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George Orwell 1 9 8 4<br />
As he fastened the belt of his overalls he strolled<br />
across to the window. The sun must have gone<br />
down behind the houses; it was not shining into the<br />
yard any longer. The flagstones were wet as<br />
though they had just been washed, and he had the<br />
feeling that the sky had been washed too, so fresh<br />
and pale was the blue between the chimney-pots.<br />
Tirelessly the woman marched to and fro, corking<br />
and uncorking herself, singing and falling silent,<br />
and pegging out more diapers, and more and yet<br />
more. He wondered whether she took in washing<br />
for a living or was merely the slave of twenty or<br />
thirty grandchildren. Julia had come across to his<br />
side; together they gazed down with a sort of<br />
fascination at the sturdy figure below. As he<br />
looked at the woman in her characteristic attitude,<br />
her thick arms reaching up for the line, her<br />
powerful mare-like buttocks protruded, it struck<br />
him for the first time that she was beautiful. It had<br />
never before occurred to him that the body of a<br />
woman of fifty, blown up to monstrous dimensions<br />
by childbearing, then hardened, roughened by<br />
work till it was coarse in the grain like an over-ripe<br />
turnip, could be beautiful. But it was so, and after<br />
all, he thought, why not? The solid, contourless<br />
body, like a block of granite, and the rasping red<br />
skin, bore the same relation to the body of a girl as<br />
the rose-hip to the rose. Why should the fruit be<br />
held inferior to the flower?<br />
249<br />
Mientras se apretaba el cinturón del «mono»,<br />
Winston se asomó a la ventana. El sol debía de<br />
haberse ocultado detrás de las casas porque ya no<br />
daba en el patio. El cielo estaba tan azul, entre las<br />
chimeneas, que parecía recién lavado.<br />
Incansablemente, la lavandera seguía yendo del<br />
lavadero a las cuerdas, cantando y callándose y no<br />
dejaba de colgar pañales. Se preguntó Winston si<br />
aquella mujer lavaría ropa como medio de vida, o si<br />
era la esclava de veinte o treinta nietos. Julia se<br />
acercó a él; juntos contemplaron fascinados el ir y<br />
venir de la mujerona. Al mirarla en su actitud<br />
característica, alcanzando el tenderero con sus<br />
fuertes brazos, o al agacharse sacando sus<br />
poderosas ancas, pensó Winston, sorprendido, que<br />
era una hermosa mujer. Nunca se le había ocurrido<br />
que el cuerpo de una mujer de cincuenta años,<br />
deformado hasta adquirir dimensiones monstruosas<br />
a causa de los partos y endurecido, embastecido por<br />
el trabajo, pudiera ser un hermoso cuerpo. Pero así<br />
era, y después de todo, ¿por qué no? El sólido y<br />
deformado cuerpo, como un bloque de granito, y la<br />
basta piel enrojecida guardaba la misma relación<br />
con el cuerpo de una muchacha que un fruto con la<br />
flor de su árbol. ¿Y por qué va a ser inferior el fruto<br />
a la flor?<br />
‘She’s beautiful,’ he murmured. — Es hermosa — murmuró.<br />
‘She’s a metre across the hips, easily,’ said Julia. — Por lo menos tiene un metro de caderas —dijo<br />
Julia.<br />
‘That is her style of beauty,’ said Winston. — Es su estilo de belleza.<br />
He held Julia’s supple waist easily encircled by his<br />
arm. From the hip to the knee her flank was<br />
against his. Out of their bodies no child would ever<br />
come. That was the one thing they could never do.<br />
Only by word of mouth, from mind to mind, could<br />
they pass on the secret. The woman down there<br />
had no mind, she had only strong arms, a warm<br />
heart, and a fertile belly. He wondered how many<br />
Winston abarcó con su brazo derecho el fino talle<br />
de Julia, que se apoyó sobre su costado. Nunca<br />
podrían permitírselo. La mujer de abajo no se<br />
preocupaba con sutilezas mentales; tenía fuertes<br />
brazos, un corazón cálido y un vientre fértil. Se<br />
preguntó Winston cuántos hijos habría tenido.<br />
Seguramente unos quince. Habría florecido<br />
momentáneamente — quizá durante un año — y