Day 83: A Novel Without Commas
At home in Durango, Faustino (A), a retired railroad worker, is struggling with the prize-winning novel that his grandson Carlos (B), a literature student, recommended to him.
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, Carlos, ¿esta es la novela que tanto me recomendaste? Lleva tres páginas sin una sola coma.
Listen, Carlos, is this the novel you recommended so highly? It's gone three pages without a single comma.
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B
Es a propósito, abuelo: la autora busca una lectura asfixiante, como la vida de sus personajes.
It's deliberate, Grandpa: the author wants the reading to be suffocating, like her characters' lives.
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A
Treinta y cinco años trabajé en el ferrocarril y nunca vi un tren sin frenos como este párrafo.
I worked on the railroad for thirty-five years and never saw a runaway train like this paragraph.
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B
Pero es una novela muy premiada, y no hay crítico que no la haya elogiado.
But it's won lots of prizes, and there isn't a critic who hasn't praised it.
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A
Pues no hay escritor que me haga leer así, mijo: hasta los trenes paran en las estaciones.
Well, there's no writer who can make me read like that, my boy: even trains stop at stations.
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B
¿Y si le leo un capítulo en voz alta? Ya verá cómo las comas aparecen solitas.
What if I read you a chapter aloud? You'll see how the commas appear all by themselves.
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A
¿Y cuando hablan todos a la vez, sin guiones ni nada? Ahí ya ni sé quién le dice qué a quién.
And when they're all talking at once, with no dialogue dashes or anything? By then I don't even know who's saying what to whom.
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B
En caso de que se pierda, me detengo y se lo explico. A no ser que prefiera volver a sus novelas vaqueras.
Should you get lost, I'll stop and explain it to you. Unless you'd rather go back to your cowboy novels.
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A
Ni loco la dejo, que luego vas a andar diciendo que tu abuelo se descarriló. Léeme el primero, pero despacito.
No way am I giving it up, or you'll go around saying your grandpa went off the rails. Read me the first one, but nice and slowly.
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