever again; a tutelage de educación que ya no se da; una tutela measured by the number of things and observada por un buen número de personas y people one could be contemptuous of and sobre cosas que, aun siendo menospreciables, charming about; a culture rich in all resultan encantadoras; una cultura muy variada 5 arts and traditions, barren of all en toda clase de artes y tradiciones, ajena por ideas, in the last of those days when the completo a las ideas, que florece en el último great gardener clipped the inferior roses día, cuando el jardinero mayor corta las rosas to produce one perfect bud. superfluas para obtener un capullo perfecto. 10 In her less important moments she En uno de sus malos momentos volvió a returned to America, met Stephen Blaine and América, conoció a Stephen Blaine y se casó married him—this almost entirely because she con él; y todo porque se encontraba un poco was a little bit weary, a little bit sad. Her only cansada, un tanto triste. Durante toda una fa- child was carried through a tiresome season tigante temporada llevó en su seno a su úni- 15 and brought into the world on a spring day co hijo, que echó al mundo un día de prima- in ninety-six. vera del 96. When Amory was five he was already a Cuando Amory tenía cinco años, era para delightful companion for her. He was an ella un compañero inapreciable. Un chico de 20 auburn-haired boy, with great, handsome pelo castaño, de ojos muy bonitos —que aún eyes which he would grow up to in time, a habían de agrandarse—, una imaginación facile 1 easy, ready, fluent, 2 specious, superficial (not facile imaginative mind and a taste for fancy muy fértil y un cierto gusto por los trajes de concerned with a facile solution) facile 1 eloquent, facile, fluent, silver, silver-tongued, smooth- dress. From his fourth to his tenth year he did fantasía. Entre sus cuatro y diez años recorrió spoken (expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively; «able to dazzle with his facile tongue»; «silver speech» ) the country with his mother in her father’s el país con su madre, en el vagón particu- 2 easy, facile (performing adroitly and without effort; «her easy grace»; «a facile hand» ) 25 private car, from Coronado, where his mother lar de su abuelo, desde Coronado, donde 3 facile (arrived at without due care or effort; lacking depth; «too facile a solution for so complex a problem») became so bored that she had a nervous su madre se aburrió tanto que tuvo que consumption n. 1 the act or an instance of consuming; the process breakdown in a fashionable hotel, down to recurrir a una depresión nerviosa en un of being consumed. 2 any disease causing wasting of tissues, esp. pulmonary tuberculosis. 3 an amount consumed: consu- Mexico City, where she took a mild, almost hotel de moda, hasta Méjico, donde mo 4 the purchase and use of goods etc. epidemic consumption. This trouble su agotamiento llegó a ser casi epidémico.