Apr
5
Como acercarse a las fábulas (Minicuento #12)
Podcast: Download
Matthew Bennett from England is the reader of today’s minicuento by Augusto Monterroso.
Matthew has lived and worked in Spain for more than a decade as a translator and language teacher. He has written extensively about the highs and lows of his career on his blog, from launching a business in Spain to selling it and starting over again. He also has a free email newsletter called the Spanglish Lex List filled with Spanish vocabulary and news articles related to the Spanish economy, politics and culture. You can subscribe to his newsletter by visiting his blog MatthewBennet.es. If you’re on Twitter, you can find him @MatthewBennett.
“Cómo acercarse a las fábulas”
de Augusto Monterroso
Con precaución, como a cualquier cosa pequeña. Pero sin miedo. Finalmente se
descubrirá que ninguna fábula es dañina, excepto cuando alcanza a verse en ella alguna enseñanza. Esto es malo.
Si no fuera malo, el mundo se regiría por las fábulas de Esopo; pero en tal caso desaparecería todo lo que hace interesante el mundo, como los ricos, los prejuicios raciales, el color de la ropa interior y la guerra; y el mundo sería entonces muy aburrido, porque no habría heridos para las sillas de ruedas, ni pobres a quienes ayudar, ni negros para trabajar en los muelles, ni gente bonita para la revista Vogue.
Así, lo mejor es acercarse a las fábulas buscando de qué reír.
-Eso es. He ahí un libro de fábulas. Corre a comprarlo. No, mejor te lo regalo: verás, yo nunca me había reído tanto.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
April 12th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Eleena,
Dos o tres personas me han enviado un correo preguntando por el significado del texto en inglés porque les gustaría entenderlo del todo y me ha parecido que el mejor plan sería ponerlo aquí directamente.
Un abrazo,
Matthew.
******
“How to Approach Fables”
de Augusto Monterroso
Slowly, like with any small thing. But don’t be afraid. You’ll end up discovering that fables won’t hurt you, except when they try and teach you something. That’s bad.
If it wasn’t bad, the world would be ruled by Aesop”s Fables but be bereft of everything that makes it interesting: rich people, racial prejudices, the colour of underwear and war; the world would indeed be a very boring place because there wouldn’t be any injured people to fill the wheelchairs, or any poor people to help, or any black people to work the docks or any beautiful people to be photographed in Vogue.
So it’s best to approach fables looking for something to laugh about.
- That’s it. There’s a book of fables over there. Run off and buy it. No, hang on, I’ll give it to you as a present: you see, I had never laughed so much in all my life.
April 14th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Matthew,
Muy amable. ¡Es genial! ¡¡Muchas gracias!!