Spark’s Brodie Silvia Barbero The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie La plenitud de la Señorita Brodie
by de
Muriel Spark 5 Muriel Spark
tr. de Silvia Barbero 10 Penguin, Pre-Textos London (1961), 1962 Valencia, Spain, 2006 (version 2.0) 15
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The boys, as they talked to the girls Cuando hablaban con las niñas de la Es- from Marcia Blaine School, stood on cuela Marcia Blaine, los chicos se quedaban the far side of their bicycles holding 25 detrás de la bicicleta con las manos apoyadas the handlebars, which established a en el manillar, lo que hacía que las bicicletas protective fence of bicycle between the actuasen como barrera protectora entre ambos sexes, and the impression that at any sexos y que diese la impresión de que los chi- moment the boys were likely to cos tenían la posibilidad de marcharse en cual- be away. 30 quier momento.
The girls could not take off their Las niñas no podían quitarse el panamá panama hats because this was not far porque aquellos encuentros tenían lugar no panama hats: broad-brimmed straw hats and from the school gates and hatlessness muy lejos de la entrada de la escuela e ir sin part of the girls’ school uniform. The ways in was an offence. Certain departures 35 sombrero estaba prohibido. Algunas infrac- which the girls wear their hats is an indication of their different characters and personalities from the proper set of the hat on the ciones del uso adecuado del sombrero eran head were overlooked in the case of celosamente observadas en el caso de las ni- fourth-form girls and upwards so long ñas de cuarto curso para arriba, a fin de que astringent 1 causing the contraction of body tissues. 2 as nobody wore their hat at an angle. ninguna lo llevase ladeado. Pero había otras checking bleeding. 3 severe, austere, acerb, acerbic, sharp and penetrating; pungent or severe: astringent But there were other subtle variants 40 formas sutiles de moldear el ala del som- remarks = sour or bitter in taste astringent 1 (Med) astringente 2 (fig) adusto, austero from the ordinary rule of wearing the brero, distinta a la que exigía el reglamento astringent 1. causing contraction of body tissue, brim turned up at the back and down general, consistente en alzarla por detrás y contractive, contractile, styptic 2. checking the flow of blood from a cut 3. severe or harsh, strict, exacting, at the front. The five girls, standing en bajarla por delante. Aquellas cinco ni- harsh, grim, stern, hard, rigid, rigorous, austere, caustic, acerbic very close to each other because of the ñas, apiñadas a causa de la cercanía de los astringente 1. tr. Dicho de una sustancia que apreta, estrecha, contrae los tejidos orgánicos. 2. tr. que boys, wore their hats each with a 45 chicos, llevaban el sombrero con un toque estriñe. 3. que sujeta, obliga, constriñe. definite difference. especial.
Buchmanites: followers of the American These girls formed the Brodie set. Eran las niñas que integraban el grupo evangelist Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman That was what they had been called de Brodie. Así era como se las conocía, (1878-1961) who was the founder of the Oxford even before the headmistress had given 50 incluso antes de que la directora les diese Group and its development, Moral Rearmament. them the name, in scorn, when they had despectivamente ese nombre, desde que, Popular in the 1930s, the movement encouraged moved from the Junior to the Senior a la edad de doce años, pasaron de la es- young people to confess their misdemeanours school at the age of twelve. At that time cuela primaria a la secundaria. En aquella Mussolini: Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Italian they had been immediately época, eran identificadas como las alumnas fascist dictator who came to power in 1922 and recognisable as Miss Brodie’s pupils, 55 de la señorita Brodie porque estaban muy embarked on an ambitious and grandiose being vastly informed on a lot of bien instruidas en muchas materias que re- programme of expensive public works, and subjects irrelevant to the authorised su