Page 37

Question 1

El poeta Edward Estlin Cummings (1894 – 1963) nació en Cambridge, Massachusetts, y estudió en Harvard.

Answer 1

The poet Edward Estlin Cummings (1894 – 1963) was born in Cambridge, Massachussetts, and studied at Harvard.

Question 2

Durante la primera guerra mundial sirvió como conductor de ambulancias en el ejército francés; un error administrativo lo condenó a sufrir injustamente varios meses de encierro en un campo de concentración.

Answer 2

During World War I he [Cummings] served as an ambulance driver in the French army; an administrative error condemned him to unjustly suffer several months of confinement in a concentration camp.

Question 3

Su libro más famoso, The Enormous Room, publicado en 1922, refiere su encarcelamiento como si fuera una peregrinación y se basa, con acopio de circunstancias autobiográficas, en la alegoría puritan El progreso del peregrine de Bunyon, compuesta en el siglo XVII.

Answer 3

His [Cummings’s] most famous book, The Enormous Room, published in 1922, refers to his incarceration as if it was a pilgrimage and is based, with collection [its stock] of autobiographical circumstances [incidents], on the Puritan allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyon, composed in the seventeenth century.

Question 4

La obra poética de Cummings abunda en excentricidades de toda suerte y comprende muchos volúmenes.

Answer 4

The poetic work of Cummings abounds in eccentricities of all sorts and comprises many volumes.

Question 5

Recordemos aquí el principio de uno de sus sonetos: “El terrible rostro de Dios, más brillante que una cuchara, reúne la imagen de una sola palabra fatal, hasta que mi vida, que gustó del sol y de la luna, se parece a algo que no ha sucedido. Soy un collar en busca de un perro, una jaula sin párajo.”

Answer 5

We recall here the beginning of one of his sonnets:

god’s terrible face, brighter than a spoon,
collects the image of one fatal word;
so that my life (which liked the sun and the moon)
resembles something that has not occurred:
i am a birdcage without any bird,
a collar looking for a dog.

“The terrible face of God, more brilliant than a spoon, collects the image of only one fatal world, until my life, which likes the son and the moon, seems like something which has not happened. I am a collar in search of a dog, a cage without a bird.”

Question 6

Nacido en Brooklyn, suburbia de Nueva York, Henry Valentina Miller (1891) ha llevado, como otros escritores americanos modernos, una vida llena de experiencias directas.

Answer 6

Born in Brooklyn, suburb of New York, Henry Valentina Miller (1891 –) has taken [led], like other modern American writers, a life full of direct experiences.

Question 7

Fue empleado, sastre, mensajero postal, corredor de comercio, patrón de un bar clandestino, cuentista, redactor de avisos y, paradójicamente, pintor de acuarelas.

Answer 7

He [Miller] was employed [as a] tailor, a postal messanger, a stockbroker, an owner of a clandestine bar, a storyteller, an editor of advertising copy and, paradoxically, a paintor of watercolors.

Question 8

En 1928 fue a Europa con su segunda mujer y volvió solo en 1930.

Answer 8

In 1928 he [Miller] went to Europe with his second wife and returned [there] alone in 1930.

Question 9

A partir de entonces fue corrector de pruebas, escritor a sueldo, profesor de inglés en Dijon.

Answer 9

Starting then he [Miller] was a proofreader, a writer on salary, and a professor of English in Dijon.

Question 10

En 1932 escribió Tropic of cancer, que aparecería en París en 1934 y cuya venta sería prohibida en los Estados Unidos, por su exuberante obscenidad.

Answer 10

In 1932 he [Miller] wrote Tropic of Cancer, which would appear in Paris in 1934 and whose sale would be prohibited in the United States, for its exuberant obscenity.

Question 11

En 1933 vivió con Alfred Pérlés en Clichy, donde escribió Black Spring, que se publicaría en París en 1936.

Answer 11

In 1933 he [Miller] lived with Alfred Pérlés in Clichy, where he wrote Black Spring, which he would publish in Paris in 1936.

Question 12

Ya lo rodeaba un amplio círculo de escritores, entre ellos Blaise Cendrars y Céline.

Answer 12

Already he [Miller] was surrounded by a wide circle, among them Blaise Cendrars and Céline.

Question 13

En 1939 terminó y publicó, siempre en París, Tropic of Capricorn.

Answer 13

In 1939 he [Miller] finished and published, still in Paris, Tropic of Capricorn.

Question 14

Ese mismo año viajó por Grecia, que para él es un país viviente, no un museo arqueológico.

Answer 14

That same year he [Miller] traveled through Greece, which for him is a living country, not an archaeological museum.

Question 15

La segunda guerra europea determinó su regreso a América en enero de 1940.

Answer 15

World War II determined his [Miller’s] return to America in the winter of 1940.

Question 16

Su viaje a Grecia le inspire el libro The Colossus of Maroussi (1941).

Answer 16

His [Miller’s] trip to Greece inspired the book The Colossus of Maroussi (1941).

Question 17

Su vida oscila siempre entre el Viejo y el Nuevo Mundo; ahora reside en California y se dedica plenamente a las letras y a la pintura.

Answer 17

His [Miller’s] life always oscillated between the Old and New World; now he resides in California and dedicates himself fully to letters and painting.

Question 18

Según su propio autor, Tropic of cancer no es un libro sino un libelo, un prolongado insulto a Dios, al hombre y a su destino.

Answer 18

According to its own author, Tropic of Cancer is not a book but a libel, a prolonged insult to God, to man, and to his destiny.

Question 19

Black Spring, que consta de diez capítulos inconexos, es una serie de pesadillas, de exageraciones burlescas, de afirmaciones vanidosas, de exploraciones de sí mismo y de nostálgicas memorias de Brooklyn.

Answer 19

Black Spring, which consists of ten disconnected [unrelated] chapters, is a series of nightmares, burlesque exaggerations, vain affirmations, explorations of himself and nostalgic memories of Brooklyn.