Day 66: Happiness or Success on the Rooftop
On the flat roof of their parents' house in Durango, a city famous for its scorpions, Ismael (A), who has won a scholarship to study in Lyon, talks about what makes a life worth living with his older brother Irving (B), who stayed to run the family hardware store.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Oye, Irving, ahora que no hay alacranes a la vista: ¿una vida se mide en felicidad o en éxito?
Hey, Irving, now that there are no scorpions in sight: is a life measured in happiness or in success?
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B
¿Me lo preguntas tú, el de la beca en Lyon? Tú mide la tuya en éxito; yo, en tornillos.
You're asking me, the one with the scholarship in Lyon? You measure yours in success; me, in screws.
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A
No te hagas el mártir. Si bien papá te encargó la ferretería, nadie te obligó a quedarte.
Don't play the martyr. Granted, Dad put you in charge of the hardware store, but nobody forced you to stay.
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B
Alguien tenía que quedarse. Por más que me guste el negocio, en sexto de primaria yo iba a ser astronauta.
Somebody had to stay. Much as I like the business, in sixth grade I was going to be an astronaut.
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A
¿Y eres infeliz? Para Aristóteles, la felicidad es una vida bien vivida, aun cuando no salga en ningún currículum.
And are you unhappy? For Aristotle, happiness is a life well lived, even if it never shows up on a résumé.
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B
¡Qué fácil es citar a Aristóteles con el boleto de avión ya pagado!
How easy it is to quote Aristotle with your plane ticket already paid for!
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A
Contéstame sin hacer cuentas: si me hubiese quedado yo y te hubieses ido tú, ¿serías más feliz?
Answer me without doing the math: if I had stayed and you had gone, would you be happier?
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B
Ya hablas como tus libros, con tanto “hubiese”. Y no: aunque a veces me harta, aquí sé para qué me levanto.
You already talk like your books, with all your “had I”s. And no: even though I get fed up with it sometimes, here I know what I get up for.
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A
¿Para qué? ¿Para venderle un clavo diario a don Eligio? Eso es Sísifo con mandil.
For what? To sell Don Eligio one nail a day? That's Sisyphus in an apron.
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B
Pues Camus decía que hay que imaginarse a Sísifo feliz. Tú vete a Lyon a imaginártelo; yo no lo necesito: lo soy, y los domingos cierro a las dos.
Well, Camus said one must imagine Sisyphus happy. You go off to Lyon and imagine it; I don't need to: I am, and on Sundays I close at two.
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