You are here:
- Authors, Plays & Translators
- Play index
- Atando cabos
- Sample translations
Atando cabos (c.1991), Griselda Gambaro
Loose Ends (1992), translated by Catherine Boyle
ACT ONE
- Edition
-
Boyle, Catherine. 1992. Loose Ends. In Travesia, Volume 1, Issue 1,118-44
pp. 118-144 - Context:
- This is the opening of the Play
- Sample text
-
- MARTIN:
Excuse me, I think this is your handkerchief.
- ELISA:
Yes, it is, I’d lost it. Thank you.
- MARTIN:
Pleasant here, isn’t it? Is this your first trip? (There is no response. He coughs.) Your first trip is it?
- ELISA:
Sorry. Did you say something?
- MARTIN: (Smiling.)
I was asking if this was your first trip.
- ELISA:
Yes.
- MARTIN:
The bar’s open. Would you like a drink?
- ELISA:
No thank you. It’s a bit early. (Trying to move away) Thank you for the handkerchief.
- MARTIN:
I’ll see you later then.
- ELISA:
Perhaps. (Pause. She laughs, saying to herself) Not if I can help it. What a pain.
- MARTIN:
Is this your first trip? Or maybe I’ve asked you that before?
- ELISA:
You’ve asked me that before. (In the same tone) ‘Is this your first trip?’
- MARTIN:
By boat, yes. I prefer travelling by plane. This is all too slow for me.
- ELISA:
Ah yes, it’s slow, day after day watching the water. It’s a shame there are so few boats these days. Cruise boats, I mean.
- MARTIN:
You can watch the water from a beach. If we’d gone by plane we’d already be in Europe. Days go by so slowly on board. I’m glad I met you … though you act as if you don’t even see me.
- ELISA:
I don’t like planes.
- MARTIN:
Why not?
- ELISA:
I hate anything that flies. (She laughs.) Except, of course, birds, seeds …
- MARTIN:
Are you scared of flying? Planes are safe, you know, much safer than cars.
- ELISA:
I’m not afraid … not any more. It’s just that flying brings back bad memories.
- MARTIN:
An accident?
- ELISA:
You could call it that. (She laughs.) But I wasn’t in this particular accident. If I had been I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. I wouldn’t be here, in the sun, watching water and the clear skies … Look! A flying fish.
- MARTIN:
I didn’t see it.
- ELISA:
Because you took your eyes off the water.
- MARTIN:
I was looking at you.
- ELISA:
When you look away, they jump. All you have to do is blink. If you close your eyes for just one moment they jump, as if they knew. They seize the moment, and jump.
- MARTIN:
I like you.
- ELISA:
My eyes dry up when I stare so hard … Flying fish … what a funny idea. Fish flying … fly fishing. The small ones always get thrown back … only the small ones get to fly. (She makes a noise of a fish hitting the water.) Then they hit the water really hard, and sink.
- MARTIN: (Joking.)
Fish jumping from a plane!
- ELISA: (Attentively.)
How did you know that?
- MARTIN: (Also attentively.)
Fish are strange creatures.
- ELISA:
Ah yes, that must be it … Drowned as if they were weighed down, and couldn’t swim. They never came back to the surface. They were found by accident, on the riverbed. A tugboat had sunk and they had to dredge the river. Didn’t you hear about it, there were journalists there. And there they were, on the riverbed.
- MARTIN:
Excuse me, I am sorry. I lost my balance. I nearly knocked you over. Did I hurt you?
- ELISA:
No.
- MARTIN:
What’s happening? It feels as if we’ve hit something.
- ELISA:
Hit something? There’s not a thing in sight. It’s not even foggy. It’s absolutely clear. What do you mean we’ve hit something?
- MARTIN:
But do you hear that? It’s the ship’s siren.
- ELISA:
It’ll only be some drill. Like the one we had last week.
- MARTIN:
No, the engines have shut down. This is different.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation Loose Ends (1992) by Catherine Boyle is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 5 October 2010.
