cuentos de barro - DSpace Universidad Don Bosco

sobre ella, olisquiando el jediondo del
río shuco 282 y podridoso.
El sargento Vanegas paró de bajar; y,
recostado en el tronco oloroso de un
bálsamo, miró pa bajo, buscando entre
las ramazones el miedo diun trapo.
Nada se movía, ni nada se óiba. Sólo el
golpear del río, en la panza de tarro del
eco; y el grito deshilachado de algún
guauce que llamaba a su pareja.
—¿No sienten ustedes un cierto tujo de
piro?
Los soldados aletiaron las narices, y uno
de ellos respondió, no muy seguro:
—Endeveritas, mi sargento...
—Nos vamos a descolgar ái parabajo.
Me quito una oreja si no halla mos
mamazo. Este juraco tiene todo el
talante diuna sacadera gorda, y que
vastar chilosa de sacar.
Empezaron a bajar, por los
derrumbaderos de tierra deslizosa,
negra y olorosa a hoja podrida. Se
apoyaban a ratos en la culata del
calibre284 ; o se agarraban de las
puntas de los guayabos y de los
cojones, que crecían en abundancia
debajo de aquellos enormes
282. Sucio. RAE: chuco, ca. (Voz indígena). 1. adj. Guat. sucio.
283. In Spanish: Spicy hot.
284. Fusil.
148
as if it were playing hide-and-seek with
the sun. Sneaky, it held its breath and
if you looked at it, it seemed like the
cadaver of a mountain. The vultures
flew over it sniffing the stench of the
rotten and dirty river.
Sargeant Vanegas halted his descent.
Reclining on the smelly trunk of a
Balsam tree he looked downward
seeking among the branches the
blanket of fear. Nothing moved.
Nothing was heard except for the
pounding of the river like the echo on
someone beating on the stomach of
a jug and the screech of a Guauce bird
that was calling his mate.
“Don’t you smell the stench of the dregs
of moonshine?”
The soldiers sniffed with their noses
like dogs and one of them, not very
sure, answered:
“Of course, my sergeant!”
“Let’s head down in that direction. I’ll
cut off one of my ears if we don’t find
booze there. This place has the look of a
huge factory. It’s going to get hot. 283
They began their descent through
the slippery-sided ravines, black and
smelling of dirt and decayed leaves.
They used their rifles for support. They
had to grab onto the branches of the
Guava trees, which grew abundantly