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Spanish · B1–B2

Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte

Horacio Quiroga, 1917 · El almohadón de plumas · La gallina degollada · Los ojos sombríos

Three stories from Quiroga’s 1917 collection. In “El almohadón de plumas” a young bride wastes away in a cold, silent house and nobody can find out why. In “La gallina degollada” an illness leaves a couple’s four sons severely disabled and all their hopes move to their healthy daughter. In “Los ojos sombríos” a man just out of a break-up listens to an old friend’s tangled love story at a dance.

Language
Spanish, with English
Level
B1–B2 for the original text
Length
about 12,000 words in 3 stories
Files
Parallel text EPUB · tap edition EPUB · Lexico app edition
Rights
Public domain text · DRM-free files
€8.99All three files · instant download
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Read a free excerpt · the first pages of Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte
The opening lines, as the parallel text edition shows themEvery page reads like this

Su luna de miel fué un largo escalofrío.

Their honeymoon was a long shiver.

Rubia, angelical y tímida, el carácter duro de su marido heló sus soñadas niñerías de novia.

Blond, angelic, and shy, the hard character of her husband froze her dreamy bridal childishness.

Lo quería mucho, sin embargo, a veces con un ligero estremecimiento cuando volviendo de noche juntos por la calle, echaba una furtiva mirada a la alta estatura de Jordán, mudo desde hacía una hora.

He loved her a lot, however, sometimes with a slight shiver when, returning together at night along the street, he cast a furtive glance at Jordán’s tall stature, mute for an hour.

El, por su parte, la amaba profundamente, sin darlo a conocer.

He, for his part, loved her deeply without showing it.

Durante tres meses—se habían casado en abril—vivieron una dicha especial.

For three months—they had married in April—they lived a special happiness.

Sin duda hubiera ella deseado menos severidad en ese rígido cielo de amor, más expansiva e incauta ternura; pero el impasible semblante de su marido la contenía en seguida.

Without a doubt she would have wanted less severity in that rigid sky of love, a more expansive and incautious tenderness; but her husband's impassive face immediately restrained her.

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