The Handmaid’s Tale El Cuento de la Doncella

1 1 NotesAtwood s HandmaidElsa Mateo Blanco510152025303540455055 6065 The handmaid s TalebyMargaret AtwoodINight1We slept in what had oncebeen the gymnasium. The floorwas of varnished wood, withstripes and circles painted on it,for the games that wereformerly played there; thehoops for the basketball netswere still in place, though thenets were gone. A balcony ranaround the room, for thespectators, and I thought I couldsmell, faintly like anafterimage, the pungent scent ofsweat, shot through with thesweet taint of chewing gum andperfume from the watchinggirls, felt-skirted as I knewfrom pictures, later inminiskirts, then pants, then inone earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances wouldhave been held there; the musiclingered, a palimpsest ofunheard sound, style uponstyle, an undercurrent ofdrums, a forlorn wail, garlandsmade of tissue-paper flowers,cardboard devils, a revolvingball of mirrors, powdering thedancers with a snow of was old sex in theroom and loneliness, andexpectation, of somethingwithout a shape or name.

2 Iremember that yearning, forsomething that was alwaysEl Cuento de la DoncelladeMargaret Atwoodtr. Elsa Mateo BlancoSeix Barral, 1987, BarnaILA NOCHECAP TULO 1 Dorm amos en lo que, en otrostiempos, hab a sido el gimnasio. Elsuelo, de madera barnizada, ten apintadas l neas y c rculos corres-pondientes a diferentes aros de baloncesto todav a exis-t an, pero las redes hab an desapa-recido. La sala estaba rodeada poruna galer a destinada al p blico; ytuve la impresi n de que pod a per-cibir, como en un vago espejismo,el olor acre del sudor mezclado conese toque dulce de la goma de mas-car y del perfume de las chicas quese encontraban entre el p blico,vestidas con faldas de fieltro as las hab a visto yo en las fotos ,m s tarde con minifaldas, luego conpantalones, finalmente con un solopendiente y peinadas con crestas derayas verdes.

3 Aqu se hab an cele-brado bailes; persist a la m sica, unpalimpsesto de sonidos que nadieescuchaba, un estilo tras otro, unfondo de bater a, un gemido melan-c lico, guirnaldas de flores hechascon papel de seda, demonios decart n, una bola giratoria de espe-jos que salpicaba a los bailarinescon copos de la sala hab a reminiscen-cias de sexo y soledad y expecta-tiva, la expectativa de algo sinforma ni nombre. Recuerdo aque-lla sensaci n, el anhelo de algoque siempre estaba a punto deAnd when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob nochildren, Rachel envied her sister; and said untoJacob, Give me children, or else 1 die. And Jacob sanger was kindled against Rachel; and he said, Am1 in God s stead, who bath withheld from thee thefruit of the womb?

4 And she said, Behold my maidBilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon myknees, that 1 may also have children by her. -Genesis, 30:1-3 But as to myself, having been wearied out formany years with offering vain, idle, visionarythoughts, and at length utterly despairing ofsuccess, 1 fortunately fell upon this proposal- Jonathan Swift, A Modest ProposalIn the desert there is no sign that says, Thoushaft not eat stones. - Sufi proverbY viendo Raquel que no daba hijos a Jacob,tuvo envidia de su hermana, y dijo a Jacob:Dame hijos, o me morir . Y Jacob se enojocontra Raquel, y le dijo: Soy yo, en lugar deDios, quien to impide el fruto de to vientre? Yella dijo: He aqu a mi sierva Bilhah; entra enella y parir sobre mis rodillas, y yo tambi ntendr hijos de , 30:1-3En cuanto a m , despu s de muchos a os deofrecer ideas vanas, in tiles y ut picas, y perdidatoda esperanza de xito, afortunadamente di conesta SWIFT Una propuesta modestaEn el desierto no hay ninguna sepal que diga.

5 Nocomer s piedras .Proverbio Sufiundercurrent 1 subdued emotionalquality underlying an utterance;implicit meaning, sobreentendido,tendencia oculta 2 a current belowthe surface of a fluid, corriente sub-marina, contracorriente 1 contracorriente 2 fig (de descon-tento, etc) trasfondo. 3 (en el mar)corriente submarinastreaked veteado, jaspeado, estriado,enhebrado, lleno de churretes ochorretones, cebrado, rayado, lista-do, tiznado, abigarrado, en regueros,reguero de luz, cebrados,2 NotesAtwood s HandmaidElsa Mateo Blanco510152025303540455055 6065about to happen and wasnever the same as the handsthat were on us there andthen, in the small of theback, or out back, in theparking lot, or in thetelevision room with thesound turned down andonly the pictures flickeringover lifting yearned for thefuture.

6 How did we learn it,that talent for insatiability?It was in the air; and it wasstill in the air, an after-thought, as we tried tosleep, in the army cots thathad been set up in rows,with spaces between so wecould not talk. We hadflannelette sheets, likechildren s, and army-issueblankets, old ones that stillsaid We folded ourclothes neatly and laid themon the stools at the ends ofthe beds. The lights wereturned down but not Sara and AuntElizabeth patrolled;they had electric cattleprods slung on thongs fromtheir leather guns though, eventhey could not be trustedwith guns. Guns were forthe guards, speciallypicked from the guards weren tallowed inside thebuilding except whencalled, and we weren tallowed out, except forour walks, twice daily, twoby two around the footballfield, which was enclosednow by a chain-link fencetopped with barbed Angels stood outside itwith their backs to us.

7 Theywere objects of fear to us, butof something else as well. Ifonly they would look. If onlywe could talk to could beexchanged, we thought, somedeal made, some tradeoff, westill had our bodies. That wasour learned to whisperalmost without sound. In thesemi-darkness we couldocurrir y que nunca era lo mismo,como no eran las mismas las ma-nos que sin perder el tiempo nosacariciaban la regi n lumbar, o seescurr an entre nuestras ropascuando nos agazap bamos en elaparcamiento o en la sala de la te-levisi n con el aparato enmude-cido y las im genes parpadeandosobre nuestra carne bamos por el futuro. De d nde sac bamos aquel ta-lento para la insaciabilidad? Flo-taba en el aire; y a n se respira-ba, como una idea tard a, cuan-do intent bamos dormir en loscatres del ej rcito dispuestos enfila y separados entre s para queno pudi ramos hablar.

8 Ten amoss banas de franela de algod n,como las que usan los ni os, ymantas del ej rcito, tan viejasque a n llevaban las Dobl bamos nuestra ropacon mucha prolijidad y la dej -bamos sobre el taburete, a lospies de la cama. Enseguida baja-ban las luces pero nunca las apa-gaban. T a Sara y T a Elizabethhac an la ronda; en sus cinturo-nes de cuero llevaban colgandoaguijones el ctricos como losque usaban para el embargo, no llevaban ar-mas; ni siquiera a ellas se las ha-br an confiado. Su uso estaba re-servado a los Guardianes, queeran especialmente escogidosentre los ngeles. No se permi-t a la presencia de Guardianesdentro del edificio, exceptocuando se los llamaba; y a no-sotras no nos dejaban salir, sal-vo para dar nuestros paseos, dosveces al d a y de dos en dos, al-rededor del campo de f tbol queahora estaba cercado con unavalla de cadenas, rematada conalambre de p as.

9 Los ngelespermanec an fuera, d ndonos laespalda. Para nosotras eran mo-tivo de temor, y tambi n de algom s. Si al menos nos miraran,si pudi ramos Cre a-mos que as podr amos inter-cambiar algo, hacer alg n trato,llegar a un acuerdo, a n nosquedaban nuestros era nuestra fantas a susurrarcasi sin hacer ruido. En lasemipenumbra, cuando lasXflicker 1 brillar con luz mortecina, quiver,waver. Vacilar, oscilar, titilar, cen-tellear, flamear, 1 (of light) shine unsteadily or fitfully. 2(of a flame) burn unsteadily,alternately flaring and dying a (of a flag, a reptile s tongue, aneyelid, etc.) move or wave to and fro;quiver; vibrate. b (of the wind) blowlightly and unsteadily. 4(of hope etc.)increase and decrease unsteadilyand coronado, rematado, surmont 3 NotesAtwood s HandmaidElsa Mateo Blanco510152025303540455055 6065stretch out our arms, whenthe Aunts weren t looking,and touch each other shands across space.

10 Welearned to lip-read, ourheads flat on the beds,turned sideways, watchingeach other s mouths. In thisway we exchanged names,from bed to bed: Dolores. chair, a table, a , on the white ceiling,a relief ornament in theshape of a wreath, and in thecenter of it a blank space,plastered over, like the placein a face where the eye hasbeen taken out. There musthave been a chandelier,once. They ve removedanything you could tie a window, two whitecurtains. Under the window,a window seat with a littlecushion. When the windowis partly open it only openspartly the air can come inand make the curtains can sit in the chair, or onthe window seat, handsfolded, and watch comes in throughthe window too, and falls onthe floor, which is made ofwood, in narrow strips,highly polished.