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- La cara de Dios
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La cara de Dios (1899), Carlos Arniches Barreda
The Face of God, translated by Gwynneth Dowling
ACT ONE excerpt 1
- Context:
- Ramon did not go out drinking with his fellow builders. The next day they make fun of him for being under the thumb of his wife.
- Sample text
-
- ELEUTERIO:
They’ll all tell you. We waited all night in Justa’s bar and absolutely no word from you.
- EUSTAQUIO:
You didn’t go out?
- RAMON:
Listen, I was going out, and then Soledad started with all this ‘Don’t go, you’ll get back late, and then you’ll not be able to get up in the morning …’ All that. So I stayed in.
- BRICKLAYER 3:
Yeah, we noticed.
- RAMON:
I didn’t want to start a row.
- EUSTAQUIO:
Because you’re under her thumb, just admit it.
- RAMON:
Don’t talk nonsense!
- ELEUTERIO:
How’s it nonsense? It’s God’s honest truth! You, who used to be the life and soul, the first to say yes to a bender. You got hitched and then what? Your wife measures out your tobacco, puts you to bed at nine … I’m surprised she doesn’t send you to work with a bib round your neck. Now, what I’d love to see is how she carries you inside her … (They laugh.)
- BRICKLAYER 3:
He’s right there!
- RAMON: (Fired up.)
No he’s not!
- ELEUTERIO:
I’m right. And I’m telling you this because I like you. And because I don’t like the fact that a man like you is turning into a laughing stock among his friends.
- RAMON:
Listen, it’s …
- ELEUTERIO:
It’s the truth. A laughing stock. And I’ll tell you something else – it shocks me that such a streetwise man, a man who ran wild with the best of them, still hasn’t worked out that there’s not a woman in this world worth becoming a slave for. (Stressing his words.) You hear that? Not one!
- EUSTAQUIO:
Exactly. Not one!
- RAMON:
Well, there must be at least one.
- ELEUTERIO: (Energetically.)
None.
- RAMON:
Perhaps mine is.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation The Face of God by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
ACT ONE excerpt 2
- Context:
- Eleuterio tells his friend Eustaquio about Soledad’s past. He reveals how he is planning to force Soledad to sleep with him by threatening to show Ramon the incriminating picture she gave her former lover.
- Sample text
-
- ELEUTERIO:
Listen, Eustaquio. What you don’t know is that, two years before she married Ramon, she was all over Victor.
- EUSTAQUIO:
That painter?
- ELEUTERIO:
The very same.
- EUSTAQUIO: (Surprised.)
Wow!
- ELEUTERIO:
She was obsessed by him, but the guy had other commitments and left Soledad to marry someone else – the girl he went to Buenos Aires with. That was a year before Encarna and I broke up – the girl I was living with, you know. Victor and Soledad used to meet in my house. Nobody ever knew about it.
- EUSTAQUIO:
And Ramon knows nothing about this?
- ELEUTERIO:
Not yet. That’s why he married her. Before Victor left he gave me a picture that Soledad had dedicated to him, with things written on it that speak for themselves … I was to give it back to her. But I kept the picture because I already wanted her. And I’ve still got it. And last night I made myself very clear to Soledad.
- EUSTAQUIO:
How?
- ELEUTERIO:
That she has to decide, and tell me her answer when she brings Ramon his lunch today. Today – either I give the picture to him, or I give it back to her. It’s her choice.
- Copyright
-
The above sample taken from the translation The Face of God by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Entry written by Gwynneth Dowling. Last updated on 12 November 2011.
