Read Quilito in Spanish
Quilito by Carlos María Ocantos in the original Spanish, with our English translation beside every sentence and a dictionary on every word.
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The opening lines
How Quilito begins
ES
Pampa se había quedado dormida, acurrucada en el umbral.
Envuelta su monstruosa cabeza en el refajo de bayeta amarilla, que había levantado por detrás al sentarse; un pie montado sobre el otro, como para prestarse mutuo calor, calzados ambos en gruesos zapatos claveteados; las manos debajo del delantal blanco, dormía sobre la dura piedra, como sobre un cómodo colchón de muelles.
¡Pobre Pampa! Cansada del fregoteo de platos, del bruñido de cuchillos y del lavado de vasos, de traer y llevar, de bajar y subir, de salir y de entrar, había obtenido la promesa de acompañar a la señora a una visita de intimidad aquel día, lo que le serviría de pretexto, para ver las calles y quizá la plaza de la Victoria; pues con ser 25 de Mayo, fiesta patria, había Tedéum, rifa, parada militar y qué sé yo.
EN
Pampa had fallen asleep, curled up on the threshold.
Her monstrous head wrapped in the yellow flannel petticoat, which she had lifted up behind her when she sat down; one foot resting on the other, as if to lend each other mutual warmth, both shod in thick hobnailed shoes; her hands under the white apron, she slept on the hard stone, as if on a comfortable spring mattress.
Poor Pampa! Tired of scrubbing plates, polishing knives, and washing glasses, of carrying and bringing, of going down and up, of going out and coming in, she had obtained the promise of accompanying the lady on an intimate visit that day, which would serve as her pretext to see the streets and perhaps the Plaza de la Victoria; for being the 25th of May, a national holiday, there was a Te Deum, a raffle, a military parade, and whatnot.
As the reader shows it: the original Spanish and our English translation, sentence by sentence. The translation is ours — made to help you follow the Spanish, not as a literary edition.
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English beside every line
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Every word, explained
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Grammar and sound
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About the book
About Quilito
A novel of Buenos Aires society at the end of the 1880s, when the city lived on stock-market speculation — until the crash of 1890. Carlos María Ocantos, an Argentine writer of the realist school, wrote it as one of his "Novelas argentinas".
In the LangOrbit reader, Quilito opens with the English translation alongside, a dictionary on every word and audio in a Latin American or Spanish voice. The words you save go into your daily Spanish lesson.
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Quilito
Quilito by Carlos María Ocantos in the original Spanish, with our English translation beside every sentence and a dictionary on every word.
Read it in the readerNo signup to start. A free plan to keep reading; full access is paid.