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Question 1

La historia de la literatura americana sería el incesante conflict de esas dos concepciones.

Answer 1

The history of American could be the incessant conflict between these two conceptions.

Question 2

Como Mark Twain, como Jack London, como tantos otros escritores americanos, Herman Melville (1819 – 91) llevó el tipo de vida aventurera que el sedentario Whitman soñó y que le fue negado por su destino.

Answer 2

Like Mark Twain, like Jack London, like so many other American writers, Herman Melville (1819 – 91) led the type of adventurous life of which the sedentary Whitman dreamed and which was denied to him by his fate.

Question 3

Nació en Nueva York.

Answer 3

He [Melville] was born in New York.

Question 4

La bancarrota de su padre, de antiguo linaje escocés, dejó a Melville en la indigencia a los quince años.

Answer 4

The bankruptcy of his father, of old Scottish lineage, left Melville in indigence [poverty] at the age of fifteen.

Question 5

Fue sucesivamente empleado de banco, peon, maestro de escuela y, en 1839, grumete.

Answer 5

He [Melville] was successively employed as a bank clerk, a laborer, a schoolmaster and, in 1839, a cabin boy.

Question 6

Así empezó su larga amistad con el mar.

Answer 6

Thus [in this way] started his [Melville’s] long friendship with the sea.

Question 7

En 1841 navegó en una ballenera por el Pacífico.

Answer 7

In 1841 he [Melville] navigated [sailed] on a whaling ship for the Pacific.

Question 8

Desertó en las Islas Marquesas, fue capturado por caníbales y convivió algún tiempo con ellos.

Answer 8

He [Melville] deserted in the Marquesas Island, [he] was captured by cannibals and lived for some time with them.

Question 9

Se casó en 1847 y se estableció en Nueva York.

Answer 9

He [Melville] was married in 1847 and he established himself [settled] in New York.

Question 10

De esta ciudad pasó a una granja en Massachussetts.

Answer 10

From this city he [Melville] passed [went] to a farm in Massachussetts.

Question 11

Ahí entabló amistad con Nathaniel Hawthorne, que influyó en la escritura de su obra capital, Moby Dick.

Answer 11

There he [Melville] established friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, who influenced the writing of his [Melville’s] major work, Moby Dick.

Question 12

Durante sus últimos treinta y cinco años fue empleado de aduana.

Answer 12

During his last thirty-five years, he [Melville] was employed in the customs service.

Question 13

La obra de Melville consta de libros de navegaciones y aventuras, de novelas fantásticas y satíricas, de poemas, cuentos y la prodigiosa novela simbólica Moby Dick.

Answer 13

The work of Melville consists of books about navigation and adventure, fantastic and satiric novels, poems, stories, and the prodigious symbolic novel Moby Dick.

Question 14

Entre los cuentos recordaremos a Billy Budd, cuyo tema esencial es el conflict de la justicia y de la ley, Benito Cereno, que de algún modo prefigure El negro del Narciso de Conrad, y Bartleby, cuyo ambiente coincide con el de ulteriores libros de Kafka.

Answer 14

Among the stories we recall [remember] Billy Budd, whose essential theme is the conflict between justice and the law, “Benito Cereno,” that in some fashion foreshadows The Nigger of the Narcissus by Conrad, and “Bartleby,” whose atmosphere coincides with that of [the] last books by Kafka.

Question 15

En el estillo de Moby Dick se advierte la influencia de Carlyle y de Shakespeare; hay capítulos concebidos como escenas de un drama.

Answer 15

In the style of Moby Dick one notices the influence of Carlyle and Shakespeare; there are chapters conceived like scenes of a drama.

Question 16

Abundan las frases inolvidables; en uno de los capítulos iniciales se habla de un predicador que se arrodilla en el púlpito y rezco con tal devoción “que parecía un hombre arrodillado y rezando desde el fondo del mar.”

Answer 16

There abound unforgettable sentences; in one of the first chapters it talks about a preacher that kneels in the pulpit and prays with such devotion “that he seemed a man kneeling and praying from the bottom of the sea.”

Question 17

Mody Dick es el nombre de una ballena blanca, emblema del Mal, y la persecución insensata de esta ballena es el argumento de la obra.

Answer 17

Moby Dick is the name of a white whale, emblem of Evil, and the mad chase of this whale is the plot of the work.

Question 18

Es curioso observer que la ballena como símbolo del Demonio figura en un bestiario anglo sajón del siglo IX y que el concepto de que la blancura es horrible constituye uno de los temas del Arthur Gordon Pym de Poe.

Answer 18

It is curious to observe that the whale as symbol of the Demon figures in an Anglon-Saxon bestiary of the ninth century and that the concept that whiteness is horrible constitutes one of the themes of Arthur Gordon Pym by Poe.

Question 19

Melville, en el texto mismo de la obra, niega que ésta sea una alegoría; la verdad es que podemos leerla en dos planos; como relato de hechos imaginarios y como símbolo.

Answer 19

Melville, in the very text of the work, denies that it is an allegory; the truth is that we can read it on two planes; as story of imaginary events and as a symbol.

Question 20

La importancia y la novedad profunda de Moby Dick no fueron immediatamente reconocidas.

Answer 20

The importance and the profound novelty of Moby Dick were not immediately recognized.

Question 21

En 1912, la Enciclopedia Británica no veía en ella otra cosa que una novela de aventura.

Answer 21

In 1912, the Encyclopedia Britanica did not see in it anything other than a novel of adventure.

Question 22

El lustro 1850 – 1855 es uno de los más significativos de las letras americanas.

Answer 22

The five-year period of 1850 – 1855 is one of the most significant of American letters.

Question 23

En 1850 aparecen La letra escarlata de Hawthorne y Hombres representativos de Emerson; en 1851, Moby Dick; en 1854, Walden de Thoreau, y en 1855, Hojas de hierba de Walt Whitman.

Answer 23

In 1850 there appeared The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne and Representative Men by Emerson; in 1851, Moby Dick; in 1854, Walden by Thoreau, and in 1855, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.