Spark , Muriel ''The Prime of Miss Brodie''-Xx-En-Sp.P65
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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 20 -1- 1 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 sultaban irrelevantes para el plan oficial de imperial expansion in Africa. Although he was curriculum, as the headmistress said, estudios, al menos según el criterio de la di- first admired for bringing a measure of stability and useless to the school as a school. rectora, e inútiles [9] para la escuela como to Italy, he joined forces with Germany during These girls were discovered to have 60 tal escuela. Aquellas niñas se distinguían por the Second World War, and was subsequently heard of the Buchmanites and el hecho de haber oído hablar del buchmanismo executed Mussolini, the Italian Renaissance y de Mussolini, de los pintores del Renaci- witch-hazel: an astringent of the leaves and bark painters, the advantages to the skin of miento italiano, de las ventajas de la crema of the plant of the same name (como ocozol) cleansing cream and witch-hazel over limpiadora y del hamamelis para la piel, en vez honest soap and water, and the word 65 del jabón normal y del agua clara, y del concepto 1 Spark’s Brodie Silvia Barbero menarche’: the onset of first menstruation “menarche”; the interior decoration of de «primera menstruación’: Estaban al corrien- the London house of the author of te de la decoración de la casa londinense del Winnie the Pooh: popular children’s novel by Winnie the Pooh had been described to autor de Winnie The Pooh, así como de la vida A. A. Milne (1882-1956), published in 1926 and them, as had the love lives of Charlotte sentimental de Charlotte Brontë y de la de featuring a bear of little brain of the same name Brontë and of Miss Brodie herself. 5 la propia señorita Brodie. Sabían de la Charlotte Bronte: English novelist (1816-85) They were aware of the existence of existencia de Einstein y estaban al tanto and author of Jane Eyre (1847). Jane Eyre was Einstein and the arguments of those de los argumentos de quienes considera- the first physically plain heroine in the English who considered the Bible to be untrue. ban que la Biblia era falsa. Conocían los novel. With its romantic plot it enjoyed an instant They knew the rudiments of astrology rudimentos de la astrología, aunque igno- success but not the date of the Battle of 10 raban la fecha de la célebre batalla de Flodden or the capital of Finland. All Flodden y cuál era la capital de Finlandia. Einstein: Albert Einstein. One of the best known of the Brodie set, save one, counted on Todas las niñas del grupo de Brodie, excepto una, conta- scientists of his day (1879-1955) who created its fingers, as had Miss Brodie, with ban con los dedos de las manos, al igual que la señorita the Theory of Relativity. He was awarded the accurate results more or less. Brodie, con resultados más o menos exactos. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 15 Battle of Flodden: a crucial battle fought By the time they were sixteen, and Cuando cumplieron dieciséis años y pasa- between the armies of Scotland and England had reached the fourth form, and ron al cuarto curso de secundaria, en un perio- on 9 September 1517 which resulted in the loitered beyond the gates after do en que se dedicaban a perder el tiempo des- deaths of King James IV of Scotland together school, and had adapted themselves pués de salir de clase junto a la entrada de la with several Scottish nobles and members of to the orthodox regime, they 20 escuela y en que se habían ajustado ya a la or- the Royal household remained unmistakably Brodie, and todoxia del centro, seguían siendo, were all famous in the school, which inconfundiblemente, las niñas de Brodie. To- loiter idle, hogazanear, merodear loitered travelled indolently & with long is to say they were held in suspicion das eran famosas en la escuela, lo que viene a pauses and not much liking. They had no ser como decir que estaban bajo sospecha y que loitering parsimonioso, cachazudo, team spirit and very little in common 25 no gozaban de mucha simpatía. Entre ellas no loiterer lingerer someone who lingers aimlessly in or about a place, curioso with each other outside their existía espíritu de equipo y tenían muy poco en continuing friendship with Jean común, aparte de la prolongada amistad con Brodie. She still taught in the Junior Jean Brodie, que seguía enseñando en la escue- department. She was held in great la primaria y que también estaba sometida a un suspicion. 30 alto grado de sospecha. Marcia Blaine School for Girls was La Escuela Marcia Blaine para niñas a day school which had been partially era una escuela sin internado que había endowed in the middle of the sido parcialmente fundada, a medidos del nineteenth century by the wealthy 35 siglo XIX, por la acaudalada viuda de un widow of an Edinburgh book-binder. encuadernador de Edimburgo. Antes de Garibaldi: Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82). Italian She had been an admirer of Garibaldi morir, había sido admiradora de Garibaldi. patriot and politician who played a major role in before she died. Her manly portrait El retrato de esta señora de aspecto varonil col- uniting the small principalities of Italy into one hung in the great hall, and was gaba en el gran vestíbulo de la escuela y, cada country honoured every Founder’s Day by a 40 Día de la Fundadora, [10] se le rendía ho- bunch of hard-wearing flowers such as menaje depositando un ramo de flores pere- chrysanthemums or dahlias.