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First ProZ.com Translation Contest 2007: "First ProZ.com Translation Contest 2007" » English to Portuguese (EU) » Entry by Manuel Leite

Source text in English

Translation by Manuel Leite (#224)

When she moved into his tiny house in Stroud, and took charge of his four small children, Mother was thirty and still quite handsome. She had not, I suppose, met anyone like him before. This rather priggish young man, with his devout gentility, his airs and manners, his music and ambitions, his charm, bright talk, and undeniable good looks, overwhelmed her as soon as she saw him. So she fell in love with him immediately, and remained in love for ever. And herself being comely, sensitive, and adoring, she attracted my father also. And so he married her. And so later he left her - with his children and some more of her own.

When he'd gone, she brought us to the village and waited. She waited for thirty years. I don't think she ever knew what had made him desert her, though the reasons seemed clear enough. She was too honest, too natural for this frightened man; too remote from his tidy laws. She was, after all, a country girl; disordered, hysterical, loving. She was muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight, squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious, forgot when to eat or ate all day, and sang when sunsets were red. She lived by the easy laws of the hedgerow, loved the world, and made no plans, had a quick holy eye for natural wonders and couldn't have kept a neat house for her life. What my father wished for was something quite different, something she could never give him - the protective order of an unimpeachable suburbia, which was what he got in the end.

The three or four years Mother spent with my father she fed on for the rest of her life. Her happiness at that time was something she guarded as though it must ensure his eventual return. She would talk about it almost in awe, not that it had ceased but that it had happened at all.
Quando se mudou para a minúscula casa dele em Stroud e começou a cuidar dos seus quatro filhos pequenos, a Mãe tinha 30 anos e era ainda bastante bonita. Presumo que nunca tivesse encontrado ninguém como ele. Aquele jovem algo empertigado, com a sua cortesia devota, os seus ares e modos, a sua música e as suas ambições, o seu encanto, a conversa brilhante e o inegável bom aspecto, deslumbrou-a mal o viu. Por isso, apaixonou-se imediatamente por ele e permaneceu apaixonada para sempre. E sendo ela graciosa, sensível e reverente, também atraiu o meu pai. E assim, ele casou-se com ela. E assim a viria a deixar - com os seus filhos e mais alguns dela mesma.

Quando ele partiu, ela levou-nos para a aldeia e esperou. Esperou durante trinta anos. Acho que ela nunca soube o que o levara a abandoná-la, embora os motivos parecessem suficientemente claros. Era demasiado sincera, demasiado natural para aquele homem assustado; demasiado afastada das suas leis organizadas. Afinal, era uma rapariga do campo: desordenada, histérica, amorosa. Era desnorteada e atrevida como uma gralha das chaminés, fazia o seu ninho com farrapos e jóias, era feliz ao sol, gritava sonoramente perante o perigo, vasculhava e era insaciavelmente curiosa, esquecia-se das refeições ou comia todo o dia e cantava quando os ocasos eram vermelhos. Regia-se pelas leis fáceis da alameda, amava o mundo e não fazia planos, tinha um olhar rápido e arguto para as coisas da natureza e não seria capaz de manter a casa arrumada nem que disso dependesse a sua vida. O que o meu pai procurava era algo de muito diferente, algo que ela nunca lhe poderia dar - a protectora ordem de um subúrbio irrepreensível, que foi o que acabou por conseguir.

Os três ou quatro anos que a Mãe passou com o meu pai alimentaram-lhe a alma para o resto da vida. A felicidade que sentiu nessa época foi algo que guardou como se isso garantisse o futuro regresso dele. Falava do assunto quase com admiração, não porque tudo tivesse acabado, mas porque chegara a acontecer.
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2007-02-12 16:18]