Day 139: Cobblestones or Asphalt in Town
In Real del Monte, a hill town in Hidalgo, Florentino (A) and his wife Macrina (B), both retired, walk home from the town meeting on repaving the main street; Erasmo is a neighbor.
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
¿Viste a Erasmo en la asamblea? Habló como si fuera el presidente municipal, y no el de la tlapalería.
Did you see Erasmo at the meeting? He talked as if he were the mayor, not the man from the hardware store.
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B
Y encima dijo que quitar el empedrado sería un crimen contra la historia. Que suba esta cuesta con mis rodillas, a ver qué opina.
And on top of that he said taking up the cobblestones would be a crime against history. Let him climb this hill with my knees and see what he thinks then.
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A
Pues en eso tiene razón, mujer: con asfalto, esto parecería cualquier colonia de Pachuca, y los turistas se irían a otro lado.
Well, he's right about that, honey: with asphalt, this place would look like any old neighborhood in Pachuca, and the tourists would go somewhere else.
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B
¿Y los turistas me van a cargar hasta el mercado? Con la lluvia, esas piedras se ponen como jabón.
And are the tourists going to carry me to the market? In the rain, those stones are as slippery as soap.
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A
Ni te ilusiones: con el empate de hoy, para cuando se pongan de acuerdo ya se habrá acabado el presupuesto.
Don't get your hopes up: with today's tie, by the time they agree, the budget will have run out.
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B
No seas pesimista. El ingeniero dijo que, si gana el asfalto el domingo, para diciembre ya habrán terminado.
Don't be so gloomy. The engineer said that if asphalt wins on Sunday, they'll have finished by December.
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A
¿Para diciembre? Ese ingeniero nunca habrá pasado una temporada de lluvias aquí, con la neblina hasta el suelo.
By December? That engineer must never have spent a rainy season up here, with the fog right down to the ground.
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B
Te voy a confesar algo: hoy levanté la mano por el empedrado. Llevas cincuenta años presumiendo esas piedras.
I'll confess something: today I raised my hand for the cobblestones. You've spent fifty years showing those stones off.
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A
¿En serio? Yo la levanté por el asfalto, por tus rodillas: con razón Erasmo nos miraba como si estuviéramos locos.
Really? I raised mine for the asphalt, for your knees: no wonder Erasmo was looking at us as if we'd gone crazy.
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